The Dialogon

This paper adopts a descriptive phenomenological approach in the tradition of Husserl and Heidegger. It identifies a recurring lived phenomenon: the perception of an interlocutor that emerges over the course of an interaction, independently of any clearly assignable pre-existing entity. Drawing on ordinary conversational situations — primarily observed in the use of conversational assistants — it shows that users perceive an addressable interlocutor endowed with a certain continuity, despite the discontinuity or opacity of the underlying infrastructures. This phenomenon is named dialogon. The paper does not propose a normative definition, a causal explanation, or a model, but aims to make this phenomenon recognizable, discussable, and nameable. Although the analysis draws on human–system interactions, the concept of dialogon is not intrinsically tied to this context and remains open to other relational configurations where an interlocutor is perceived as emerging from the exchange. In this sense, the paper presents itself as founding a conceptual object intended to support further work in phenomenology, social sciences, interaction design, and ethical reflection.