the Other

The article analyzes the problematization of the concept of the Other in social phenomenology. It has been shown that the study of this topic is connected with the solution of two interrelated issues: the issue of the paramount living of the Other’s figure and the question of the possibility of living through the Other’s experience. These questions in phenomenology are traditionally solved using two opposing approaches: the perceptual approach of M. Scheler or the apperceptive approach of A. Schütz, based on the views of E. Husserl.

The article’s aim is to investigate human existence through the notion of writing, using philosophical concepts of J. Derrida and J.-L. Nancy. Any of our actions or thoughts can be interpreted as acts of writing, located on the surface of touching, in the area, where oneself is opening to the Other. Our existence doesn’t “have sense”, but it itself becomes the sense, being written out. The paper also raises the issue of the idea of self. Being local and for that reason always different effect of writing, ego hereby is fragmentary, irreducible to any unity, devoid of self-identity.