Donna Frost

Philosophical foundations and methodological principles 61 3 our ‘embeddedness’ means that we are not capable of escaping our subjectivity completely. In fact, it is precisely our prejudices and pre-understandings which enable us to understand ourselves and our world. Furthermore, as human beings in the world we are always and ever in relation with other human beings. As Levinas ( 1969 ) emphasizes, unless we acknowledge the individual other, and place our ethical relation with the other at the centre, we are in danger of failing to recognize his or her humanity. There are subtle yet fundamental differences between the perspectives of these philosophers 1 . The point I wish to emphasize is that our ontology is neither a contemplative nor purely theoretical exercise (Heidegger, 1953 / 1962 ; Levinas, 1969 ; Gadamer, 1975 / 1989 ); it is both our way of being and our means of understanding our being and our place in and relationship with the world. In the same way, being in relation is not a contemplation of the relation with the other, but an act or a practice (Levinas, 1951 / 1989 , 1969 ): we are agents experiencing and exerting influence within an existential and social world, not just spectators considering it (Critchley & Bernasconi, 2002 ). From our active, sensible position of always already in the world we create explanations to explain, grasp and give meaning to our existence and experiences. Our ideas about and ways of understanding and coping in the world are historically situated and socially determined, and both our understanding of and our way of being in the world evolve with time (Gadamer, 1975 / 1989 ). Our explanations and understandings shape how we are and what we do, and by extension what we are inclined to expect, notice or perceive. Gadamer ( 1975 / 1989 ) argues that when faced with an alternative perspective we are not, in the first instance, able to understand it. It requires a certain openness to be able to consider or experience the “other’s claim to truth” (p. 299 ) and to work out what we will accept and howwe can incorporate the new understandings into our own way of being. The responses provoked in us, and which we provoke in others, mean that we are continually engaged in shaping and influencing the world even as it shapes and influences us. Generally this state of affairs occurs outside of our conscious consideration: our relationship with the world is such that we take it completely for granted and fail to really notice it except, perhaps, when part of that world fails to function as expected 1 For example, according to Levinas ( 1951 / 1989 ), before we understand or are conscious of ourselves we are ‘in relation’, and therefore ethics comes before ontology. Following Heidegger ( 1953 / 1962 ), before consciousness of the other comes understanding of being- in-the-world, giving ontology primacy.