Abstracts

Bimbenet, Étienne: For an Anthropological Turn in Phenomenology.

Phenomenology, when it investigates life and living things, offers not one but two ways of doing so. It can be rooted in life and find its principle there; but it can also describe living things and exhibit their essential structure. These are two very different ways of practising phenomenology. The first one places us on the side of a first philosophy whose foundationalist ambition is clearly avowed: here, life is regarded as an ontological principle. For its part, animal phenomenology directs its interest to living beings that could be the object of an intentional description. Animality is not life; it is not a principle but a particular region of our experience, the title of an ontology that is not general but regional. I would like to propose a middle way. Indeed, I would like to start from the phenomenology of the animal in order to progressively raise it to philosophical reflection at its most general level. Animality, provided that it is amended in accordance with our animal origin, and without leaving its empirical or regional status, may be an opportunity for renewing philosophy in its fundamental categories, and not only in one of its special fields. If the path of “becoming human” uncovers empirical facts that may open a “space of reasons,” then it is up to phenomenology to rethink not only the animals and the humans but, starting from this “empirico-transcendental doubling,” also philosophy itself.

Buch, Robert: Der unendliche Umweg. Hans Blumenbergs ,Phänomenologische Arbeiten‘

The philosopher Hans Blumenberg whose hundredth anniversary was celebrated last year is known above all for wide-ranging historical studies: onmyth, on philosophical metaphors, on the idea of secularization and the genealogy of the modern age. He is less well known as a critical reader and commentator of Husserl’s phenomenology. The article surveys and reviews Blumenberg’s ‘phenomenological writings’, now available in four separate volumes, by examining a number of prominent motifs in Blumenberg’s unfinished engagement with Husserl. First, his preoccupation with Husserl’s shift from suspending the natural attitude to subsequent efforts to account for its recalcitrance; then his qualifications concerning Husserl’s notion of the pure subject and the lifeworld. The essay concludes with a discussion of visibility as the key to Blumenberg’s critical engagement with Husserl’s phenomenology.

Fazakas, István: Das archaische Selbst und seine Stiftungen.

The present paper aims to shed light on the contribution of Richirian phenomenology to the problem of ipseity. To do so, I show how Marc Richir’s perspective can be situated in relation to the Husserlian issue of the transcendental genesis of the I, contrasting it with other positions elaborated in contemporary French philosophy (Henry and Levinas). I show that ipseity must be thought within the framework of a genetic phenomenology of the self in its facticity related to an archaic, unprethinkable dimension of affectivity. However, the archaic self can never be conceived of independently of its institutions. I argue that in the framework of the Richirian architectonics one can distinguish three institutions of the self: the institution of the self-positing ego, the symbolic ins itution of narrative identity, and the imaginary institution of the imagery of the self. This coalescence of the archaic dimension and the institutions of the self alsomakes it possible to envisage a phenomenology of the ages of the self.

Gutland, Christopher: Die Bewusstseinserscheinung der Naturkausalität im Lichte des Noema-Streits.

This article investigates the epistemological potential of knowing natural causality in light of the East Coast versus West Coast controversy that arose around Husserl’s notion of the noema. It starts out by portraying how, since Hume and Kant, the epistemology of causality has become more and more entangled in consciousness. After introducing the noema discussion, the article reveals the difficulties each position faces once their theses are applied to natural causality. Afterwards, a suggestion for how to view the relation between a real thing or process like causality and its noema is developed. The article closes with a viewof future interdisciplinary endeavors between phenomenology and natural science by rethinking the notion of ‘phenomenon’.

Mercado Vásquez, Martín, Wendt, Alexander Nicolai: Phänomenologische Anthropologie und Psychologie im Werk Javier San Martins.

The relationship between phenomenology and the sciences is of complex nature. In particular, the transcendental phenomenological position seems to promote skeptical reservations about the scientific attitude. Phenomenological anthropology and psychology, however, are an exception. The work of the Spanish philosopher Javier San Martin addresses the relationship of Husserlian phenomenology to these two particular sciences. In this paper, the work of Navarrese will be revisited as an occasion to reflect on the relationship between phenomenology and the sciences. In the first part, San Martin’s philosophical approach is presented and put in relation to its counterpart, namely ratiovitalism, which has dominated phenomenological research in the Spanish-speaking world throughout the last decades. The second part is devoted to the question of whether phenomenological transcendentalism is compatible with anthropological research. It also describes San Martin’s contribution to cultural philosophy. The relationship between phenomenology and psychology is discussed in the third part. San Martin develops a critical account of empiricist psychology which he confronts with his proposal for a ’posttranscendental’ psychology that is based on the critique of psychologism and representationalism. The last section compares San Martin’s idea of anthropological and psychological science with other forms of scientific theory which contribute to phenomenological methodology in empirical research.

