Intersubjectivity and alterity in the works of Kant

Abstract

In her text ‘Intersubjectivity and Alterity in Kant’, Marita Rainsborough addresses the question of intersubjectivityand alterity in Kant in its epistemological, ethical, aesthetic and political dimensions and notes that Kantian theorems such ase.g. ‘pluralism’, ‘extended mode of thought’, ‘unsociable sociability’, ‘public sphere’, ‘world public sphere’, ‘sensus communis’,‘publicity’, ‘hospitality’ as well as basic epistemological, ethical and aesthetic assumptions offer fundamental starting points forunderstanding Kant with regard to the aspects of intersubjectivity and alterity, whereby the intrasubjective dimension mustbe thought of as connected to the intersubjective dimension. Intersubjectivity turns out to be anchored in different areas andat different levels in Kant’s philosophy, but remains an inter-subjectivity. The otherness of the Other also has its place in this.However, it becomes clear that although Kant does justice to the otherness of the Other from the approach on the theoreticallevel, but not in his evaluative categorisations and hierarchisations that can often be found. One must join Kant in thinkingbeyond Kant.