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Contextual Narrative: The Freiburg Phenomenology Workshop, 1925–1938

Ronald Bruzina

in Edmund Husserl and Eugen Fink: Beginnings and Ends in Phenomenology, 1928-1938

This chapter discusses philosophy's sense of time and place; if it is not the work of a particular someone at a particular time and in a particular place, then it is not at all. This chapter focuses ... More

This chapter discusses philosophy's sense of time and place; if it is not the work of a particular someone at a particular time and in a particular place, then it is not at all. This chapter focuses on the philosophy that was conducted in a special place at a very special time in the history of the twentieth century, particularly the question of the particular someone. It was not just one particular person who was involved; there was a second particular someone engaged in this same philosophic endeavor. The two were Edmund Husserl and Eugen Fink, working together in intense daily contact in Freiburg, during a period of social and political upheaval. The problems that were defined in this collaboration very much determined the character that phenomenology possessed in Husserl's final years.Less

 Meditations on Nausea:: Sartre's Phenomenological Ontology

Robert C. Solomon

in Dark Feelings, Grim Thoughts: Experience and Reflection in Camus and Sartre

Sartre’s first novel, Nausea, is quite clearly a working out of the phenomenological insights he was developing at the time in such works as “Transcendence of the Ego” and “The Emotions”. This ... More

Sartre’s first novel, Nausea, is quite clearly a working out of the phenomenological insights he was developing at the time in such works as “Transcendence of the Ego” and “The Emotions”. This chapter explores the basic tenets of Sartre’s phenomenology, focusing in particular on his rejection of certain themes in his mentor, Edmund Husserl. It also spends considerable time looking at the perversity of Sartre’s central character, Roquentin, who quite clearly resembles Sartre himself at that time in his situation and his provincial circumstances.Less

Transcendental‐Phenomenological Idealism: Husserl and Weyl

Thomas Ryckman

in The Reign of Relativity: Philosophy in Physics 1915-1925

Weyl’s major contributions in the spring of 1918 to the general theory of relativity and to constructive analysis reveal the influence of Husserl’s transcendental-phenomenological idealism. The known ... More

Weyl’s major contributions in the spring of 1918 to the general theory of relativity and to constructive analysis reveal the influence of Husserl’s transcendental-phenomenological idealism. The known personal contacts of Weyl and Husserl are summarized, and Husserl’s development of a distinctively transcendental approach to phenomenology is traced. A synopsis is given of the salient methodological aspects of Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology in evidence in Weyl’s “pure infinitesimal geometry”, and in its use as a framework “world geometry” for gravitation and electromagnetism.Less

Music, phenomenology, time consciousness:: meditations after Husserl

David Clarke

in Music and Consciousness: Philosophical, Psychological, and Cultural Perspectives

Husserl's phenomenology in general and his study of time consciousness in particular retain currency in present-day thought, not least for consciousness studies. Therefore, and also because of its ... More

Husserl's phenomenology in general and his study of time consciousness in particular retain currency in present-day thought, not least for consciousness studies. Therefore, and also because of its recurring references to music, it promises a productive place from which to launch an inquiry into music and consciousness. This chapter uses Husserl's rich insights to draw out the possibilities that music and consciousness offer for a reciprocal understanding, while at the same time not being oblivious to the various lacunae and (productive) theoretical contradictions of the Phenomenology. The analysis is conducted through three musico-philosophical meditations, each identifying a different standpoint from which to consider Husserl. The first draws on the ‘microgenetic’ theory of Jason Brown; the second on the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and Roman Jakobson; and the third on Derrida's seminal critique of Husserl. These meditations are to a degree autonomous; each pursues its own line of argument to its own conclusion, and tends to unfold as an essay in its own right. Yet, while the intention is not to create a higher synthesis between these three studies, there are connections between them, and their effect is cumulative.Less

Husserl's Phenomenological Epistemology

in Kant and Phenomenology

This chapter examines the phenomenological epistemology of Edmund Husserl. It argues against the claim that Husserl's position emerged out of his critical reception of Franz Brentano and suggests ... More

