Ethics in scenes of disaster

This chapter delves into scenes of disaster as crucial sites to explore the role of forms of life and the ordinary. The habitual and ordinary have the power to bring life together when a form of life breaks down. However the ordinary is constantly at play in our lives allowing for what we perceive as autonomous agents to make choices. The theory of anthropologist Veena Das is specifically examined in this chapter for the important lessons she reveals from the philosophical tradition of Wittgenstein and Stanley Cavell. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of shifting attention to the network of interdependencies that gives life to the great values of democratic societies and especially to the invisible work of care lavished by many invisible people. This lesson has not been learned.