Studies in Contemporary Phenomenology – serie

Ask for the tragic and Europe will answer. Leaving behind the philosophers’ enthusiasm of the nineteenth century, ‘tragedy’ and ‘the tragic’ now seem little more than vague containers. However, it appears that we still discover a tragic essence in our personal lives. Time and again tragedy is being registered, written down and staged. This book wants to open a contemporary philosophical perspective on the tragic. What is the locus of tragedy? Does it relate to metaphysics, the gods, destiny, and chance? Or is it a matter of ethics, of the Law and its transgression? Does man himself occupy the locus of tragedy, because of his unreasonable and boundless desires, as many philosophers have suggested? Is man today still able to account for his tragic condition? Or do we locate the tragic first and foremost in the esthetic imagination? Is not the theatrical genre of tragedy the locus authenticus of all things tragic? Is there more to the tragic than drama and play?

This work develops the ethical attitude of courageous vulnerability through the integration of Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time and the philosophies of Henri Bergson, William James, and Gabriel Marcel. Central to the discussion is the phenomenon of involuntary memory, taken from common experience but “discovered” and made visible by Proust. Through the connection between a variety of themes from both Continental and American schools of thought such as Bergson's phenomenological account of the artist, James' "will to believe," and Marcel's "creative fidelity," the courageously vulnerable individual is shown to take seriously the ethical implications of the knowledge gained from involuntary memories and similar "privileged moments," and do justice to the "something more" which, though part of our experience of ourselves and others, escapes rigid philosophical analysis.

Quel est le statut de l’art et de l’affectivité esthétique chez Michel Henry ? Le champ occupé par l’art dans l’économie de la phénoménologie matérielle est-il le lieu le plus propre pour l’exploration immanente de l’apparaître et l’auscultation de l’affectivité transcendantale de la vie ? Ce livre offre un repérage de quelques pistes remarquables à partir desquelles le besoin de poser les jalons d’une esthétique matérielle se fait suffisamment pressant pour qu’on y prête attention. C’est pour frayer cette voie et faire les premiers pas dans la direction qu’elle infléchit que les études ici réunies engagent, chacune à sa manière, l’examen du statut de l’art chez Michel Henry : du côté de la peinture bien sûr, mais aussi dans les champs du langage, de la littérature, de la danse, de l’architecture et de la musique. L’ensemble est précédé par un texte de Michel Henry, consacré à l’œuvre picturale de Pierre Magré.What is the status of art and aesthetic affectivity in Michel Henry? Is the place occupied by art within the economy of his material phenomenology the most appropriate site for the immanent exploration of appearing and the auscultation of the transcendental affectivity of life? This book locates some remarkable avenues through which the need to prepare the ground for a material aesthetic becomes urgent enough to be given attention. In order to clear this path and take the first steps in the direction it leads, the studies gathered here, each in its own way, are engaged in the study of the status of art in Michel Henry, from the perspective of painting, of course, but also the fields of language, literature, dance, architecture and music. The collection is preceded by an essay by Michel Henry, devoted to the painting of Pierre Magré.

Recently, the predominance of natural sciences seems to have cast doubt on the legitimacy of the human sciences. Adopting a phenomenological and hermeneutical point of view, this book is intended to contribute towards a justification of the human sciences, taking account of quintessentially human characteristics. The basic assumption is that man interprets his own experience and the world around him, yielding to the limitations imposed by language. Central themes are intentionality and causality, desire and lack, responsibility and loss of responsibility. Relevant domains are psychopathology and psychoanalysis-following Lacan's interpretation - and law. The rich phenomenological traditions in these domains will be drawn from throughout this book.

