The book explores the intersection of social ontology, phenomenology, and women scholars in phenomenology. The papers offer a fresh look at such topics as the nature of communities, shared values, feelings, and other mental content. In addition, coverage examines the contributions of Jewish women to the science, who were present at the beginning of the phenomenological movement. This remarkable anthology also features a paper on Gerda Walther written by Linda Lopez McAlister, former editor of the feminist journal Hypatia, who had met Walther in 1976.

Part 1: Social Ontology in Edith Stein and Gerda Walther.- Chapter 1. The Role of Empathy in Experiencing Community (Antonio Calcagno).- Chapter 2. Meaning of Individuals within Communities: Gerda Walther and Edith Stein on the Constitution of Social Communities (Julia Mühl).- Chapter 3. Edith Stein on Social Ontology and the Constitution of Individual Moral Identity (William Tullius).- Chapter 4. The Ontic-Ontological Aspects of Social Life. Edith Stein's Approach to the Problem (Anna Jani).- Chapter 5. Starting from Husserl: Communal Life according to Edith Stein (Alice Togni).- Chapter 6. The role of the intellectual in the social organism. Edith Stein's analyses between social ontology and philosophical anthropology (Martina Galvani).- Chapter 7. The Phenomenology of Shared Emotions - Reassessing Gerda Walther (Thomas Szanto).- Chapter 8. We-Experience - with Walther (Hans-Bernhard Schmid).- Chapter 9. Gerda Walther between the phenomenology of mystics andthe ontology of communities (Anna Piazza:).- Chapter 10. Do We-Experiences Require an Intentional Object? On the Nature of Reflective Communities (Following Gerda Walther) (Sebastian Luft).- Part2: The Ontology of Hedwig Conrad-Martius.- Chapter 11. Essence, Abyss, and Self - Hedwig Conrad-Martius on the Non-Spatial Dimensions of Being (Ronny Miron).- Chapter 12. "The reinstatement of the phenomenon". Hedwig Conrad Martius and the meaning of "being" (Manuela Massa).- Chapter 13. From Collectives to Groups - Sartre and Stein on Joint Action and Emotional Sharing (Gerhard Thonhauser).- Chapter 14. Women as zoa politika, or: Why There Could Never Be a Women's Party. An Arendtian-Inspired Phenomenology of a Female Political Subject (Maria Robaszkiewicz).- Chapter 15. Ontology is social. How Arendt Solves a Wittgensteinian Problem (Anna-Magdalena Schaupp).