Because Emmanuel Levinas distanced himself from Maurice Merleau-Ponty's philosophy for a more radical account of the self as primordially oriented by a radical passivity and asymmetrical ethical obligation to the other, few secondary sources have articulated the clear influence Merleau-Ponty had on the trajectory of Levinas's thought. Further, Levinas's more radical account of intersubjectivity raises three primary concerns: (1) Levinas resorts to a form of Platonic dualism when he depicts the other as beyond culture, history, and the physical appearance of the body; (2) there are questions as to whether the phenomena warrant his later view that the self is grounded in a radical passivity and an utter noncoincidence between self and other; (3) his ethics based on an infinite, asymmetrical obligation for the other conflates any kind of self-regard with egoism, thus creating a scenario in which my infinite concern for the singular other stands at odds with concerns of equality and justice. <br> Drawing on the work of Levinas and Merleau-Ponty, I develop a hybrid account of intersubjectivity. Echoing the work of Adriaan Peperzak, I depict the self-other relation as "chiastic asymmetry" that stresses that the asymmetry in Levinas's thought and the mutuality in Merleau-Ponty's must be seen as equiprimordial. Peperzak neither considers Merleau-Ponty's thought, nor does he provide a phenomenological description of chiastic asymmetry. The parent-child relationship provides this explanation by highlighting how ethics is cultivated simultaneously in both the child and the caregiver, and thus, both responsibility and mutuality constitute the self-other relation. In addition, the study of the parent-child relation (1) offers a phenomenological analyses of passivity and sensibility that decenter the autonomous, self-reflective cogito that is prioritized by Descartes, Kant, and Husserl and (2) stands in contrast to the predominant accounts of intersubjectivity that are grounded in self-interest, indifference, or shame, as represented by Hegel, Heidegger, and Sartre. This alternative account seeks to preserve the alterity of the other and unearths an originary posture toward the other that is peaceful and positive. <br> After considering Levinas's and Merleau-Ponty's respective roots in Husserl's thought (chapter 1), I respond to Levinas's criticisms of Merleau-Ponty in the areas of language, history, aesthetics, and embodiment (chapter 2). Then, I turn to their respective accounts of the parent-child relation, supplemented by current empirical research in child development, to establish my account of chiastic asymmetry (chapter 3). After explaining how chiastic asymmetry offers an alternative to the views set forth by Hegel, Heidegger, Sartre, and Hobbes (chapter 4), I conclude by considering how intersubjectivity as chiastic asymmetry might serve as a basis for a peaceful politics that reframes the use of violence and suggest its conceptual presence in the thought of Enrique Dussel, Desmond Tutu, and Miroslav Volf. <br> / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Philosophy / PhD; / Dissertation;

Engaging the question of postmodern ethical intersubjectivity in the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Luce Irigaray I attempt to move beyond Levinas sacrificial view of intersubjectivity with Irigaray's critique of sexual difference. I argue that Levinas view of ethical 'subjectivity' is violently conditioned by a necessary narcissim located in Levinas's description of the feminine dwelling. Instead of narcissim I argue with Irigaray for a way of love that offers an ethical relationship bonded in mutuality. This way of love is rooted in an understanding of the primordial matter of life as good for intersubjective-relationships that do not depend upon narcissim for connection. Concluding this study I suggest that his kind of intersubjectivity can be rooted in a primordial way of life found in the rhythm of breath.

