H.A. Durfee – författare

It has been a constant intention of the series of AMERICAN UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS IN PHILOSOPHY to present to the philosophical reader books which probed the frontiers of contemporary philosophy. That intention remains true of the following volume, which offers an international dialogue regarding the phenomenological program and succeeding movements. Early in this Series we tried, as well, to initiate philosophical discussion across serious boundaries and barriers which have characterized contemporary reflection. That theme also continued in the original essays presented herein. With the publication of this fifth volume in the Series we have crossed something of a minor milestone in our endeavor, and are appreciative of the kind welcome with which we have been received by the readers. We wish to thank sincerely the contributors to this volume for their helpful and willing cooperation. We also wish to thank Ms. Irmgard Scherer for her translation of Professor Apel's paper, as well as Professor Apel himself for reviewing this translation. We are also pleased to thank the Office of the Dean of the College Of Arts And Sciences and especially Dean Betty T. Bennett, for a grant for typing, as well as Ms. Mary H. Wason for her fine typing skills and her kind cooperation.

This is the second volume in the series of American University Publi­ cations in Philosophy. It, like the first volume, moves significantly beyond what other books have done before it. The first volume's original­ ity lay in its bringing together essays that explored important new directions in the explanation of behavior, language, and religion. The originality of the present volume lies in its collecting, for the first time in book form, essays at the interface between analytic philosophy and phenomenology. In this volume there are essays about a number of the most seminally influential philosophers among both the analysts and the phenomenologists. Barry L. Blose, for the editors of American University Publications in Philosophy EDITOR'S PREFACE Philosophy inevitably creates divisions and this anthology deals with what is perhaps the central division in twentieth century Western philo­ sophy. The collection, originally the foundation for a seminar in com­ parative philosophy which I offered at The American University in 1971 and 1974, was sufficiently suggestive to students of both traditions to lead me to initiate its publication. The future development of Western philosophy is far from clear, but I am convinced that it will inevitably involve a more open conversation between phenomenologists and analytic philosophers, between the current dominant orientations among both European and Anglo-Saxon philosophers. This volume of essays is offered as an attempt to stimulate that conversation.

The American University Publications In From its inception Philosophy has continued the direction stated in the sub-title of the initial volume that of probing new directions in philosophy. As the series has developed these probings of new directions have taken the two­ fold direction of exploring the relationships between the disparate traditions of twentieth century philosophy and with developing new insights into the foundations of some enduring philosophic problems. This present volume continues both of these directions. The interaction between twentieth-century Anglo-Saxon and Continental philosophy which was an implicit theme of our first and third volumes and the explicit subject of our second volume is here continued in a series of studies on major figures and topics in each tradition. In the context of these interpretative studies, Professor Durfee returns again and again to the question of the relationships between the will and the reason, and explores the conflicting goals of creativity and objectivity in formulating a philosophic position. In so doing he raises the issue as his title suggests - of the foundations of philosophy itself. He seriously challenges the belief common to both pheomenology and analytic philosophy that philosophizing can be a presuppositionless activity, objectively persued independent of the personal (and, perhaps, arbitrary) commitments of the philosopher. This issue, critical as it is to all forms of philosophy, is surely a worthy one for a series such as ours.

It has been a constant intention of the series of AMERICAN UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS IN PHILOSOPHY to present to the philosophical reader books which probed the frontiers of contemporary philosophy. That intention remains true of the following volume, which offers an international dialogue regarding the phenomenological program and succeeding movements. Early in this Series we tried, as well, to initiate philosophical discussion across serious boundaries and barriers which have characterized contemporary reflection. That theme also continued in the original essays presented herein. With the publication of this fifth volume in the Series we have crossed something of a minor milestone in our endeavor, and are appreciative of the kind welcome with which we have been received by the readers. We wish to thank sincerely the contributors to this volume for their helpful and willing cooperation. We also wish to thank Ms. Irmgard Scherer for her translation of Professor Apel's paper, as well as Professor Apel himself for reviewing this translation. We are also pleased to thank the Office of the Dean of the College Of Arts And Sciences and especially Dean Betty T. Bennett, for a grant for typing, as well as Ms. Mary H. Wason for her fine typing skills and her kind cooperation.