ABSTRACT
Has phenomenology anything of interest to say on the topic of intersubjectivity? Whereas the received view in the heyday of Critical Theory was negative – due to its preoccupation with subjectivity, phenomenology was taken to be fundamentally incapable of addressing the issue of intersubjectivity in a satisfactory manner (cf. Habermas 1988) – recent decades of research have done much to disprove this verdict. As closer scrutiny of the writings of such figures as Husserl, Scheler, Reinach, Stein, Heidegger, Gurwitsch, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Levinas has revealed, intersubjectivity, be it in the form of a concrete self-other relation, a socially structured life-world, or a transcendental principle of justification, is ascribed an absolutely central role by phenomenologists. It is no coincidence that the first philosopher to ever engage in a systematic and extensive use of the very term intersubjectivity (Intersubjektivität) was Husserl.
