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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

190497

Putting Ourselves into the place of others

toward a phenomenology of imaginary self — transposal

Herbert Spiegelberg

pp. 99-104

Abstract

To dwell in general terms upon the imperative need and duty of maximum understanding of others in a world as shrunken in space and as divided in spirit as ours would be trivial in theory and ineffectual in practice. I shall therefore concentrate on the concrete task of exploring means for raising curtains, iron and otherwise, that separate the mental and moral isolationists of our time, especially in those almost desperate cases where the normal appeals to mutual understanding are no longer able to penetrate the walls of accumulated misunderstandings. Among the operations increasingly involved in this context is the act of putting ourselves into the place of others. Social psychology, group dynamics, the study of communication and education are becoming aware of its significance. But we still lack a phenomenological clarification of the basic phenomena. The purpose of this sketch is to outline some of the contributions which a descriptive phenomenology can make to the solution of this task. It is meant as a first account of the essential nature of the phenomenon, regardless of whether it actually occurs among human beings, such as we know them.

Publication details

Published in:

Spiegelberg Herbert (1986) Steppingstones toward an ethics for fellow existers: essays 1944–1983. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 99-104

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-4337-7_6

Full citation:

Spiegelberg Herbert (1986) Putting Ourselves into the place of others: toward a phenomenology of imaginary self — transposal, In: Steppingstones toward an ethics for fellow existers, Dordrecht, Springer, 99–104.