The notion of subjectivity is one of the most fundamental notions for modern philosophy that only gains in importance in present-day discussions. This volume gathers essays from both young and senior researchers that examine which role subjectivity plays in both classical and contemporary phenomenology. The essays discuss the importance of a phenomenological account of subjectivity for the nature and the status of phenomenology but they also discuss how the phenomenological account of the subject offers new perspectives on themes from practical philosophy and from the philosophy of mind. Thus, this volume does not only show how multifaceted the question of subjectivity is but also how important this theme continues to be for present-day philosophy.

Es kann nur eine Erfahrung aufgrund des lebendigen Erfahren-Könnens schlechthin geben. Die Differenzdiskurse, die heute legitimierend für Gesellschaft, Religion oder Philosophie in Anspruch genommen werden, stoßen sich an der prinzipiellen „Ungeteiltheit“ solcher Erfahrungsmöglichkeit vor jeder besonderen Erkenntnis. Die radikal phänomenologische Wahrheit solcher Einheit erarbeiten wir daher mit Meister Eckhart als „Ab-Grund“ des Absoluten sowie in Übereinstimmung mit der Lebensphänomenologie Michel Henrys als rein immanente „Praxis“. Dieses philosophisch-mystische „Gespräch“ mit Meister Eckhart versucht aber nicht nur, im anfangslosen Leben und der durch keine weitere Bestimmung verstandenen „Gottheit“ eine strukturelle Übereinstimmung aufzuweisen, sondern daraus zugleich eine notwendige Kulturerneuerung zu gewinnen. Insofar as phenomenology continues to offer, by virtue of its self-understanding, the best technique provided for philosophical analysis of experience, phenomenology is obligated to respond to the category of mysticism. It is especially with Michel Henry and Meister Eckhart that we see phenomenology and mysticism coincide. They both put into play a radical reduction as a unity of reflection/praxis, which exposes to view how the self-appearance and the self-enactment of life come together in their respective self-affections or “trials of experience.”

In Self-Identity and Powerlessness, Alice Koubová proposes a conception of human existence that does not essentially depend on the definition of self-identity. The author shows that the philosophical stress on human identity fails to grasp essential aspects of human existence. By emphasizing the moments of Dasein’s powerlessness in Heidegger’s fundamental ontology, she develops — in her analysis of various philosophers, literary examples, and social psychology —an original phenomenology of alternation of existence and affair. How necessary is identity for thinking? Are we capable of philosophical thought even when we have neither ourselves, nor the world under our full control? Is it possible to relax, become powerless, and yet think precisely? These questions are to be answered in this book.

Phenomenologies of Violence presents phenomenology as an important method to investigate violence, its various forms, meanings, and consequences for human existence. On one hand, it seeks to view violence as a genuine philosophical problem, i.e., beyond the still prevalent instrumental, cultural and structural explanations. On the other hand, it provides the reader with accounts on the many faces of violence, ranging from physical, psychic, structural and symbolic violence to forms of social as well as organized violence. In this volume it is argued that phenomenology, which has not yet been used in interdisciplinary research on violence, offers basic insights into the constitution of violence, our possibilities of understanding, and our actions to contain it.Contributors include:Michael D. Barber, Debra Bergoffen, Robert Bernasconi, James Dodd, Eddo Evink, Kathryn T. Gines, James Mensch, Stefan Nowotny, Michael Staudigl, Anthony J. Steinbock, and Nicolas de Warren.

The articles in this volume reflect upon the intersections of corporeity and affectivity in Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology. They illuminate the meaning of his phenomenology regarding corporeity and affectivity from various phenomenological perspectives. Corporeity and Affectivity explores his invaluable contribution in interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary respect, including the humanities, the arts and the sciences.Contributors include: Alexei Chernyakov (†), Jagna Brudzińska, Universität Köln, IFiS PAN Warschau, Nicola Zippel, Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Philosophy, Karel Novotný, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University of Prague, James Mensch, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Humanities, Annabelle Dufourcq, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Humanities, Juho Hotanen, University of Helsinki, Silvia Stoller, Universität Wien, Pierre Rodrigo, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, Antonino Firenze, University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Shaun Gallagher, University of Memphis, Department of Philosophy, Kwok-ying Lau, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Monika Murawska, The Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Irene Breuer, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Mauro Carbone, Université “Jean Moulin” Lyon 3, Faculté de philosophie, László Tengelyi, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Björn Thorsteinsson, University of Oceland, Institute of Philosophy, Mikkel B. Tin, Telemark University College, Porsgrunn, Tamás Ullmann, ELTE University of Budapest, Institute of Philosophy, Johann P. Arnason, La Trobe University, Melbourne; Charles University, Faculty of Humanities, Prague, Michael Staudigl, Vienna University, Department of Philosophy, Suzi Adams, Flinders University, Adelaide