Mintken, Tammo Elija: Die Geschichtlichkeit der Verantwortung nach Ludwig Landgrebe.

In this paper I discuss the foundational relation between personal responsibility and historicity according to Ludwig Landgrebe. On the one side responsibility is rooted deeply within the structures of the historically shaped world-horizon: responsibility then answers to the call of the situation reflecting its historical genesis and failed moral aspirations. Furthermore, responsibility is realized as the search for the adequate means and their rational justification. On the other side Landgrebe demonstrates how history results from responsible position-taking: As historic events flow from the uniqueness of individual moral freedom they are not derivable from any kind of historical determinism. The realization of a humane future by means of moral freedom consequently is understood as the vanishing point of responsibility born from the commitment to the situational call.

Neumann, Daniel: Passivity or Receptivity. What Motivates the Political Philosophies of Jean-Luc Nancy and Giorgio Agamben?

This article reconsiders a critique of Jean-Luc Nancy’s and Giorgio Agamben’s political philosophies as passive and unpractical. The article argues that in both cases, the political philosophy is motivated by the concept of “withdrawal of law,” as outlined in the texts Abandoned Being and Homo Sacer, respectively. This withdrawal is shown to situate the political philosophies within a broader “phenomenological receptivity,” whose indebtedness to Heidegger’s philosophy of the event is elucidated. As a consequence, the term receptivity turns out to possibly be the better candidate for describing both philosophers’ political outlook, as opposed to passivity. Thus, instead of reproaching Nancy’s and Agamben’s theories for not providing the means for practical political interventions, the implicit phenomenological perspective they offer is restituted.

Venier, Veniero: Max Scheler and the Political Elite.

In the dramatic context of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s, Scheler developed the crucial theme of the need for the creation of a new ruling class, a political-cultural elite. Despite its difficulty, which is linked to the effectuality of the Modern, in certain ways Scheler’s proposal reflects a revival of the ancient Aristotelian manner of seeing politics as an art of ruling. An art that is not seen as the exercising of power based on a relationship of command and obedience but as the harmonization of the social differences that belong to human beings owing to their nature, and that are a part of the political community: an idea of a political-social world (which is also distant and irreversible as regards its historical fulfilment), in which a principle prevails that is tied to the organic concept of a correct guide of political society which requires first and foremost areth*, excellence and phronesis, the practical wisdom of those who are ruling. Max Scheler draws on all of this against the background of his own metaphysics, in a concept of global government that is indissolubly linked to that of solidarity as an indispensable premise for the formation of a political ruling elite that is up to such epochal challenges.

Yicai, Ni: Schelling and Husserl on the Concept of Passive Synthesis.

Both Schelling and Husserl reveal that any attempt to ground objective cognition in subjectivity would encounter the problem of constitution of original experience. They also endorse similar solutions to this very problem. The constitution of original experience is depicted as passive synthesis, i. e., it is the pre-conscious activity of the original ‘I’ (Ur-Ich). However, unlike Schelling’s interpretation of passive synthesis, understood as a theory of quasi-conscious willing (Wollen), Husserl relocates passive synthesis in the transition from instinct to habituality. The constitution of original experience, as well as the activity of the original ‘I’, uncovers the dynamic structure of Being. Owing to this, transcendental philosophy must become a transcendental ontology.

Buchbesprechungen.

Ulrich Dopatka: Phänomenologie der absoluten Subjektivität. Eine Untersuchung zur präreflexiven Bewusstseinsstruktur im Ausgang von Edmund Husserl, Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Henry und Jean-Luc Marion. München: Wilhelm Fink 2019, 435 Seiten. Von Jens Bonnemann. Evrim Kutlu: Person–Wert–Gott. Das Verhältnis von menschlicher Person und werdendem Gott im Hinblick auf die Werteverwirklichung in der Spätphilosophie Max Schelers. Nordhausen: Traugott Bautz 2019, 360 Seiten. Von Guido Cusinato Irene McMullin: Existential Flourishing: A Phenomenology of the Virtues. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press 2019. x+246 pages. Von John J. Drummond. Andreas Dörpinghaus, Karl-Heinz Lembeck (Hg.): Sehen als Erfahrung. Freiburg/ München: Karl Alber Verlag 2020. 222 Seiten. Von Jan Kerkmann. Gérard Granel: Die totale Produktion: Technik, Kapital und die Logik der Unendlichkeit. Hrsg. und mit einer Einleitung versehen von Erich Hörl. Aus dem Französischen von Laura Strack. Wien: Turia+ Kant 2020. 281 Seiten. Von Malte Fabian Rauch. Thomas Fuchs: Verteidigung des Menschen. Berlin: Suhrkamp 2020. 331 Seiten. Von Alexander Nicolai Wendt.