Abstract
Self–consciousness is the product of an intersubjective recognition. We know ourselves as an object in that we were the subject of the knowledge of another. This relationship of mutual recognition is grounded in desire to be recognized, to be desired, to be objects of desire. At the origins of our subjectivity is thus the meeting of two desires and the inevitable conflict resulted by this meeting: the subjects want to be recognized but are not willing to acknowledge. This conflict, however, can be solved: we learn from it that we can not be recognized without recognizing. In fact, we feel recognized only by someone who we feel “worthy” to recognize. The recognition is therefore necessarily reciprocal. It is a learning process for us, thanks to which subjects learn to be watched by an external point of view and to relativize itself. Subjectivity is the result of this learning process.

Keywords: Recognition, Self–consciousness, Conflict, Desire, Hegel