Dans Silence et langage Stephen A. Noble propose une relecture de la genèse de la phénoménologie de Merleau-Ponty qui analyse la place centrale du langage au sein d’une philosophie de la perception élaborée sur une solidarité du voir et du discours. En partant de La structure du comportement , et par l’intermédiaire notamment des travaux de Goldstein, l’étude situe le contexte dans lequel le langage apparaît comme thème majeur dans la pensée de Merleau-Ponty au sein d’un débat sur le vivant qui remonte à la philosophie kantienne. Sont réexaminées alors l’influence de la phénoménologie allemande sur Merleau-Ponty, ainsi que sa réflexion sur la littérature, la linguistique, et l’art, en s’appuyant aussi bien sur des écrits publiés que sur des textes inédits.In Silence et langage Stephen A. Noble offers a new interpretation of the development of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology which analyses the central position of language within a philosophy of perception predicated upon the interdependence of seeing and speaking. Beginning with The Structure of Behaviour, and particularly through the work of Goldstein, the study situates the context in which language appears as a dominant theme in Merleau-Ponty’s thought within a philosophical debate concerning the living organism which can be traced back to the writings of Kant. The work then re-examines the influences of German phenomenology on Merleau-Ponty, as well as the philosopher’s reflections on literature, linguistics, and art, basing its arguments on both published and unpublished texts.

Phenomenology, Architecture and the Built World is an introduction to the methods and basic concepts of phenomenological philosophy through an analysis of the phenomenon of the built world. The conception of the built world that emerges is of space and time fashioned in accordance with a living understanding of what it is for human beings to exist in the world. Human building and making is thus no mere supplementary instrument in the pursuit of the ends of life, but a fundamental embodiment of the self-understanding of human beings. Phenomenological description is uniquely capable of bringing into view the physiognomy of this understanding, its texture and complexity, thereby providing an important basis for a critique of what constitutes its essence and its conditions of possibility.

What is the relation between our selfhood and appearing? Our embodiment positions us in the world, situating us as an object among its visible objects. Yet, by opening and shutting our eyes, we can make the visible world appear and disappear—a fact that convinces us that the world is in us. Thus, we have to assert with Merleau-Ponty that we are in the world that is in us: the two are intertwined. Author James Mensch employs the insights of Jan Patočka’s asubjective phenomenology to understand this double relationship of being-in. In this volume, he shows how this relation constitutes the reality of our selfhood, shaping our social and political interactions as well as the violence that constantly threatens to undermine them.

This volume, edited by Lucilla Guidi and Thomas Rentsch, establishes the first systematic connection between phenomenology and performativity. On the one hand, it outlines the performativity of phenomenology by exploring its enactment and the transformation of attitude it effects; this exploration is conducted through a number of parallels between phenomenology and the ancient understanding of philosophy as an exercise and a way of life. On the other hand, the volume examines different notions of performativity from a phenomenological perspective, so as to show that a phenomenological understanding of embodied experience complements a linguistic account of performativity and can also offer a ground for bodily practices of resistance, critique, and self-transformation in our own day and age.

