Преживяването между обяснението и разказа
The Experience (Erlebnis) Between Explanation аnd Narration

The Jacoby Case

Summary/Abstract: Is it possible to prove one’s own existence? Are we able to explain the lived experience in rational terms? And how should we understand and speak about life and existence? These and similar questions have been raised at different stages of the history of thought, following the numerous controversies of dogmatists and skeptics, idealists and realists. The essay begins with the premise that we can never find a proper answer to these issues, for they transcend the boundary of rationality and demand the nonconceptual belief in the existence of everything. Following the views of Friedrich Jacobi (1743-1819), the paper states that one can approach a sense of existence only when the Self meets You, i.e., only in the dialogue. Therefore, the theoretical failure to explain the existence leads to the need of practical engaging in the conversation with others. Nevertheless, the dialogue with You, in which the Self strives for existential recognition, easily mutates into the monological storytelling of the common We, or the society. This results in the necessity to adjust one’s personal lived experience in the established official story, or to continuously “rewrite” one’s own memory journal.

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