Le processus de symbolisation, en tant qu’il a pris forme dans les liens intersubjectifs, est étudié à partir d’une clinique issue d’un dispositif de soin groupal de très jeunes enfants, souffrant de pathologies « aux limites » de la symbolisation et des capacités intersubjectives. Ces groupes constituent un terrain privilégié d’observation des premières modalités d’auto-saisissement, dans les liens interpersonnels, des processus de pensée et de leurs avatars. Il ressort de l’analyse du dispositif et du processus, la nécessité d’un repositionnement théorico-clinique par rapport à des modèles apparaissant le plus souvent mal articulés ou insuffisamment instruits d’une clinique du proto-représentatif et de l’intersensoriel. Il convient, en outre, de tendre vers une complexification, dans l’approche de la dialectique du cadre et du processus, qui envisage la limite comme une construction interne à partir des boucles intersubjectives. C’est dans cette perspective que sont repérés divers niveaux d’« épreuve du cadre » et du « co-éprouvé» en groupe, apparaissant comme autant de tentatives d’organisation des représentations de choses, en référence donc à la symbolisation primaire. Sont envisagés quatre axes organisateurs du processus thérapeutique groupal : la disposition du cadre à la potentialité de sens ; la mise en représentation différenciée des éléments humains et non humains du cadre grâce à l’avènement de la pensée animique ; la transitionnalisation du surmoi préoedipien à travers le « bon usage » de l’interdit du toucher ; le travail du double au sein duquel la fonction des imitations est essentielle. Ils conduisent à appréhender des manières prélatentes de symboliser, intelligibles aux charnières des théories de la symbolisation, de l’intersubjectivité, de l’intersensorialité et de la sensori-motricité. La question des différents états du signe et celle du statut métapsychologique des imitations sont notamment au centre de ces articulations. / The process of symbolization, as it takes shape through intersubjective bonds, is observed in a clinical study using a group setting of young children suffering with pathologies «at the limits» of symbolization and the capacity to be in intersubjective relationships. These groups are a privileged field of observation of primary modes of self-reflexion, in interpersonal relationships, of thought processes and the eventual mishaps. Analysis of setting and process show the necessity of repositioning clinical theory concerning current models, which are often poorly defined or insufficiently linked with clinical evidence of representative prototype and intersensoriality. It would be interesting as well to move towards a more complex approach of setting and process, which would consider the limit as an internal construction emanating from intersubjective feedback. From this viewpoint, different levels of “setting tests” and “shared experiences” in the group can be identified, appearing as attempts to organize representations of things, in reference to primary symbolization. Four axes are presented to describe the organization of process in therapeutic groups : the disposition of the setting towards a potential for meaning ; the organisation of representation as being differenciated from human and non-human elements of the setting as a result of the onset of animic thought ; the transitionnalization of the pre-oedipal superego through the “good utilization” of the interdiction of touch ; the intervention of the “double” with which the imitation function is essential. These lead to the apprehension of prelatent possibilities of symbolizing, yet intelligible at the junction of theories of symbolization, intersubjectivity, intersensoriality, and sensori-motricity. The question of different conditions of the “sign” and of the metapsychological status of imitations is especially important to these articulations.

O autismo questiona as diversas formulações teóricas que se esforçam em compreender os processos implicados no desenvolvimento psíquico. O que propõe o método francês dos 3i como tratamento do autismo permite avançar as questões que o autismo coloca especialmente à teoria psicanalítica, com a qual uma articulação pode ser elaborada. Sendo a interação o objetivo das sessões 3i, algumas orientações são dadas aos adultos que intervém no sentido de criar momentos de encontro, dentre elas a de imitar a criança e a de não dizer não nas sessões. Propomos investigar os fundamentos dessas premissas a partir de uma articulação com o que se passa no primeiro tempo da constituição psíquica. Ao retrabalhar os primeiros encontros intersubjetivos, observamos que a imitação e a sintonia que lhes são característicos indicam que esses encontros são marcados mais pela semelhança e menos pela diferença. Nossa proposição é a considerar o outro desses primeiros encontros intersubjetivos como um outro suficientemente similar ao sujeito. Sendo o autismo uma clínica do tempo arcaico do psiquismo, pensamos que esse tipo de encontro onde a diferença não figura em primeiro plano remete a um tipo de relação com o outro que as crianças autistas são capazes de suportar. A partir do caso de uma criança autista atendida por 20 meses dentro dos moldes do método dos 3i, discutimos as implicações clínicas da nossa proposição. A discussão, que tem por eixos os princípios de intervenção propostos pelo método dos 3i, indica que a partir de encontros dessa natureza, possíveis à criança autista, o suficientemente similar pode tornar-se cada vez menos similar. A evolução do caso da criança atendida nos moldes do método 3i permite inferir alguns efeitos terapêuticos desse tipo de encontro, provocado por um outro que se apresenta inicialmente como suficientemente similar com a criança / Autism questions the several theoretical formulations that attempt to understand the processes involved in psychic development. What the French 3i method suggests as a treatment of autism allows to question further the psychoanalytic theory, with which a link can be proposed. Since the goal of the 3i therapeutic sessions is to establish interactions, a few orientations are given to adults to create moments of contact, for instance to imitate the child and to not to say \"no\" during the sessions. We propose to investigate the reasons of these assumptions in connection with what happens during the first period of the psychic development. When reworking the first intersubjective encounters, we observed that imitation and attunement that characterize them indicate that these encounters are marked by resemblance more then by difference. Our proposition is to consider the other of these first intersubjective encounters as a similar enough other. Being autism a clinic of the archaic period of psychic development, we think that this type of encounter where the difference does not stand out points to a type of relation with the other in a way that autistic children could accept. Based upon an autistic child that was seen for 20 months under the 3i method, we discuss the clinical implications of our proposition. The discussion, based upon the principles of the intervention proposed by this method, indicate that based on encounters of this nature, the \"similar enough\" can become gradually less similar. The progress of the child that was seen under the umbrella of the 3i method allows to infer some therapeutic benefits of this type of encounter, initiated by an other who presents himself at first as similar enough to the child

