intersubjectivity

The philosophy of language is the central motive of the social philosophy of J. Habermas. Language is perceived as a transcendental subject, which is able to act as the unifying basis of culture and overcome the existing isolation of the spheres of science, morality and art. The nature of the language is interpreted in hermeneutic manner as a “great conversation” that can recreate the universal conditions of a possible conception of the world.

The article analyzes the problematization of the concept of the Other in social phenomenology. It has been shown that the study of this topic is connected with the solution of two interrelated issues: the issue of the paramount living of the Other’s figure and the question of the possibility of living through the Other’s experience. These questions in phenomenology are traditionally solved using two opposing approaches: the perceptual approach of M. Scheler or the apperceptive approach of A. Schutz, based on the views of E. Husserl.

The article is devoted to the formation of the problem field of social phenomenology. The author analyzed the works of the phenomenological and socio-constructivist directions of research and identified a common conceptual core. The authors (T. Luckman, M. Merleau-Ponty, M. Eldred) distinguish a previously undifferentiated communicative horizon in the field of interaction. The communicative horizon belongs to the primordial sphere of the subject and is the result of the demarcation of the homogeneous world according to the criterion of ability to communicate.

The actual debate on human identity is dominated by a one-sided definition of person: It focuses on rationality, language and consciousness of time, in brief on self-consciousness. The relevance of the body is constrained to its physiological functions. Yet as lived body it is also an expression of the inner life, of feelings, emotions and mental acts. As expression of the variety of intentional acts the relation of body and mind can be defined as a symbolic relation, as Ernst Cassirer, an important representative of neo-Kantianism, argues.

The actual debate on human identity is dominated by a one-sided definition of person: It focuses on rationality, language and consciousness of time, in brief on self-consciousness. The relevance of the body is constrained to its physiological functions. Yet as lived body it is also an expression of the inner life, of feelings, emotions and mental acts. As expression of the variety of intentional acts the relation of body and mind can be defined as a symbolic relation, as Ernst Cassirer, an important representative of neo-Kantianism, argues.