Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: The Theory Of The Otherness

The Other infiltrates our existence to the point at which we question ourselves about our very own Otherness ,escaping the self is impossible and in that sense we can never know the other and perceive their universe from their point of view. Othering is due less to the dissimilarity of the other than to the point of view of the person who perceives the Other as such. In this context, Otherness is defined as the unknown, as the opposite to oneself or as the outsider marked by outward signs like race and gender. As such, Otherness has also been associated with marginalized people, those who by their difference from the leading group, have been rejected, casted-away and robbed of their voice in the social, religious, and political world.

The theory of the Other is quite a new subject to sociology. However, it has been discussed widely in the fields of philosophy (e.g., de Beauvoir, Sartre, Levinas) and, to a lesser extent, psychology (e.g., Lacan). The initial conception of the Other was an effective one that deemed it necessary for the establishment of one’s subjective self by

Hegel’s study is rich and difficult, reaching over the whole area of likely experience; but in order to show his important insights into the theme of “self and other”. Hegel sees the coordination between the Self and the Other as a struggle for acknowledgement, not an assumed harmony of persons mutually acknowledging each other or a harmony grounded on pre-established metaphysical conditions. In Hegel’s account, fully understanding what is at stake in his statements, it is crucial to explore more closely to the dialectical transformations that lead to the reaction to the self-consciousness as the necessary link of an inter-subjective relation. “Self-consciousness can only achieve its satisfaction in another