Intersubjectivity

Iso Kern

Universität Bern

pp. 21-39

in: William Hamrick, An existential phenomenology of law, Berlin, Springer, 1987

Abstract

For Merleau-Ponty, the social or cultural world—for the most part, these expressions are used interchangeably—takes shape in and through the cooperative and competitive efforts of society's members as they both constitute the sense of their lives and take up the fabric of meanings laid down by others in the institution of laws, customs, traditions, mores, and the like. This being so, an adequate comprehension of the social world demands first that one understand the intersubjectivity that precedes it (logically, not temporally) and makes it possible. Accordingly, the present chapter will sketch the main structures of intersubjectivity, but largely abstracted from its temporal thickness. Since the latter will entail a reference to history and institution, that part of the discussion will be left for the following chapter.