Cosler- Experience vs. Encounter

We touched briefly in class on Buber's famous I/Thou formulation of intersubjective relationships, specifically how application of the concept can inform a discussion of Merleau Ponty's views on the constructed self. The distinction between experience and encounter is raised when dealing with intersubjective contact. Experience includes those moments of contact that result in empirical knowledge about some objective state of affairs. Most activities then can be considered experience, as they deal with objects in a way that is singularly one-sided. Encounters, however, only occur in instances of contact between two thinking subjects or something that breaks some conceptual scheme. Encounters are foundational to conception in that they provide the opportunity for growth and relationships between two subjects. In this way, experiences contribute and populate and individual's Life World, but do not change it meaningfully. Encounters are those moments of contact with the Other that reshape the foundational conceptual schema of the individual.

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