Publication Details

Abstract

It is the development of the patterns of coordination, especially the interrelations of value systems, power, exchange and legal systems based on contrasts, through which the upper reaches of subjectivity and inter-subjectivity are made possible. Imagination as the essential dimension of empathy makes it possible to mediate the empathy through values, power, exchanges, and contracts. Empathy occurs always in the medium of culture. It means that empathy embodies the schemes of particular forms of coordination. We perceive the others, the other human beings always in modus of “as,” i.e. we perceive them against background of specific values and norms, power relations, in particular pragmatic relationships. Thus the forms of coordination of human activities – empathy, values, power, exchange and contracts – show the lines along which subjectivity enters the way of increasing its complexity.