Thesis advisor: Jeffrey Bloechl / Per Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, existentialism is the profound truth that the world lacks inherent meaning and thus, we are radically free to choose, to live life as we please. While these assertions are both true and liberating and the theoretical level, these axioms leave individuals disoriented. They never answer the question: how does one live within an absurd world? Thus, these authors never give us a way of coping with the harsh repercussions of absurdity. To answer this question, this project turns to intersubjectivity and the work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas’s theory of the other demonstrates that we are not merely beings in a vacuum; the world is conditioned by the interpersonal. Relating to the Other allows us to see that we are not alone in our suffering, for the Other and the individual mutually witness one another. Such connections provide a means of coping with absurdity, allowing us both solidarity and insight into the truly absurd nature of the world. Thus, the application of Levinas’s intersubjectivity to existentialism serves to save Camus’s notion of absurdity from its more nihilistic tendencies, allowing us to accept and apprehend absurdity without falling into despair or ignorance. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Philosophy.

My dissertation explores the role of narrative in the cultivation of empathy for ethical attitudes and behaviors. I begin by exploring an uncommon view of human nature, concluding that we are not autonomously individualistic rational deciders but ultrasocial moral intuitionists. Our intuitions are developed through our social engagements and the moral imagination. Intersubjective relations run deep in our psychology and provide the basis by which we shape the meaning of our lives as individuals in communities. It is because of this that we need to reconsider and redesign our moral cultivation programs both for the child-rearing years and throughout adult life. I look at empathy, the means of our mutual understanding, care, and help, as a key site for moral cultivation. I explicate the neurophysiological bases of empathy, both conscious and unconscious. Empathy is on the continuum with very primitive, automatic mirroring systems, which through varying levels of mimicry facilitate social cognition and moral insight and action. It is thus the ideal means of cultivating a skillful morality. Empathy enables us to enter the worlds and feelings of others in rich and full-bodied ways and so can reveal others in their full subjectivity. Such experiences can incite empathic regard and compassionate action, but empathy, like all of our psycho-social capacities, requires cultivation to develop its skillfulness in practice. Narrative is an obvious means of cultivating empathy because it is humanity’s primary meaning-making structure, utilizing the empathic imagination to seduce us into the inner worlds of others. Through narrative dramatizations of experience, we learn to see and feel from another’s point of view, sensitizing us to their inner states and outward behavior. Such sensitivity can facilitate improving our moral attitudes and action by dislodging preoccupation with self-concern and instigating higher regard for others. In narratives we can imaginatively practice various moral actions, witnessing possible results. Reflective engagement can then bring the moral insights of these imaginative experiences to life in our practical worlds by attuning us to what is morally salient. Narrative engagement is thus a natural and vital part of shaping empathic moral perception for compassionate action. By reading and feeling with others reflectively, we can expand empathy for the pluralistic communities in which we live, make meaning, and grow.

A presente dissertação busca a articular dois temas, a Linguagem e a Alteridade, ao longo do pensamento filosófico de Jean-Paul Sartre e Emmanuel Lévinas. Partindo da obra de Sartre propomos a análise dos temas em três momentos que se estende desde O Ser e o Nada até a Crítica da Razão Dialética, passando por O que é a literatura?. Ao passarmos pela exposição do autor a respeito dos temas - que se estabelece como Intersubjetividade e Linguagem-, podemos destacar, além da interação entre ambos, a situação da Linguagem em suas obras. Posteriormente, analisamos a obra de Lévinas e a construção de suas concepções de Linguagem e Alteridade, que se encontram no cerne de seu pensamento, tanto em Totalidade e Infinito como em Outramente que ser ou para-além da essência. A partir disto, é criado um ambiente temático comum para que possamos estabelecer o diálogo entre os filósofos, sob uma perspectiva que permeia nossa dissertação: a crítica de Lévinas sobre a Linguagem e a relação desta com o pensamento de Sartre / The following thesis has the purpose of articulating two subjects, the Language and the Alterity, through the philosophical thinking of Jean-Paul Sartre and Emmanuel Lévinas. Starting from Sartre\'s work we propose the analysis of the subjects in three different moments that extend from Being and Nothingness until the Critique of Dialectical Reason, also analyzing What Is Literature?. While we examine the author\'s exposure concerning the subjects - which are set as intersubjectivity and language - the interaction between both and the situation of language in his work stand out. Subsequently, we analyzed Lévinas\' work and the construction of his conceptions of Language and Alterity, which are in the core of his thinking, for Totality and Infinity and Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence. From this, a common theme environment is set in order to establish the dialogue between philosophers, from a perspective that permeates our dissertation: the comment Lévinas made about language and the relation between this comment and Sartre\'s thinking

