When we open ourselves up to the experiences of others, we bring our bodies with us. In doing so, we are able to resonate not only intellectually, but also empathically with the experiences and expressions of the other (which are communicated to us both verbally and non-verbally). Remaining faithful to our phenomenological foundations (Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas), we will talk about how to pay attention to others within the relational “exchange” and reflect on what exactly are the questions raised by experience to which Husserl invited us to return to. Our interest starts from the ‘first-person’ experience of the other, but since we cannot access it directly, we must rely on the resonance we feel inside, in our lived bodies, when a person addresses us, both with words and gestures. I wonder what the other is experiencing, and all my perceptive abilities are directed towards him/her, whose inner experience remains just beyond my reach and accessible only through a deep bodily awareness in which I feel the other’s experience within myself. Merleau-Ponty’s contribution of ‘witnessing’ behavior is useful for understanding this ‘second person’ perspective, which stems from Husserl’s intersubjective reduction (2006), thanks to which “we participate in the postulation of the other” (1989) and thus grasp its meaning.
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