Die Erfahrung des Anderen. Phaenomenologie, Behaviorismus und Spiegelneurenen

The recent discovery of a mirror neuron system sets a challenge for a philosophy suc as phenomenology, because in humans and monkeys the mirror system seems to transform seeb actions into an inner representation of these actions. This paper tries to outline the guidelines of a transcendental-phenomenological analysis of alterity, different from empirical research. The transcendental research must provide a criterion for interpreting the results of empirical science. On this basis the paper conpares the phenomenological analysis of alterity with some results of neuroscientific research. It is argued that Edmund Husserl presents an alalysis that enables us to avoid misinterpretations of the role and function of the mirror neuron system.