The Appearance of the Other in Mikhail Bakhtin’s Early Philosophy

Abstract

Mikhail Bakhtin is well known as one of the prominent scientists and thinkers of the 20^th century, who had attracted attention to the problem of Dialog, problematized this phenomenon and made its analytical reconstruction. However, the essay “Towards a philosophy of The Act” was written by Bakhtin as if he had no any idea of a Dialog. The Other as a personality was not introduced into reality, but was represented only as one of the objects surrounding Me (The Self). The article is providing an analysis of the process of appearance of the Other for Me (The Self) and the role of Me (The Self) in institutionalization of the Other. The peculiar feature of the process was that only being in interaction with Me (Self), the Other may appear as a personality. While reconstructing the architectonics of the Event, Bakhtin defines the following structural components: Two Parties – Me (The Self) and The Other as two axiological centres; three worlds – Space, Time and Sense. The first step towards the Other is the Vision of the Other, the second is perception of its corporality, and the third – perception of the spiritual – inner world of a human. The point is that without the Dialog between Me (The Self) and The Other it is impossible to recreate personal integrity as described in Bakhtin’s work “Art And Responsibility”.