Abstracts

Monticelli, Roberta De: Individuality, Concreteness, and the Gift of Bonds. Phenomenology and Analytic Metaphysics

Post-Quinean Nominalism is widely regarded as a metaphysics of concreteness, suggesting (in line with scientific naturalism) that ordinary language and common sense might be in the grip of “ordinary hallucinations” (Varzi 2010), or untutored belief in abstract entities. Drawing on both medieval and contemporary sources, this paper argues that, far from encouraging our minds to stick to concreteness and individuals, an untutored usage of Ockham’s Razor prompts the elision of concreteness and the everyday world from contemporary metaphysics. A theory of individuality based on Husserl’s concept of Unitary Foundation is outlined, and partially traced back to the metaphysicians of essential individuality, or haecceity: Boethius, Scotus, Leibniz – the champions of the “Unitarian Tradition.

Christoph, Durt: The Computation of Bodily, Embodied, and Virtual Reality.

This essay investigates the impact of the digital age on corporality as a constitutive condition of experience. Rather than just considering the multitude of phenomena at the surface of digitalization, the essay uncovers the conceptual development that underlies them. I apply Edmund Husserl’s concept of the “mathematization of nature” to digitalization, and, more specifically, digitization of data from experience. This leads to an explanation of some of the reasons for the apparent and the factual loss of corporality. Building on ideas of Gnther Anders and Martin Heidegger, I then show how the use of humans as a source of data deepens the incorporation of the human body into the digital world. Yet, other recent developments of the digital age, such as “virtual reality” and other forms of “extended reality,” rediscover not only the human body but also corporality. I again make use of Husserl’s insights into digitization, this time inverting them to explain the computation of “extended reality.”

Sonja, Feger: Hans Blumenbergs Wirklichkeitsbegriff aus phänomenologischer Perspektive.

Hans Blumenberg distinguished four different concepts of reality. On a first look, these reality concepts draw on a historical dimension. However, I try to show that they also allow for a systematic connection. Assuming a close link between Blumenberg’s thinking and (Husserlian) transcendental phenomenology, I consider the phenomenological conception of consciousness and its performances to be a guiding principle leading to such a systematic connection. Thus, one aim of my contribution consists in furnishing an epistemological approach to Blumenberg’s conception of reality. Then, I turn to the question as to how something finds its way into the phenomenological process of constitution at all. Taking ‘self-evidence’ (Selbstverständlichkeit) and ‘non-self-evidence’ (Unselbstverst$ndlichkeit) as key notions, I scrutinize the way an object crosses the threshold towards phenomenality. In the conclusion, I try to lay out a minimum determination for that which is denominated ‘real’ from a phenomenological perspective.

Gourdain, Sylvaine : Die Welt im Bild. Eine Untersuchung zum Verhältnis von Kunst und Wirklichkeit im Ausgang von Merleau-Ponty und Maldiney

For Merleau-Ponty and Maldiney, the world of the pictorial image is “an almost crazy world” and a world of “confused sensations”. However, it is not only an illusory and chimeric world, cut off from the real world. Indeed, far from distancing us from the real world, this craziness and this confusion bring us back to it. The objective of this essay is therefore to question the relationship between pictorial art and the real (not fictional or imaginary) world. Certainly, the pictorial work of art makes us return “to the things themselves”, because it establishes a conversion of the gaze and a metamorphosis of the visible. But one can ask if this conversion of the gaze does not reverse the movement of phenomenological “reduction” as described by Edmund Husserl, since it plunges us into the very heart of the world and does not imply any abstention or abstraction. For Maldiney as for Merleau-Ponty, painting reveals our original being-in-the-world, so that it will be necessary to elucidate what it means exactly. Moreover, we will investigate the role of style and rhythm as well as the role of color and the line in order to describe more precisely the connection between the world and the work of art, between continuity and discontinuity. Finally, we will propose another meaning of the word “image” in order to highlight the ethical function of the image thus understood.

Majolino, Claudio: Husserl and the Reach of Attitudes.

This paper presents a full-fledged structural account of Husserl’s notion of attitude, revolving around the phenomenological concept of “unity of saliency” (Einheit der Bedeutsamkeit). It also identifies three apriori laws of saliency and spells out the different contexts in which the concept of attitude can be applied.

Pasqualin, Chiara: Konturen einer Phänomenologie des Pathischen im Ausgang von Heidegger.

