Alter-ation and Ethical Reduction

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, I suggest an ethical reading of Husserl’s theory of primordial reduction, which has been criticized for excluding the other from the outset and not doing justice to genuine alterity. I propose to interpret primordial reduction as a “putting into question” not only the intentional relatedness with the other but also transcendental ego’s activity that confers meaning upon the other, so as to understand the other’s primordial givenness that precedes egoic act. I argue that this reading can reveal two correlated issues: first, primordial reduction essentially alters the transcendental sphere by decentralizing the transcendental ego; second, primordial reduction is radical only to the extent that it is existentially motivated by a transcendental other. I suggest that Husserl’s theory of primordial reduction implicitly comprises of an ethical aspect that is of fundamental affinity with Levinas’s methodic operation in Totality and Infinity.