This chapter examines the phenomenological epistemology of Edmund Husserl. It argues against the claim that Husserl's position emerged out of his critical reception of Franz Brentano and suggests that it was out of his reaction to Immanuel Kant. The chapter considers the development of Husserl's position as a continuing effort to resolve difficulties, particularly with respect psychologism. It also analyzes the changing phenomenological position of Husserl in his works Logical Investigations, Ideas, and The Idea of Phenomenology and discusses his theory of phenomenology as transcendental idealism.Less

Phenomenology and the ‘hard problem’ of consciousness and music

Eugene Montague

in Music and Consciousness: Philosophical, Psychological, and Cultural Perspectives

This chapter compares what is termed ‘the hard problem’ in the study of consciousness with a similar issue in music scholarship. The grounds for this comparison are difficulties common to both ... More

This chapter compares what is termed ‘the hard problem’ in the study of consciousness with a similar issue in music scholarship. The grounds for this comparison are difficulties common to both disciplines, to do with the incorporation of subjective experience within an objective explanatory framework. In highlighting these common difficulties, it is suggested that they may be open to similar solutions. In particular, it is argued that musicology would do well to revisit theoretical perspectives that reject a fundamental opposition between objective and subjective, such as the (European) Continental tradition of phenomenology, since such perspectives have proved useful in meeting challenges posed in the study of consciousness. In this vein, the chapter takes a fresh look at Edmund Husserl's well-known analysis of time consciousness, using this analysis to provide a theoretical framework within which to understand the objectivity of a musical piece through the subjective experience of the performing body. Such an understanding can provide a resolution to the difficulties that underlie the hard problem of music. This is demonstrated through a brief analytical engagement with a Chopin étude.Less

Edmund Husserl

Alain Beaulieu

in Deleuze's Philosophical Lineage

This chapter suggests that phenomenologist Edmund Husserl hold a place of honour in Gilles Deleuze's dramaturgy. It explains that Deleuze was interested in Husserl and in phenomenology because it was ... More

This chapter suggests that phenomenologist Edmund Husserl hold a place of honour in Gilles Deleuze's dramaturgy. It explains that Deleuze was interested in Husserl and in phenomenology because it was essential for Deleuze to maintain a detached relationship with a friend/enemy capable of keeping him in suspense up to the end. The chapter argues that Deleuze was not a simple follower of Husserl, but that he took from the latter a certain orientation of thought which gives a new twist to the major themes of Cartesian Meditations.Less

Introduction

PETER SIMONS

in Parts: A Study in Ontology

This book provides a connected account of the various kinds of mereology, or formal theory of part, whole, and related concepts, which exist in the literature. It also exposes the philosophical ... More

This book provides a connected account of the various kinds of mereology, or formal theory of part, whole, and related concepts, which exist in the literature. It also exposes the philosophical defects of most of this tradition, and suggests why, where, and how it should be put right. The standardly accepted formal theory of part-whole is classical extensional mereology, which is known in two logical guises, the Calculus of Individuals of Henry Leonard and Nelson Goodman, and the Mereology of Stanislaw Leśniewski. Despite the discrepancies between the underlying logics of these two approaches, there is a precise sense in which both say the same things about parts and wholes. The book also considers the mereology of continuants and brings modality and mereology together as they are found in the work of Edmund Husserl at the beginning of the century and later in that of Roderick Chisholm.Less

At the Threshold: Foreigners, Strangers, Others

RICHARD KEARNEY and KASCHA SEMONOVITCH

in Phenomenologies of the Stranger: Between Hostility and Hospitality

What exactly do we mean by “Stranger”? The Stranger, as we understand it, is not identical with the “Other” or with the “Foreigner.” Metaphorically, we can see “thresholds” defining the edges of ... More

What exactly do we mean by “Stranger”? The Stranger, as we understand it, is not identical with the “Other” or with the “Foreigner.” Metaphorically, we can see “thresholds” defining the edges of human being in many ways: for example, you find a threshold at the limits of your physical body, a threshold of pain, of pleasure, a threshold at the limits of one culture and another, one political group and another. At such thresholds of experience, we stand in an event: an opening onto hospitality. Phenomenology has a particular place in the history of philosophy as a practice of perceiving and attending to the strange in ordinary experience. In dealing with the Stranger, this book concentrates on the phenomenological tradition inaugurated by Edmund Husserl at the outset of the twentieth century and extending through Martin Heidegger, Emmanuel Levinas, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty to the hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur, the deconstruction of Jacques Derrida, and the psycho-semiotics of Julia Kristeva.Less

