The encounter as the primary task of phenomenology. Reciprocity and inequal-ity in Buytendijk.

Abstract

The paper present and discuss F. J J. Buytendijk’s essay Phenomenology of Encoun-ter. Initially, we briefly situate the relevance off the problem of encounter on phenomenology, taking Husserl and Lévinas as opposite parameters. We will see that Buytendijk himself make use of numerous authors from phenomenology as key pieces to the composition of the essay, such as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Binswanger. Next, we try to explicit in his essay the question of encounter based on four topics: the place of encounter, which has an existential character engaged on historical and social context; ambiguity, as the essential mark of the en-counter; reciprocity, as the condition of encounter, most of the time ia a situation of inequality, highlighting the question of social roles; and its balance to phenomenology, in which the en-counter isn’t a subject among others, but the starting point to the phenomenology and inter-rogation of our own experiences. Finally, we end with questions and final considerations, with which we seek to assume Buytendijk’s essay legacy for ourselves.