I and the Other

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In the history of philosophy the other has sometimes been considered unimportant for the ego (Stoicism, Descartes, Berkeley, Leibniz, Kant, Husserl, Sartre). For other philosophers the other is considered crucial. Thus Plato refers to love; Aristotle to friendship and Aquinas to love of God as fulfilling. Hegel and Marx even point to the importance of one’s culture or one’s class. The importance of the other is also stressed in 20th century French philosophers like Ricoeur, Lacan and Foucault.