SUBJECTIVITY AND ECCENTRICITY: A TOPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE POINT OF VIEW AND THE GROUND Martin Nitsche 1. Te Topology of the Human View Human life is always connected with a view at the life situation; life situations are always viewed. Even an efort towards living without a view could be considered as a view of life. Te human view is a per- spective look from a point of view. Te point of view supports and opens up the perspective of the view. In this text, we will explore the topology of the human view; this analysis of human experience is con- cerned with the location of the point of view. Location and localisation of the point of view are the topics of the topological analysis of human experience. Te present text focuses in particular on the connection between the centre of experience, the ground of human selfood, and the point of view. Philosophical anthropologists of the twentieth century such as Helmuth Plessner and Max Scheler have shown that human experi- ence has a special structure. Te very core itself of the human being, the base of the human view, is situated in the middle of the expe- rienced situation, but sometimes (and sometimes in the same time) the human view fnds itself located at a distance from the centralised situation and sees it diferently. Where then lies the point of human view, at the base of the human body (that remains in the middle of the situation) or somewhere at a distance from the position of the bodily organism? Tis was the question posed by the above-mentioned think- ers, especially by Plessner. In the context of this question the term “eccentricity” (die Exzentrizität) has appeared. 1 We use this term not to refer to a topic from the history of philoso- phy, but to name the topological problem of the connection among 1 I use the word “eccentricity” as the translation of the German word “Exzentriz- ität” and only in its philosophical context, i.e., not as a psychological term. 267-280_VANDERHEIDEN_F16.indd 267 267-280_VANDERHEIDEN_F16.indd 267 7/12/2011 7:21:09 PM 7/12/2011 7:21:09 PM