{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T14:20:44Z","timestamp":1789395644515,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":17,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789344000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789344000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Bioethical Inquiry"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    It has conventionally been assumed that there are no limits to ethical discourse: that is, that no matter how difficult or fraught the questions being asked some common ground can always be found. This has been thought to arise from fundamental shared values and the conditions of possibility of dialogue itself. Contemporary events have put this assumption in doubt and raised questions about when and where dialogue might cease to be possible. This article examines some aspects of the conditions of, and obstacles confronting, ethical discourse today, focusing on the Kantian model, as represented by Jurgen Habermas, which emphasizes rational discourse and communicative action, and the critique of this view presented by Alphonso Lingis. It traces an actual dialogue\u2014about potential justifications for the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza\u2014and analyses both the multiple obstacles encountered and the unsuccessful attempts by the protagonists to circumvent them. The article concludes by proposing that a new ethical predicament has emerged where discourses encounter intractable limits\u2014characterized as \u201ccategorical ethical exclusion\u201d or \u201cethical\n                    <jats:italic>homo sacer<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u201d\u2014in which multiple groups of individuals are systematically excluded from ethical consideration. The emergence of such an ethical singularity, it is suggested, may call for a fundamental re-examination of the conditions of dialogue and the mutual construction of meaning.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s11673-026-10618-9","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T13:49:24Z","timestamp":1789393764000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["When Dialogue Fails: Arguing With the Rabbi"],"prefix":"10.1007","author":[{"given":"Paul A.","family":"Komesaroff","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"10618_CR1","volume-title":"Homo sacer: Sovereign power and bare life","author":"G Agamben","year":"1998","unstructured":"Agamben, G. 1998. Homo sacer: Sovereign power and bare life. Translated by D. Heller-Roazen. Stanford University Press."},{"key":"10618_CR2","volume-title":"Remnants of Auschwitz: The witness and the archive","author":"G Agamben","year":"1999","unstructured":"______. 1999. Remnants of Auschwitz: The witness and the archive. Translated by D. Heller-Roazen. Zone Books."},{"key":"10618_CR3","unstructured":"Babylonian Talmud. n.d.a. Bava Metzia 59a. Sefaria. https:\/\/www.sefaria.org\/Bava_Metzia.59a. Accessed March 29 2026."},{"key":"10618_CR4","unstructured":"______. n.d.b. Sanhedrin 37a. https:\/\/www.chabad.org\/torah-texts\/5458107\/Talmud\/Sanhedrin\/Chapter-4\/37a. Accessed March 27 2026."},{"key":"10618_CR5","unstructured":"Exodus 23:9. n.d.. In The Hebrew Bible."},{"issue":"1\u20134","key":"10618_CR6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"205","DOI":"10.1080\/00201747008601590","volume":"13","author":"J Habermas","year":"1970","unstructured":"Habermas, J. 1970. On systematically distorted communication. Inquiry 13(1\u20134): 205\u2013218.","journal-title":"Inquiry"},{"key":"10618_CR7","unstructured":"______. 1984. The theory of communicative action, Vol. 1: Reason and the rationalization of society. Translated by (T. McCarthy. Beacon Press."},{"key":"10618_CR8","unstructured":"______. 1987. The theory of communicative action, Vol. 2: Lifeworld and system: A critique of functionalist reason. Translated by T. McCarthy. Beacon Press."},{"issue":"1","key":"10618_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.1007\/s11673-024-10347-x","volume":"21","author":"PA Komesaroff","year":"2024","unstructured":"Komesaroff, P.A. 2024. It is not too late for reconciliation between Israel and Palestine, even in the darkest hour. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 21(1): 29\u201345.","journal-title":"Journal of Bioethical Inquiry"},{"issue":"3","key":"10618_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"745","DOI":"10.1007\/s11673-025-10489-6","volume":"22","author":"PA Komesaroff","year":"2025","unstructured":"Komesaroff, P.A., and J.Z. Kenner. 2025a. Is this Judaism? The question of the consistency of Israeli policy and actions in Gaza with Jewish thought and ethics: Part 1: Formulating the problem and methodological and hermeneutic considerations. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 22(3): 745\u2013750.","journal-title":"Journal of Bioethical Inquiry"},{"issue":"3","key":"10618_CR11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"751","DOI":"10.1007\/s11673-025-10488-7","volume":"22","author":"PA Komesaroff","year":"2025","unstructured":"______. 2025b. Is this Judaism? The question of the consistency of Israeli policy and actions in Gaza with Jewish thought and ethics: Part 2: Evidence, analysis and conclusions. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 22(3): 751\u2013766.","journal-title":"Journal of Bioethical Inquiry"},{"key":"10618_CR12","unstructured":"Lingis, A. 1984. Excesses: Eros and culture. State University of New York Press."},{"key":"10618_CR13","unstructured":"______. 1994. The community of those who have nothing in common. Indiana University Press."},{"key":"10618_CR14","unstructured":"______. 1998. The imperative. Indiana University Press."},{"issue":"1","key":"10618_CR15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"47","DOI":"10.1007\/s11673-024-10395-3","volume":"22","author":"A Lingis","year":"2025","unstructured":"Lingis, A., and P. Komesaroff. 2025. Ethics that fails to regulate war, ethics that enhances war. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 22(1): 47\u201349.","journal-title":"Journal of Bioethical Inquiry"},{"key":"10618_CR16","unstructured":"Rose, G. 1992. The broken middle: Out of our ancient society. Blackwell."},{"key":"10618_CR17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511621253","volume-title":"Problems of the self: Philosophical papers 1956\u20131972","author":"B Williams","year":"1973","unstructured":"Williams, B. 1973. Problems of the self: Philosophical papers 1956\u20131972. Cambridge University Press."}],"container-title":["Journal of Bioethical Inquiry"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s11673-026-10618-9.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s11673-026-10618-9","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s11673-026-10618-9.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T13:49:33Z","timestamp":1789393773000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/10.1007\/s11673-026-10618-9"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]]},"references-count":17,"alternative-id":["10618"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s11673-026-10618-9","relation":{},"ISSN":["1176-7529","1872-4353"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1176-7529","type":"print"},{"value":"1872-4353","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]]},"assertion":[{"value":"29 March 2026","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"1 July 2026","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"14 September 2026","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"None.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","label":"Competing of interests","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"The article does not contain any studies with human participants so ethics approval is not relevant.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","label":"Ethics Approval","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}}]}}