ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to reread some tenets of dialogical Self theory in the perspective of the hermeneutic theory of social practices. A special focus is laid on the transformation of trans-subjective possibilities (as they are interplaying with configured social practices) into existential possibilities. Focusing on this transformation entails tremendous consequences on the conceptualization of the Self’s dialogical nature. The Self’s choices of possibilities engendered by configured social practices turn what is chosen into existential possibilities. The Self exists in and through (and not behind) this transformation of trans-subjective possibilities into existential ones. The chapter briefly introduces the conception of trans-subjective existentialism. This conception recasts themes and motifs of existentialist philosophy by predominantly paying attention to the characteristic hermeneutic situations of choosing and appropriating existential possibilities. Trans-subjective existentialism defends the primacy of situated transcendence (with regard to the constitution of the Self within practices) over “punctual self”, collectively shared entities, social structures, de-contextualized agency, motivational structures, intentionality, and so on, but also over any kind of stylizing the Self as “transcendental ego”. The view of the Self as existing in and through the ongoing transformation of trans-subjective into existential possibilities admits that from the very outset the formation of the Self’s identities is predicated on the ecstatic unity of subjectivity and trans-subjectivity.
