The Role of Intersubjectivity and Empathy in Husserl’s Foundational Project

Abstract

Husserl’s doctrine of intersubjectivity is one of the most significant and controversial of the phenomenological problematics. The constitution of intersubjectivity, specifically in the guise of the problem of accounting for the constitution of the other, figures importantly in Husserl’s systematic philosophy. Intersubjective warrant is Husserl’s response to the difficulty that all transcendental philosophies face: they must invite something other than the certainty of consciousness into their systems (or all is but consciousness) without abnegating their claims to foundationalism. A philosophy based upon the self-certainty of consciousness must explain why the I is not alone in the world.