INTERSOGGETTIVITÀ, INTENZIONALITÀ, EMPATIA. FENOMENOLOGIA E NEUROSCIENZE OGGI

Abstract

Is it possible a comparison between phenomenology and neurosciences, empathical Erlebnis and embodied cognition or simulation? The phenomenological living body is really the same of the neurophisiological one? What is the philosophical difference between culture and nature? The thesis asserted here is that intersubjectivity constitutes the originary root of personal subjectivity. It is proved through the empathical Erlebnis analysis elaborated by Edmund Husserl and Edith Stein, which allows for the phenomenologico-anthropological foundation of personal otherness and for the deep sense of the world as common space of action, connected to the identification of the essential structure of human being: living body (Leib as psycho-physical dimension), soul (Seele as nucleus or centre of personal identity, via individuationis) and spirit (Geist as intentional life and activity of consciousness). To answer these questions, I follow two phenomenological paths: the first one is the Logos and Leib philosophical nexus, meaning the subject-body; the second is the link between empathy and otherness, meaning the roots intersubjectivity. That is why from my point of view phenomenology means a first person philosophy.

Keywords

• empathy
• living body
• embodied cognition or simulation
• mirror neurons
• intersubjectivity
• first person philosophy