<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>In the methodology of science, intersubjectivity is usually associated with replicability of experimental results. A related, judicial conception of objectivity as impartiality has it that a theory or judgment is objective if it covers all the relevant angles of the object or phenomenon in question, ensuring that the latter is not ephemeral and the concepts referring to them are valid. Based on the assumption that in the social sciences, the researcher is also a participant, an alternative view was conceived, according to the notion that intersubjectivity rests on either sharing of a lifeworld and its associated practices or on empathy, or on some form of direct social cognition.</p>
<p>My aim in this paper is to bring some elements of the Gestalt theory – and more specifically, Rudolf Arnheim’s (1988) adapted model of field dynamics – to bear on the problematic of intersubjectivity. The proposed model suggests that intersubjectivity is a dynamic phenomenon, best described as a product of two vectors: a vector describing a movement across the circumference combined with a vector describing the movement from the center to the circumference. While the first vector corresponds to impartiality, the second represents the tension between cognitive distancing and direct experience. Overall, it is argued that intersubjectivity cannot be divorced from either subjectivity or objectivity and it amounts to skillful navigation within different frames of reference.</p>
</abstract>

In the methodology of science, intersubjectivity is usually associated with replicability of experimental results. A related, judicial conception of objectivity as impartiality has it that a theory or judgment is objective if it covers all the relevant angles of the object or phenomenon in question, ensuring that the latter is not ephemeral and the concepts referring to them are valid. Based on the assumption that in the social sciences, the researcher is also a participant, an alternative view was conceived, according to the notion that intersubjectivity rests on either sharing of a lifeworld and its associated practices or on empathy, or on some form of direct social cognition.
My aim in this paper is to bring some elements of the Gestalt theory – and more specifically, Rudolf Arnheim’s (1988) adapted model of field dynamics – to bear on the problematic of intersubjectivity. The proposed model suggests that intersubjectivity is a dynamic phenomenon, best described as a product of two vectors: a vector describing a movement across the circumference combined with a vector describing the movement from the center to the circumference. While the first vector corresponds to impartiality, the second represents the tension between cognitive distancing and direct experience. Overall, it is argued that intersubjectivity cannot be divorced from either subjectivity or objectivity and it amounts to skillful navigation within different frames of reference.

From the Self to the Other and Back Again: Intersubjectivity as a Perpetual Motion Around the Self

Gestalt Theory

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In the methodology of science, intersubjectivity is usually associated with replicability of experimental results. A related, judicial conception of...

From the Self to the Other and Back Again: Intersubjectivity as a Perpetual Motion Around the Self

Published Online: Dec 14, 2020

Page range: 303 - 318

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/gth-2020-0026

Keywords
Intersubjectivity, objectivity, cognitive distancing, direct experience, Gestalt theory

© 2020 Anna Michalska, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From the Self to the Other and Back Again: Intersubjectivity as a Perpetual Motion Around the Self

Published Online: Dec 14, 2020

Page range: 303 - 318

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/gth-2020-0026

KeywordsIntersubjectivity, objectivity, cognitive distancing, direct experience, Gestalt theory

© 2020 Anna Michalska, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Intersubjectivity, objectivity, cognitive distancing, direct experience, Gestalt theory