In this paper I will present the idea of a phenomenology of the “pathic” by interpreting some passages of Heidegger’s lecture course of 1919, Being and Time and What is Metaphysics? The first part provides a critical discussion of the perspective of AldoMasullo, who denies not only that Heidegger really succeeded in fathoming the pathic sphere, but also that a phenomenology of the pathic in general is possible. In contrast, my purpose is to outline a phenomenology of the pathic in two possible directions of investigation, both inspired by Heidegger. On the one hand, the phenomenology of the “pathic” intends to define the distinctive features of what Heidegger calls experience of the “preworld” (Vorwelt) and to specifically argue for its premeaningful character. On the other hand, this phenomenological approach aims at identifying the transcendental conditions of possibility for experiencing the “prewordly something”: in such a factical experience the hermeneutic capacities of the subject are temporarily suspended, so that the sole Befindlichkeit, understood as the primordial way of access to the phenomenal horizon, is still at work.

Pradelle, Dominique: Anschauung und Idealitäten.

Can we say that the mathematical signs refer, beyond the mathematical sense, to ideal objects which would correspond to this sense and realize it? Parallel to this, if Husserl affirms that the intuition of essences and sensitive intuition participate in the same generic concept of intuition as a giving act, can we however affirm that mathematical evidence is giving ideal objects such as sensitive perception gives individual objects?We show that the notions of object and evidence have a different status and other modalities in mathematics than in other fields, and that the notion of categorical intuition must be replaced by that of categorical fulfilment, which designates the totality of theoretical procedures by which knowledge is validated. Against the temptation of the universalization of concepts, we advocate a regional phenomenology, practiced closely to the fields of thematized objects and their specific mode of access.

Schnell, Alexander: Phänomenologie als transzendentaler Idealismus.

The objective of this study is to present the meaning of transcendental phenomenology in the light of the evolution of phenomenology in recent decades. It first proposes the distinguishing principle between “transcendental phenomenology” and “realist phenomenology” and determines the meaning of a “speculative” phenomenology. It then discusses the characteristics of transcendental phenomenology according to Fink and Richir. Four types of considerations are then developed. Ontological considerations: The ontological thesis of transcendental phenomenology as it relates to “pre-being” (Fink). Methodological considerations: The ‘analytical’ method, ‘transcendental induction’, and ‘phenomenological construction’. Speculative considerations: The “generative matrix of ‘Sinnbildung’” at the heart of a generative ontology (with its three fundamental concepts: correlativity, significance, and reflexivity). Aletheiological Considerations: Three aspects of truth: phenomenalizing truth as the “necessary condition” of all truth; the two forms of truth-withdrawal; generative truth as “reflection of reflection”.

Thonhauser , Gerhard : Zum Verhältnis von Phänomenologie und Massenpsychologie anhand von Max Schelers Unterscheidung von Gefühlsansteckung und Miteinanderfühlen.

The current debate on shared or collective emotions has seen a rediscovery of Max Scheler. In this debate, Scheler’s work is mostly read independent from its historic context. In particular, the influence of crowd psychology on Scheler’s thought has not been taken into consideration, despite Scheler’s explicit references to Le Bon’s (1895) The Crowd. In this paper, I show that Scheler’s understanding of emotional contagion is deeply indebted to Le Bon’s mass psychology. Against this background, I critically discuss Scheler’s distinction of emotional contagion (Gefühlsansteckung) and feeling-with-one-another (Miteinanderfühlen). This leads to the conclusion that, at least in the formulation provided by Scheler, this distinction hinders rather than enhances research on emotional sharing.

Buchbesprechungen.

Sonja Frohoff: Leibliche Bilderfahrung. Phänomenologische Annäherungen an Werke der Sammlung Prinzhorn. Phaenomenologica 226. Cham: Springer 2019. 253 Seiten. Thorsten Streubel: Kritik der philosophischen Vernunft. Die Frage nach dem Menschen und die Methode der Philosophie. Versuch einer methodologischen Grundlegung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2016. 374 Seiten. Faustino Fabbianelli, Sebastian Luft (Hg.): Husserl und die klassische deutsche Philosophie. Husserl and Classical German Philosophy. Phaenomenologica 212. Dordrecht: Springer 2014. 346 Seiten.

Autorinnen und Autoren.