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Document Details : Title: We Are Not Alone Subtitle: Towards an Ampliation of Intersubjectivity Author(s): DESCOLA, Philippe Journal: Tijdschrift voor Filosofie Volume: 87 Issue: 1 Date: 2025 Pages: 3-21 DOI: 10.2143/TVF.87.1.3294636 Abstract : Although Husserl condemned a form of relativism he called ‘anthropologism’, he nevertheless admitted, notably in his correspondence with Lévy-Bruhl, that cultural relativism, as a method of anthropological inquiry, was entirely legitimate insofar as it meant 'feeling from within a closed humanity, living in a lively and generative sociality'. For Husserl, intersubjectivity is the fundamental dimension of the world of human life, constitutive of both the subject and the objective world, and thus the foundation for any anthropological approach that makes sociality the elementary condition for human existence. Yet one can go further than the admission that I am aware of the world through intersubjectivity, if one concedes with Lévi-Strauss — drawing on a suggestion from Rousseau — that my co-subjects need not be exclusively human alter egos but may also include other living beings. This article explores the philosophical and political consequences of extending the domain of the ‘we’ beyond humans by advocating the granting of legal standing to non-human collective subjects. |
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