Gerda Walther and the Possibility of a Non-intentional We of Community

Abstract

Gerda Walther identifies the possibility of we-communities that are non-intentional and have no intentional object (for example, a community of lovers). What is expressed, shared, communicated, and understood between lovers need not necessarily manifest itself in an objective, social, or communal form, as is the case, for example, in a political party. I argue that this non-intentional we can be experienced at the level of habit or affect, a level that is lived but which is not fully grasped in terms of the consciousness of meaning and the relation between meaning fulfillment and meaning intention.