Abstract
This dissertation investigates the problem of empathy by means of systematically analyzing Husserl’s theory of intersubjectivity vis-à-vis the Schutzian critique. I demonstrate that Husserl begins with a somewhat Cartesian position that supports the Schutzian interpretation. That is, Husserl thinks that the Other’s body is a meaningless physical substance and that one needs to appeal to one’s own conscious reservoir of knowledge, such as memories, so as to understand, explain and predict the Other’s outward behavior. However, Husserl refines such a Cartesian account and develops a new conception that stands in sharp distinction with the Schutzian interpretation. On this account, Husserl holds that the Other’s body is an expressive unity and originally discloses the Other’s mental life and that empathy, as a form of empathic perception, is characterized by some distinctive features, such as its twofold intentionality. This thesis attempts to examine the Schutzian critique and unfold the complex nature of empathic experience according to Husserl’s new account.
In chapter one, I focus on the problem of how the body functions in empathic experience and how it makes it possible for the empathizer to adopt other people’s perspectives. I argue that empathy is essentially regulated by bodily capacities, such as bodily mobility, orientation and double sensation. And I suggest that embodied empathy can be understood as a form of quasi-perspective-taking.
In chapter two, I focus on the problem of the social situation and its significance for empathic understanding. I argue that the social situation not only anonymously stays in the background but also serves as an ecological niche from which other people come to affect us and become present in our conscious life in the first place. With Husserl’s genetic method, I analyze the affective structure of the situation and how it frames a meaningful context for the interpersonal encounter.
In chapter three, I focus on the problem of empathic intentionality and argue that, unlike external perception simpliciter, empathic perception is intrinsically characterized by its unique bi-directionality – empathy is at once directed at other people’s sensuously given bodies and their non-sensuously given subjectivity. With the help of Husserl’s image theory, I show how such twofold empathic intentionality is at work in and through our ordinary experience and further specify its accomplishment – such unique intentionality provides a quasi, pre- or non-predicative understanding of other people’s perspectives of their lived environment.
In chapter four, I focus on the problem of the Other’s bodily expressivity and examine Husserl’s two different conceptions thereof. Husserl firstly thinks that other people’s outward behavior just indicates their inner life and that it is in itself a meaningless physical substance. I show that this account faces some serious difficulties and that Husserl later on substantially revises his view. Husserl secondly thinks that other people’s outward behavior not only indicates their inner life but also originally discloses it through its unitary Gestalt. Accordingly, the Other’s body is understood as a twofold unity of expressing exteriority and expressed interiority.
In the fifth and final chapter, I methodically analyze Husserl’s theory and unfold its existential-ethical implications. That is, I argue that a radical reflection upon the nature of subjectivity will ultimately illuminate the fact that subjectivity exists already within an intersubjective network and that subjectivity in its full sense consists in taking up its responsibility for other subjects. The intersubjective nature of subjectivity leads to the facticity that subjective freedom is encumbered with ethical responsibility.
In chapter one, I focus on the problem of how the body functions in empathic experience and how it makes it possible for the empathizer to adopt other people’s perspectives. I argue that empathy is essentially regulated by bodily capacities, such as bodily mobility, orientation and double sensation. And I suggest that embodied empathy can be understood as a form of quasi-perspective-taking.
In chapter two, I focus on the problem of the social situation and its significance for empathic understanding. I argue that the social situation not only anonymously stays in the background but also serves as an ecological niche from which other people come to affect us and become present in our conscious life in the first place. With Husserl’s genetic method, I analyze the affective structure of the situation and how it frames a meaningful context for the interpersonal encounter.
In chapter three, I focus on the problem of empathic intentionality and argue that, unlike external perception simpliciter, empathic perception is intrinsically characterized by its unique bi-directionality – empathy is at once directed at other people’s sensuously given bodies and their non-sensuously given subjectivity. With the help of Husserl’s image theory, I show how such twofold empathic intentionality is at work in and through our ordinary experience and further specify its accomplishment – such unique intentionality provides a quasi, pre- or non-predicative understanding of other people’s perspectives of their lived environment.
In chapter four, I focus on the problem of the Other’s bodily expressivity and examine Husserl’s two different conceptions thereof. Husserl firstly thinks that other people’s outward behavior just indicates their inner life and that it is in itself a meaningless physical substance. I show that this account faces some serious difficulties and that Husserl later on substantially revises his view. Husserl secondly thinks that other people’s outward behavior not only indicates their inner life but also originally discloses it through its unitary Gestalt. Accordingly, the Other’s body is understood as a twofold unity of expressing exteriority and expressed interiority.
In the fifth and final chapter, I methodically analyze Husserl’s theory and unfold its existential-ethical implications. That is, I argue that a radical reflection upon the nature of subjectivity will ultimately illuminate the fact that subjectivity exists already within an intersubjective network and that subjectivity in its full sense consists in taking up its responsibility for other subjects. The intersubjective nature of subjectivity leads to the facticity that subjective freedom is encumbered with ethical responsibility.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|
| Forlag | Det Humanistiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet |
|---|---|
| Antal sider | 234 |
| Status | Udgivet - aug. 2014 |