Between Vision and Touch: From Husserl to Merleau-Ponty

Dermot Moran

in Carnal Hermeneutics

This chapter explains how Merleau-Ponty reinterprets the tradition of “double sensation” he inherited from Edmund Husserl. While Husserl claims double sensation is characteristic only of touch, ... More

This chapter explains how Merleau-Ponty reinterprets the tradition of “double sensation” he inherited from Edmund Husserl. While Husserl claims double sensation is characteristic only of touch, Merleau-Ponty develops this notion as applying to all the senses, and indeed the reflexivity of thought itself. The notion of chaism and intertwining in this work points toward Merleau-Ponty’s late work on the flesh (la chair).Less

Music Theory, Phenomenology, and Modes of Perception

David Lewin

in Studies in Music with Text

The overtly phenomenological study of music in Edmund Husserl's sense begins with the man himself, who made central to his theories of perception a famous analysis for perceiving a sustained tone. ... More

The overtly phenomenological study of music in Edmund Husserl's sense begins with the man himself, who made central to his theories of perception a famous analysis for perceiving a sustained tone. That analysis is highlighted by Izchak Miller in a recent philosophical commentary. Miller also devotes much attention to “Husserl's Account of Perceiving a Melody.” This discussion, which includes an account of listening to the opening theme from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, does not itself invoke sophisticated music-theoretical apparatus. Thomas Clifton also explored the phenomenology of music theory. It is not clear what a “theory of music” might be, or even a “theory of modern Western art-music,” but it so far includes a theory of musical perception and people's “musical behavior,” a category that includes competent listening to be sure, but also competent production and performance.Less

Derrida's Early Considerations of Historicism and Relativism

in Exemplarity and Chosenness: Rosenzweig and Derrida on the Nation of Philosophy

This chapter examines Jacques Derrida's early engagement with historicism and relativism. It analyzes his 1963 “Introduction” to Edmund Husserl's “The Origin of Geometry” and his 1971 essay “The ... More

This chapter examines Jacques Derrida's early engagement with historicism and relativism. It analyzes his 1963 “Introduction” to Edmund Husserl's “The Origin of Geometry” and his 1971 essay “The Supplement of Copula.” The chapter suggests that Derrida followed Husserl in seeking to understand how recognizing the linguistic specificity of philosophical concepts is not tantamount to a linguistic relativism. It considers how Derrida's confrontation with Emmanuel Levinas' evocation of a Judaic “other” of the philosophical tradition allowed him to extend his reflections on the exemplarity of the Greek and the European in philosophy.Less

The Wager of Carnal Hermeneutics

Richard Kearney

in Carnal Hermeneutics

This chapter begins by clarifying the idea of carnal hermeneutics as such, identifying historical anticipations and precedents, and laying out some directions in which future scholarship on the ... More

This chapter begins by clarifying the idea of carnal hermeneutics as such, identifying historical anticipations and precedents, and laying out some directions in which future scholarship on the subject might proceed. It then proceeds to chart a detailed hermeneutic genealogy of touch through Aristotle’s account of flesh (sarx) as medium (metaxu), to the more contemporary phenomenological and hermeneutic accounts of Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Ricoeur. In doing so, it expands the traditional notion that hermeneutics is concerned with intellectual understanding to include a hermeneutics of bodily and sensory orientation.Less

Husserl's Theory of the ‘Theoretical Content’ of a Norm

Hans Kelsen

in General Theory of Norms

What Jorgensen calls the ‘indicative factor’ contained in a command, Edmund Husserl calls the ‘theoretical content’ of a norm. He says of every practical discipline that ‘its rules [i.e. norms] must ... More

