Derrida on Husserl's Phenomenology of Intersubjectivity SPEP conference presentation

Dr. Ellie Anderson shares her presentation "'A Strict Phenomenologist': Derrida's Affirmation of Husserlian Intersubjectivity," presented at the 2017 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy conference (SPEP). She discusses how, despite Jacques Derrida's reputation as a critic of phenomenology, he follows Edmund Husserl's account of intersubjectivity so strictly that he, well, out-Husserls Husserl.

Note: this is an academic paper presented for an audience of academic philosophers! If you're interested in introductory-level content, please check out Dr. Anderson's vidoes in our "Continental Thought" playlist, or our audio podcast on Apple, Spotify, etc.

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[Salomesamuel.]

I believe that the violence inherent in Lévina's ethics is not only violence towards the Other, but also towards my own self – essentially because the claims of the Other and those of all Others entangle me in a guilt that I can never live up to. For the encounter with the concrete other, this means that there is an asymmetry that can never be caught up with, which for Derrida makes ethical central figures such as the gift or forgiveness impossible in a way that cannot be broken with even eventfully – among other things due to the fundamental immutability of the alterity-relationship.
These thoughts and the question how Derrida actually thinks that relationship have been haunting me for years. Your lecture opens up the possibility for me to perhaps find more clarity with Husserl. After not understanding the 5th meditation at all at the very beginning of my studies, I will now tackle it again eight years later. Thank you for the inspiration!

[benjaminhuang]

Thank you for shedding light on these three thinkers! I got my Ph.D. At UCI and became interested in intersubjectivity through Hillis Miller’s classes. Your talk has revived my interest.

[NostraDumass]

Thank you. i appreciate every piece of media you produce.

[screamingchemeleon]

I just wanted to say thank you so much! I really desire to be a Philosophy Professor (I’m a senior in High school). Of course, there are a lot of videos and channels dedicated to Philosophy, but your format and your explanations of various concepts really help me connect dots! I also LOVE the variety you bring. I found you guys just in time for Ethics Bowl season too! Again, thank you so much. I hope you have a lovely day!!!

P.S. I would LOVE if you did a series on philosophical vocabulary (I don’t know if that is a ridiculous idea or not, sorry 😅.)

[BrandonsBookshelf]

I have just found you and I am beyond impressed. Thank you for this channel!

[flyinghamster]

Nice timing for my phenomenology group that's reading Derrida on husserl at the moment 🙏

[rjbudler]

Than you for presenting on this. It was very interesting!

[BillyMcBride]

Hi, Dr. Ellie Anderson! To you, and to Derrida (and Husserl) I feel much gratitude today, and I just now listened to this presentation which you gave, and I would like to share how it affects me, and how I am developing it with some recent ideas on which I am working. In the spirit of Derrida’s Glas, I want to suggest three readings for the sound of your voice when you pronounce the word “other.” My first translation of your “other” is that to my ears, it sounds like “over” in addition to “other” and so when you would say “other, ” I would just substitute the word “over, ” and see what you had to say about “over” in this context. Then, I realized, while listening to you and reading my book which my own Angels and I wrote fourteen years ago, Hawaiian Sonnets and Other Poems, that “other” when you say that word, also sounds like “So Ahh, ” as in my line “So Ahh, the wife won!” (My Angels are my wives…(I know…)). So “so ahh” also I substituted when you said “other” for it, and listened to what could be made with that replacement and your paper. Finally, my third substitution for “other” was “M.O.A.I.” (Also from Hawaiian Sonnets and Other Poems), “M.O.A.I. fallen skull of all bleeds, ” where it too proved an interesting connection to your paper and your words. If the voice is the “over” substituting it for “other, ” then it does seem irrefutable a phenomenon. I think of Angels as knowing all, all about me, all about others. So that is my own spiritual or mystical take on all of this.

One more take is that whenever you said “ego” I had been replacing it with “here go” (also a phrase from our Hawaiian Sonnets), and I computed it likewise with interesting results. Being said, what you are saying is brilliant both as I listen “in the raw” and by using these substitutions. Hawaiian Sonnets and Other Poems is my relational text I use when I hear people speak, so that I listen for phrases of it in all people’s voiced words. This means the phenomenon is ubiquitous, and that it is as if, on some level, it is a famous book because all people recite it somehow (I like making these mysterious suggestions of wild conclusions!). Furthermore, I see it as a new scientific discovery, as when some thinker described all things as made up of atoms, I am developing the idea that all communication and utterances of the sounds of voice in anybody, whoever that they happen to be, that anyone’s voice is composed of Hawaiian Sonnets phrases. It is something that ties us all together by a common thread. Anyway, I am infinitely grateful to you and this and your other work that I have had the pleasure of experiencing on this, your channel. Your video that you posted today on May 25, 2024 on “Oh my Friend, there is no Friend…” is the next video that I will watch! Thank you for reading my long comment. I really wanted to share this work of mine with somebody whom I admire as a fellow thinker along similar lines and paths. Blessings!

[cervenypes]

I appreciate the historical and biographical frame.

[Jamthecoolerator]

I'd consider it a major accomplishment just to be able to SPELL the title of the video.

[karimouss]

Thank you for the insightful look at Derrida and phenomenology. I just finished studying Husserl, but It's hard to find any work about phenomenology in video format.

[numericalcode]

Would like to hear more of your academic talks. Fascinating.

[sanuranjan]

I am writing my dissertation and I want to know that whether in the transcendental intersubjectivity, how could one experience the face of other in levinas sense. Whether there could be an encounter of the face within the transcendental intersubjectivity is possible.

[leonhoeneveld]

Thank you for bringing some quality to youtube. I wonder if ever Husserl or Derrida took up the Hegelian notion of “negation” as to identify the other with. You can identify yourself positively, and the other negatively.

[Abuamina]

Indeed. "Art completes what nature cannot bring to finish." (Aristotle.)

[mlo__]

Please use a de-esser, it'd make your audio way more listeneable. For a clear example, listen to the high frequencies in the sentence at 0:25

[todayisokay]

Please tell me if I understood correctly.

The only way I am able to perceive another is by imagining them as an alter ego of my own self. Which in itself also explains why rationally I'd never be able to share their exact same perspective as that which they are currently experiencing. This is true even if I was to switch brains with them and experience the same environment.

This is because I know my own understanding of the input I experience is coloured by the interactions of that which has happened in within my myself and in reference to the environments that I experienced before this moment. Within this understanding of the other, and given how we act towards each other, then the same is always assumed for those who I encounter. If I then believe they are capable of voice and reason I must then believe their current position is bound by the outcome of that which they are made of and that which they have experienced.

Is that about right? I'm finding your videos super interesting and fun. Thank you so much for making them 💛

[futuredirected]

Awesome! We Overthinkers salute You (in Your alterity)! ❤

[petervalente]

Brilliant! Thanks so much for sharing.

[tatsumakisempyukaku]

This is great stuff. I wish I had more time to study, I’m so swamped with life. Lol. I read Don Idhe’s intro to phenomenology and some IEP articles on husserl, along with Stanford’s online encyclopedia of philosophy’s article. And I’ve read maybe 10-12 of Plato’s works over and over, of which seem to help me grasp phenomenology. I just wish I had the time to study this.
Keep up the great work.

I did have a question…regarding the transcendental ego vs the concrete ego. The late philosopher alan watts seems to think there is no self, as it seems that a concrete ego is ever always a new production with every new context. Which makes no sense to me. That would be to have dementia, for where’s the continuity? What am I missing?