Instinct and the presence of the other

pp. 31-53

in: Steeves, Founding community, Berlin, Springer, 1998

Abstract

Husserl was well aware of the tendency to found the infant's ability to begin pairing on an instinct—an instinct, in some sense, "for the Other." As early as 1909, Theodor Lipps had claimed that the only possible foundation for social ontology was instinct. He was led to this conclusion through a line of reasoning which should be very familiar.