What Jorgensen calls the ‘indicative factor’ contained in a command, Edmund Husserl calls the ‘theoretical content’ of a norm. He says of every practical discipline that ‘its rules [i.e. norms] must have a theoretical content separable from the notion of normativity (of the “shall” or “should”).’ The norm ‘An A should be B’ is ‘identical’ with, or ‘at least’ equivalent to, the sentence ‘Only an A which is a B is a good A’. He calls this a purely ‘theoretical’ sentence and claims that the norm ‘implies’ this theoretical sentence. Thus, according to Husserl, the ‘normative’ sentence ‘An A should be B’ expresses ‘normativity’; in other words, this sollen-sentence is a norm.Less

Let It Be: Finding Grace with God through the Gelassenheit of the Annunciation

Rose Ellen Dunn

in Apophatic Bodies: Negative Theology, Incarnation, and Relationality

The chapter discusses the theological possibilities present in the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. These possibilities are then interwoven with the ... More

The chapter discusses the theological possibilities present in the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. These possibilities are then interwoven with the work of Luce Irigaray, Jean-Luc Marion, and Jacques Derrida. With this theoretical framework in place, this chapter explores an interpretation of the Annunciation as an event of Gelassenheit which springs from a mutual gift of love. This suggests that the text of the Annunciation is infused with possibility. Filled with grace, Mary is invited by the divine into possibility; responding in grace, she in turn invites the divine into possibility. Grace, springing from the desire of the divine as well as the responsive desire of Mary, draws both Mary and the divine into the very possibility that it creates—the possibility for an intermingling of the self and the divine in a mystical union of love. Transgressing the limits of language, this possibility slips into an apophatic moment of Gelassenheit, a mutual “letting-be” or releasement of both Mary and the divine, which then overflows into the song of the Magnificat.Less

“The Human Voice”

Kevin Attell

in Giorgio Agamben: Beyond the Threshold of Deconstruction

Chapter Two examines Agamben's work from 1978's Infancy and History to 1982's Language and Death. This period of work sees the first programmatic formulation of Agamben's critique of the western ... More

Chapter Two examines Agamben's work from 1978's Infancy and History to 1982's Language and Death. This period of work sees the first programmatic formulation of Agamben's critique of the western metaphysical tradition. As is most fully explicated in Language and Death, Agamben views the fundamental structure of western philosophical thought to be that of negativity, the presupposition of a negative and unappropriable other to every positivity. In this diagnosis, Agamben's thesis meets with but runs precisely counter to Derrida's view that western thought is a logocentric metaphysics of presence. For both thinkers, the negative structure of metaphysics renders immediacy and presence impossible, but when faced with this aporetic structure they adopt radically differing strategies. For Derrida, the deconstruction of the metaphysical dream of presence entails the affirmation of difference and deferral, in a word, différance. For Agamben, the task of thought is instead to ask, “how can an impasse be turned into an exit?” After elucidating the dialogue between Agamben's texts and Derridean works such as the Introduction to Husserl's Origin of Geometry and Speech and Phenomena, the chapter shows how Agamben turns to the concept of infancy as a possible “exit” from the aporetic logic of metaphysical semiology.Less

The “Ruin” of the Transcendental Tradition

Andrea Hurst

in Derrida Vis-à-vis Lacan: Interweaving Deconstruction and Psychoanalysis

This chapter lays out the earliest account of transcendental constitution as it appears in Immanuel Kant, indicating subsequently in what ways Edmund Husserl's ... More

This chapter lays out the earliest account of transcendental constitution as it appears in Immanuel Kant, indicating subsequently in what ways Edmund Husserl's phenomenological style departs from Kant's preoccupations. It then turns to Martin Heidegger's critique of Husserl, and, finally, to the challenge Friedrich Nietzsche's remarks concerning the nature of language poses for Heidegger, which may also be understood in terms of the conflict between essentialism and nominalism. In Heidegger's self-critical later writings, the moment of aletheia that closes up the economic circulation described in this chapter is given the more paradoxical form of an articulation between Ereignis and Enteignis (“forgetting”). This chapter not only offers a just exposition of Heidegger or Nietzsche, but uses certain insights in each to pose a contrast between the economic and aneconomic moments that stand together in unresolved conflict in Sigmund Freud's writings.Less