John Sallis has been at the cutting edge of the Continental philosophical tradition for almost half a century, and it is largely due to his contributions that we have come to understand “Continental” as designating an original philosophical, not a geographical, tradition. His work, with its uncommon scholarly rigor, has come to define the best of that tradition and to expand its horizons in creative ways through a genuine philosophical imagination. The essays gathered here are dedicated to assessing Sallis’ contribution and to indicating some of the ways in which his works might shape the future of philosophy.

This book explores a radically integrative phenomenology of nature through the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. By revisiting novel empirical findings in the sciences and advances in scientific methods and concepts, Merleau-Ponty leads us to rediscover a first nature right at the heart of the subject. Alessio Rotundo traces and documents the presence of a double meaning of nature affecting Merleau-Ponty’s analyses across foundational aspects of human experience: sense perception, organic development and behavior, cognition, language, and history. Physical, biological, and psychological processes in nature are not merely scientific data; they provide the evidence for another, more primordial sense of nature.

Event and Subjectivity presents a rich phenomenological analysis of the event in contemporary phenomenology by focussing on the work of Claude Romano and Jean-Luc Marion. Although the event is a major topic of contemporary philosophy, its centrality has not been acknowledged enough in the phenomenological movement. The book starts with the idea that the event cannot find a proper place in Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology and Heidegger’s existential phenomenology.It proposes a phenomenological version of the event that transforms the definition of phenomenon, subjectivity and phenomenology itself in order to do justice to the phenomenality of the event. At the same time, Event and Subjectivity is the first book on Claude Romano’s understanding of phenomenology in English. It also offers a fresh reading of the phenomenology of Jean-Luc Marion by highlighting the phenomenon of the event.

This edited volume offers a comprehensive view of various possible phenomenological approaches of the experience of love, ranging from classical historical perspectives up to contemporary and critical viewpoints. It explores both the crucial importance of the question of love for the history of phenomenology as well as the rich potential of phenomenology for a deeper insight in the experience of love and its various dimensions, such as its affective, relational, but also ethical and religious aspects.

Testimony is a central topic in contemporary philosophy, with a vast array of disciplines, from epistemology to testimonial literature, demonstrating considerable interest in it. Among these approaches, phenomenology and hermeneutics offer exemplary ways of capturing essential dimensions of testimony that are often overlooked. This volume explores the fundamental issues at stake in such a hermeneutical phenomenology, by developing new insights into the defining role testimony holds in shaping personal identity and human reality in general. By examining how testimony is engaged in the creation of a common world that includes singular experiences, the eleven essays collected here provide thought-provoking questions for other concerned disciplines, including history, sociology, and ecology.

Given the current mainstream landscape of philosophy, one might assume that phenomenology is merely a tradition, a perspective, or a method of philosophizing among others. Likewise, one might assume that ontology and metaphysics—despite being concerned with everything and anything there is—are just subfields of philosophy, such that one could engage in philosophy without engaging in ontology or metaphysics. This volume rejects both assumptions. Instead, it situates phenomenology, particularly in the context of the English-speaking world, in the philosophical tradition that attempts to achieve a unitary concept of philosophy as such, everywhere animated by ontological and metaphysical questions. The essays collected here attend first to the seminal determination of the concepts in Husserl and Heidegger, then to reformulations by Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, Derrida, and Deleuze, challenging standard narratives about the end of metaphysics and the limits of philosophy as phenomenology.

This book offers the first comprehensive study of the Merleau-Pontian notion of “Institution” (Stiftung), one of the most original yet least understood ideas of his late philosophy. Moving beyond its traditional phenomenological scope, it reveals how Institution brings into play a close interrelation between ontology, time, history, and a profound reflection on politics and political agency throughout Merleau-Ponty’s unfinished project. Tracing the concept across diverse perspectives—from embodiment and sense genesis to imagination, politics, and revolution—the book uncovers the deep unity of his late thought and its critical relevance today. It also shows how Institution opens new paths for contemporary debates in phenomenology, ontology, political philosophy, and aesthetics.