empirical subjectivity

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

Empirical subjectivity is Weber’s claim, presented in RB2, that living beings are centers of felt concern whose significance cannot be exhausted by third-person description. The proposal preserves this attributed philosophical position while retaining the text’s distinction between organismic sense-making and demonstrated sentience. It names a demand on inquiry rather than an established test proving that every living being feels.

Explanation

RB2 pairs the term with poetic objectivity in its discussion of an enlivened biology. Empirical subjectivity names the concern attributed to living beings; poetic objectivity concerns partial access to it through participation and expression. The two terms have related functions but are not interchangeable labels for the same methodological operation.

The surrounding argument explicitly preserves scientific rigor and asks whether investigated beings can alter the questions put to them. Treating a living system as historically formed makes experimental intervention itself open to correction. The term therefore supplies no exemption from evidence, no guaranteed reading of another’s inner state and no replacement of biology by intuition.

RB2’s earlier qualification marks Weber’s extension as philosophical and distinguishes Damasio’s restrictive usage: sensing and sentience are not equivalent. AB similarly makes feeling conditional. The proposal retains that tension rather than silently correcting Weber into Damasio or turning an attributed thesis into an empirical consensus established by the local passages.

Scope and attribution

Preserve the named position and explicit disagreement over when significance becomes felt.

RB2 — The Real Book, Volume II: Becoming Is Being

Weberian felt concern remains a philosophically attributed thesis within rigorous, revisable inquiry.

Occurrence locators: 8, 170, 171, 172, 175.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Weber’s philosophical proposal and Damasio’s narrower distinction remain explicit; conditional feeling alone is background.