Neighbourhoods and Intersubjectivity

This paper shows the interdisciplinary prominence of the concept of neighbourhood (Umgebung) in the work of Weyl. It tracks different appearances of this notion in the contexts of mathematics, physics, and the theory of subjectivity, and describes them as variants of one another. The historical and systematic background of this continuous reliance on (variations of) the concept of neighbourhood is traced back in large part to the interaction between Weyl and the philosopher Fritz Medicus, who introduced Weyl to the work of Fichte. The importance of certain Fichtean concepts, such as (inter)subjectivity and recognition, for Weyl’s analyses of the continuum is shown by unfolding various analogies Weyl provided in his mathematical writings.