Empathy is thought to involve cognitive processes that depend on the simulation of another's experiences. Embodiment has a key role for empathy as vehicle for recreating the experience of another. This thesis explores the validity of this claim by investigating what people do when communicating about their experiences. In particular, what is the contribution of our embodied resources such as gestures, postures and expressions to empathy and intersubjectivity? These questions are explored against two corpora of dyadic interactions. One features conversations of people describing recalled embodied experiences to each other, such as painful or pleasant bodily experiences like a headache or laughing. The other features a series of interactions designed to emulate informal conversations. The analysis uses hand coded gestures, feedback and clari cation questions, body movement data and a new approach to quantifying posture congruence. The analysis shows the embodied responses observed within these interactions are intentionally placed and formulated to facilitate the incremental process of a conversation as a joint activity. This is inconsistent with accounts that propose there is an automatic and non-conscious propensity for people to mimic each other in social interactions. Quantitative analysis show that patterns of gesture type and use, feedback form and posture di er systematically between interlocutors. Additionally, results show that resources provided by embodiment are allocated strategically. Nonverbal contributions increase in frequency and adjust their form responding to problems in conversation such as during clari cation questions and repair. Detailed qualitative analysis shows the instances that appear to display mimicry within the interaction function rather as embodied adaptations or paraphrases. In their contrast with the original contribution they demonstrate a speci c understanding of the type of experience being conveyed. This work shows that embodiment is an important resource for intersubjectivity and embodied communication is speci cally constructed to aid the collaborative, sequential and intersubjective progression of dialogue.

Essa pesquisa versa sobre a noção de autenticidade a partir da perspectiva construtivista semiótico cultural em psicologia. A busca pela compreensão dessa noção que permeia as ciências humanas se assenta em diversas razões: em primeiro lugar, a noção de autenticidade é polissêmica, possuindo variados significados em nosso campo cultural; em segundo lugar, a noção de autenticidade tem sido usada com frequência pelos profissionais da psicologia, particularmente da psicoterapia, embora sua conceituação usualmente não esteja aprofundada, confundindo-se com os sentidos adotados pelo senso-comum; em terceiro lugar, o tema da autenticidade permanece contemporâneo, caracterizando-se como uma questão instigadora. A diversidade e a nebulosidade em torno da noção de autenticidade demonstraram a existência de lacunas sobre as quais essa pesquisa pôde se desdobrar. O objetivo da pesquisa é, portanto, construir uma compreensão para a noção de autenticidade a partir da emergência das lacunas que se formaram do diálogo entre inquietações (Simão, 2003) da pesquisadora e dois autores: o filósofo hermenêuta Charles Taylor e o psicólogo cultural Ernst Boesch. Como metodologia da pesquisa foram feitos exame e análise de textos selecionados, por meio do qual puderam emergir algumas compreensões. A discussão dos resultados foi feita em diálogo com textos de Clarice Lispector, pertinentes ao tema da pesquisa. Do processo dialógico que se buscou estabelecer pode-se depreender que: a autenticidade é um constructo constitutivo da identidade do homem contemporâneo; há uma profunda articulação entre as noções de autenticidade e identidade, embora elas não coincidam; a autenticidade implica em abertura da identidade para a futuridade, ou seja, ao vir a ser; a empatia entendida tanto como aproximação afetiva, quanto como distanciamento reflexivo, é condição primordial para a construção de identidades em devir; e, ainda, a tensão e a inquietação, fruto dos desencaixes decorrentes do contato com a alteridade, também são elementos fundamentais da autenticidade, tal como entendida nessa pesquisa / This research is about the notion of authenticity from a semiotic-cultural constructivist perspective in psychology. The search for the understanding of such notion pervading human sciences rests upon several reasons: first, the notion of authenticity is polysemic, possessing various meanings within our cultural field; second, the notion of authenticity has been frequently used by psychology professionals, especially psychotherapists, even though its conceptualization is seldom deepened, confusing itself with the word senses adopted by common sense; third, the topic of authenticity remains contemporary, being characterized as a thought-provoking matter. The diversity and nebulosity around the notion of authenticity have demonstrated the existence of gaps over which this research could unfold. The objective of the research is thus to create an understanding of the notion of authenticity from the emerging gaps that have taken form within the dialogue between the researchers disquiets (Simão, 2003) and two authors, the hermeneutic philosopher Charles Taylor and the cultural psychologist Ernst Boesch. As a research methodology, a review and an analysis of selected texts were performed, through which some understandings could emerge. A discussion about the results was developed in a dialogue with texts by Clarice Lispector, pertinent to the topic of the research. From the dialogical process that was sought to be established, one can infer that: authenticity is a constitutive construct of the identity of contemporary man; there is a profound articulation between the notions of authenticity and identity, even though they do not coincide; authenticity implies openness of identity to futurity, that is, to the coming to be; empathy, understood both as affective closeness and reflexive distancing, is a prerequisite for the construction of identities in becoming; yet, tension and disquiet, a result of the ruptures resulting from the contact with otherness, are also fundamental elements of authenticity, as understood in this research

