The 'I' Beyond the Subject/Object Opposition: Pareyson 's Conception of the Self between Hegel and Heidegger

Pareyson’s work features a deep understanding of the issues and problems of the German Idealist tradition, as well as a critical proximity with Heidegger’s existential and hermeneutic project. In this chapter, I argue that one of the reasons of Pareyson’s interest in these philosophical traditions, sometimes hidden and yet very prominent in his work, is the centrality of the notion of the ‘I’. Cartesian philosophy lead to a conception of the ‘I’ marked with subjectivism. I argue that Pareyson captures the attempts made by the German Idealists to overcome a subjectivist account of the self. In the first section, I therefore consider Pareyson’s interpretation of German Idealism, paying attention to the notion of the self. In the second section, I focus on Pareyson’s interpretation of Heidegger, arguing that Pareyson considered Heidegger as being similarly concerned with the subjectivism of the ‘I’, but was also critical of the ‘solitary self’ emerging from Heidegger’s analysis of Dasein. Finally, in the conclusion, I contend that Pareyson developed a mode of philosophizing about the ‘I’ that goes beyond the traditional notion of subjectivity, avoids the regression of Heidegger’s analysis of Dasein into a solitary self, and eventually contributes to a richer understanding of the self.