Il genio dell’equivoco: premesse analitiche per una fenomenologia della vulnerabilità

The article aims to present some constitutive aspects of our being vulnerable, starting from the distinction between the objectifying procedure typical of the science and the style of investigation of phenomenology, which describes the structures of meaning of lived experiences without reducing them to underlying causal mechanisms. The phenomenological approach shows that the essential characteristics of vulnerability do not run out within the mere weakness of a physical body or the inability to cope with diseases and injuries. Rather, through the analysis of sensitivity developed by E. Lévinas, it is possible to grasp the unexpected role of vulnerability as the foundation of subjectivity.