Otherness
Online Conference of the Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience
November 14-15, 21-22.
This conference aims to shed new light on the phenomenon that contemporary philosophy commonly designates as Otherness. While the term itself belongs largely to the vocabulary of contemporary continental philosophy, theology, postcolonial studies, and post-Husserlianphenomenology, the phenomenon it describes is deeply rooted in the phenomenological tradition and is discussed extensively throughout the work of Edmund Husserl.
In a phenomenological sense, Otherness may be understood as whatever appears within experience as irreducibly non-identical with the constituting ego while nevertheless remaining accessible within the horizons of consciousness. The phenomenon of Otherness thus raises fundamental questions concerning the limits of selfhood, the constitution of meaning, the possibility of intersubjectivity, and the encounter with what exceeds immediate self-presence.
Several Husserlian concepts are particularly relevant to this theme. First among them is the notion of the Other (der Andere) and the alter ego, developed most explicitly in the Fifth Meditation of Cartesian Meditations. Husserl asks how another conscious subject can be given within experience. The other person is not encountered as a mere physical object but as an alter ego—another “I” who is both similar to myself and yet inaccessible in the same immediate manner as my own consciousness. Although the other is apprehended through empathy, the other’s inner life remains fundamentally indirect and appresented rather than directly perceived. This irreducible difference constitutes one of the most fundamental forms of Otherness.
A second Husserlian approach emerges through the concept of transcendence. For Husserl, every object transcends the particular appearances through which it is given. A house, for example, is never perceived from all sides simultaneously; it always exceeds what is presently seen. Every object therefore possesses a certain degree of Otherness relative to consciousness because it is always more than what is immediately given. Yet the constitution of a conscious other differs significantly from the constitution of an object, introducing a distinctive form of alterity that cannot be reduced to mere perceptual incompleteness.
In Husserl’s later manuscripts on intersubjectivity, the concept of Fremdheit—foreignness, strangeness, or alienness—assumes increasing importance. The foreign is neither wholly outside experience nor fully assimilated into the self. Another person, a different culture, a historical tradition, or even dimensions of one’s own psychic life may appear as foreign. Husserl’s analyses of foreignness provided the foundation for later phenomenological investigations of alterity, particularly those of Bernhard Waldenfels, whose responsive phenomenology explores the encounter with the alien (das Fremde) as a fundamental structure of experience.
Husserl also recognizes forms of internal Otherness. Alterity is not confined to the encounter with other persons or cultures but can emerge within subjectivity itself. The relation between past and present self, the operation of passive syntheses beneath active awareness, and the instinctive and affective dimensions of consciousness all reveal aspects of experience that are not fully transparent to the ego. In Husserl’s later thought, subjectivity appears not as a perfectly self-present unity but as a dynamic field containing dimensions that may confront the active ego as partially foreign or other.
A further dimension of Otherness emerges in Husserl’s analyses of history, culture, and the lifeworld. In The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Husserl examines the plurality of historical and cultural worlds inhabited by different communities. Distinct traditions, languages, and forms of life generate different horizons of meaning. The encounter between such horizons introduces another dimension of Otherness: the experience of cultural alterity and the relation between one’s own world and the worlds of others.
Beyond Husserl, the theme of Otherness occupies a central place throughout phenomenology and continental philosophy. Early phenomenologists such as Max Scheler and Edith Stein explored empathy, sympathy, personhood, and the experience of other persons. Martin Heidegger examined the structures of Being-with (Mitsein), the relation to others, and the phenomenon of foreignness within human existence.
French phenomenology further expanded the field. Maurice Merleau-Ponty developed accounts of intercorporeality, reversibility, and the flesh as sites of self-other relations. Emmanuel Levinas placed the encounter with the Other at the center of ethics, arguing that the Other exceeds every attempt at conceptual assimilation and calls the self into responsibility. Paul Ricoeur investigated the relation between selfhood and alterity, while Michel Henry explored the dimensions of life, affectivity, and self-manifestation that challenge externalized conceptions of alterity. Jean-Luc Marion analyzed givenness and saturated phenomena, emphasizing forms of appearance that exceed the subject’s capacity for conceptual mastery.
Contemporary phenomenology has continued these investigations in diverse directions. Bernhard Waldenfels has developed a comprehensive phenomenology of foreignness and responsive experience. Klaus Held has examined intersubjectivity, cultural alterity, and the political dimensions of foreignness. Marc Richir explored radical alterity and the genesis of meaning, while Renaud Barbaras investigated the themes of life, separation, desire, and the irreducible distance that characterizes appearing itself.
Related questions emerge within post-structuralism and theories of difference. Jacques Derrida’s analyses of différance and the impossibility of complete presence, Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of difference and becoming, and Jean-François Lyotard’s reflections on the differend all contribute important perspectives on alterity and heterogeneity. Likewise, hermeneutic thinkers such as Hans-Georg Gadamer have emphasized dialogue with the other and the fusion of horizons, while Julia Kristeva has explored experiences of foreignness and strangeness in modern culture.
This conference includes contributions addressing the phenomenon of Otherness in its phenomenological, ontological, ethical, epistemological, political, cultural, theological, aesthetic, and social dimensions. We will cover the topics of intersubjectivity, empathy, alter ego, foreignness, cultural alterity, embodiment, difference, transcendence, passivity, selfhood and alterity, responsive phenomenology, ethics of the Other, postcolonial perspectives on Otherness, and contemporary developments in phenomenological and continental thought.
By bringing together these diverse traditions and approaches, the conference seeks to deepen our understanding of the many forms through which Otherness manifests itself within human experience and philosophical reflection.