Abstract

Kings have their subjects, whose service and very lives are placed under the hand of an unquestioned sovereign. Knowledge has its subject matter, items which find themselves under the unrelenting gaze of an ambitious learner who examines, experiments with, and penetrates the object. When we talk of a prey subject to the beast or a drunkard subject to the potency of alcohol, we suggest that something is directly dependent--as a kind of subjection--upon a greater or unpredictable force. ;In spite of this--or perhaps because of it--we imagine we honor a person by respecting his or her "human subjectivity". ;In this work I undertake a study of how humans regard other humans, how they associate with each other, how their condition, institutions, and forms of communication abet or deter interaction, and what philosophical grounds enable us to understand these phenomena--indeed, how thought influences the phenomena themselves. I investigate ways in which humans participate in forms of domination and attempt to extricate themselves from those forms. In a word, how are we masters and slaves and how do we seek alternatives to these roles? The topic of this study falls under the rubric "intersubjectivity." ;The study proceeds along the following lines: In the Introduction I outline three essential conditions which comprise the genuine intersubjective moment: mutual recognition, recognition of the Other, and freedom. I suggest that a theory of intersubjectivity must consider three related issues: the backdrop of social, historical and philosophical conditions, the modes through which humans apprehend one another, and factors which prevent intersubjective relations and whether they can be avoided or overcome. ;To pursue these ideas I discuss three 20th century philosophers: Husserl, whose concept of life-world is emphasized in Chapter I; Sartre, whose examination of freedom's relation to human consciousness is analyzed in Chapter II; and Foucault, whose treatment of power/knowledge struggles is presented in Chapter III. ;Following these discussions, Chapter IV summarizes the lines of development which underly the various themes in the first three chapters. In the final chapter, I claim that the concept of intersubjectivity remains valuable for social philosophy. However, its meanings must be considered at several levels. And this brings us to the conclusion that the concept of intersubjectivity is tenacious, but its applicability is tenuous and the experience of intersubjectivity is ephemeral