O autismo questiona as diversas formulações teóricas que se esforçam em compreender os processos implicados no desenvolvimento psíquico. O que propõe o método francês dos 3i como tratamento do autismo permite avançar as questões que o autismo coloca especialmente à teoria psicanalítica, com a qual uma articulação pode ser elaborada. Sendo a interação o objetivo das sessões 3i, algumas orientações são dadas aos adultos que intervém no sentido de criar momentos de encontro, dentre elas a de imitar a criança e a de não dizer não nas sessões. Propomos investigar os fundamentos dessas premissas a partir de uma articulação com o que se passa no primeiro tempo da constituição psíquica. Ao retrabalhar os primeiros encontros intersubjetivos, observamos que a imitação e a sintonia que lhes são característicos indicam que esses encontros são marcados mais pela semelhança e menos pela diferença. Nossa proposição é a considerar o outro desses primeiros encontros intersubjetivos como um outro suficientemente similar ao sujeito. Sendo o autismo uma clínica do tempo arcaico do psiquismo, pensamos que esse tipo de encontro onde a diferença não figura em primeiro plano remete a um tipo de relação com o outro que as crianças autistas são capazes de suportar. A partir do caso de uma criança autista atendida por 20 meses dentro dos moldes do método dos 3i, discutimos as implicações clínicas da nossa proposição. A discussão, que tem por eixos os princípios de intervenção propostos pelo método dos 3i, indica que a partir de encontros dessa natureza, possíveis à criança autista, o suficientemente similar pode tornar-se cada vez menos similar. A evolução do caso da criança atendida nos moldes do método 3i permite inferir alguns efeitos terapêuticos desse tipo de encontro, provocado por um outro que se apresenta inicialmente como suficientemente similar com a criança / Autism questions the several theoretical formulations that attempt to understand the processes involved in psychic development. What the French 3i method suggests as a treatment of autism allows to question further the psychoanalytic theory, with which a link can be proposed. Since the goal of the 3i therapeutic sessions is to establish interactions, a few orientations are given to adults to create moments of contact, for instance to imitate the child and to not to say \"no\" during the sessions. We propose to investigate the reasons of these assumptions in connection with what happens during the first period of the psychic development. When reworking the first intersubjective encounters, we observed that imitation and attunement that characterize them indicate that these encounters are marked by resemblance more then by difference. Our proposition is to consider the other of these first intersubjective encounters as a similar enough other. Being autism a clinic of the archaic period of psychic development, we think that this type of encounter where the difference does not stand out points to a type of relation with the other in a way that autistic children could accept. Based upon an autistic child that was seen for 20 months under the 3i method, we discuss the clinical implications of our proposition. The discussion, based upon the principles of the intervention proposed by this method, indicate that based on encounters of this nature, the \"similar enough\" can become gradually less similar. The progress of the child that was seen under the umbrella of the 3i method allows to infer some therapeutic benefits of this type of encounter, initiated by an other who presents himself at first as similar enough to the child