Under the care of others: phenomenology of vulnerability

Abstract

In this paper we propose to think of vulnerability as a condition of human existence. This will mean that vulnerability should not be thought of as an accidental characterisation of existence, but as a constitutive dimension of it. However, vulnerability will reveal itself to us, in addition to being constitutive, as a constituting element of existence. That is to say: subjectivity is always dependent on otherness in the constitution of itself. Thinking about vulnerability will imply taking into consideration three fundamental questions: affectability - how the openness of existence is of an affective or affecting character—, relationality —how subjectivity is constituted from or through the relations it maintains with otherness— and responsibility. The co-implication of these three concepts will allow us to think about vulnerability in terms of sustainability. Our approach will be eminently phenomenological (Levinas, Housset, Barbaras...), although concepts from contemporary gender thought (Butler, Cavarero) will also play a fundamental role. In this respect, the notion of a "relational ontology" (Butler) will be particularly interesting. All these reflections will help us to think of vulnerability as a constitutive and constituting dimension of existence in the face of typically modern and neoliberal conceptions of subjectivity characterised by individualism and self-sufficiency.