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(2014) Self and other, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
This chapter concludes Part II by arguing that any resolutely no-self account of consciousness will be incapable of convincingly accounting for empathy. This is why an emphasis on the inherent and essential first-personal character of experiential life must be regarded as a prerequisite for, rather than an impediment to, a satisfactory account of intersubjectivity. In closing, however, attention is called to an important limitation of the preceding analysis. Empathic understanding can occur without any kind of reciprocation on the part of the other. But doesn’t this miss something rather crucial about the self–other relation? Isn’t one of the unique features of other experiencing subjects the fact that they have a perspective of their own, and not just upon the world of objects, but also upon us?
Publication details
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590681.003.0012
Full citation:
Zahavi, D. (2014). Subjectivity and otherness, in Self and other, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 188-196.
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