In the French philosophical tradition, the theme of the absurd is still present today and has been introduced by phenomenological thinkers such as E. Levinas (the notion of il y a) and M. Blachot (the notion of neutrality). More recently, this style of thought has been revived by thinkers such as A. Comte-Sponville (the notion of hopelessness), Clément Rosset (idiocy) and Marcel Conche (the tragic), among others. However, similar elements can also be traced in thinkers who do not make them the centre of their thought (despair in C. Romano). The dissertation will be an examination of conceptions of this tendency, with the intention of presenting an interpretation of the primarily negatively connoted terms that will serve as a starting point for a “positive” understanding of them (the idea of tragic wisdom in Conche is an example).

The phenomena of conflict and enmity are traditionally conceived of as undesirable, temporary and derived. The aim of the research is to continue a minority stream of thinking and explore these phenomena as constitutive parts of the composition of social relations. Fundamental oppositions of enmity and friendship, of that which is alien and that which is our own, can be understood as hierarchical and power-based structures. Simultaneously, they are, however, a necessary precondition for our orientation in the social world. By means of the movement of dialectical negation they represent the basis for creation and development of social identity.

The possibilities of research of subjectivity, corporeality, and intersubjectivity are widened by taking into account feminist optics to include significant phenomena and experiences that both enrich and deepen the framework of phenomenological inquiry of the self, agency, and being in the world. We can find the starting points of feminist phenomenology in the works of E. Stein, M. Merleau-Ponty, S. de Beauvoir, E. Levinas, and others, as well as in contemporary interpretations and new treatments such as those of S. Heinämaa, L. Fisher, and A. Al-Saji. The thesis therefore presupposes knowledge of phenomenological philosophy and phenomenological method, as well as familiarity with contemporary debates within critical and feminist phenomenology.