Phenomenology

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Contents
Articles
Phenomenology (philosophy) 1
Edmund Husserl 12
Phenomenological sociology 31
Phenomenology (psychology) 33
Intersubjectivity 35
Alfred Schütz 38
Lifeworld 44
Ethnomethodology 47
Harold Garfinkel 58
Conversation analysis 65
Noema 70
Nous 72
Intersubjective verifiability 93
Existential phenomenology 95
Martin Heidegger 96
Being and Time 121
Adolf Reinach 127
Alexander Pfänder 130
Max Scheler 131
Roman Ingarden 141
Nicolai Hartmann 144
Dietrich von Hildebrand 149
Munich phenomenology 152
Phenomenology of essences 153

References
Article Sources and Contributors 154
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 156

Article Licenses
License 157
Phenomenology (philosophy) 1

Phenomenology (philosophy)
Phenomenology (from Greek: phainómenon "that which appears"; and lógos "study") is the philosophical study of
the structures of subjective experience and consciousness. As a philosophical movement it was founded in the early
years of the 20th century by Edmund Husserl and was later expanded upon by a circle of his followers at the
universities of Göttingen and Munich in Germany. It then spread to France, the United States, and elsewhere, often
in contexts far removed from Husserl's early work.[]
Phenomenology, in Husserl's conception, is primarily concerned with the systematic reflection on and study of the
structures of consciousness and the phenomena that appear in acts of consciousness. This phenomenological
ontology can be clearly differentiated from the Cartesian method of analysis which sees the world as objects, sets of
objects, and objects acting and reacting upon one another.
Husserl's conception of phenomenology has been criticized and developed not only by himself but also by students
such as Edith Stein, by existentialists, such as Max Scheler, Nicolai Hartmann, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul
Sartre, and by other philosophers, such as Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Lévinas, and sociologists Alfred Schütz and Eric
Voegelin.

Overview
Stephen Hicks writes that to understand phenomenology, one must identify its roots in the philosophy of Immanuel
Kant (1724–1804).[1] In his Critique of Pure Reason, Kant distinguished between "phenomena" (objects as
interpreted by human sensibility and understanding), and "noumena" (objects as things-in-themselves, which humans
cannot directly experience).
According to Hicks, 19th-century Kantianism operated in two broad camps:
• structural linguistics and
• phenomenology.
Hicks writes, "In effect, the Structuralists were seeking subjective noumenal categories, and the Phenomenologists
were content with describing the phenomena without asking what connection to an external reality those experiences
might have."[2]
In its most basic form, phenomenology thus attempts to create conditions for the objective study of topics usually
regarded as subjective: consciousness and the content of conscious experiences such as judgments, perceptions, and
emotions. Although phenomenology seeks to be scientific, it does not attempt to study consciousness from the
perspective of clinical psychology or neurology. Instead, it seeks through systematic reflection to determine the
essential properties and structures of experience. [citation needed]
Husserl derived many important concepts central to phenomenology from the works and lectures of his teachers, the
philosophers and psychologists Franz Brentano and Carl Stumpf.[3] An important element of phenomenology that
Husserl borrowed from Brentano is intentionality (often described as "aboutness"), the notion that consciousness is
always consciousness of something. The object of consciousness is called the intentional object, and this object is
constituted for consciousness in many different ways, through, for instance, perception, memory, retention and
protention, signification, etc. Throughout these different intentionalities, though they have different structures and
different ways of being "about" the object, an object is still constituted as the identical object; consciousness is
directed at the same intentional object in direct perception as it is in the immediately following retention of this
object and the eventual remembering of it.
Though many of the phenomenological methods involve various reductions, phenomenology is, in essence,
anti-reductionistic; the reductions are mere tools to better understand and describe the workings of consciousness,
not to reduce any phenomenon to these descriptions. In other words, when a reference is made to a thing's essence or
idea, or when one details the constitution of an identical coherent thing by describing what one "really" sees as being
Phenomenology (philosophy) 2

only these sides and aspects, these surfaces, it does not mean that the thing is only and exclusively what is described
here: The ultimate goal of these reductions is to understand how these different aspects are constituted into the actual
thing as experienced by the person experiencing it. Phenomenology is a direct reaction to the psychologism and
physicalism of Husserl's time. [citation needed]
Although previously employed by Hegel in his Phenomenology of Spirit, it was Husserl’s adoption of this term (circa
1900) that propelled it into becoming the designation of a philosophical school. As a philosophical perspective,
phenomenology is its method, though the specific meaning of the term varies according to how it is conceived by a
given philosopher. As envisioned by Husserl, phenomenology is a method of philosophical inquiry that rejects the
rationalist bias that has dominated Western thought since Plato in favor of a method of reflective attentiveness that
discloses the individual’s “lived experience.”[4] Loosely rooted in an epistemological device, with Sceptic roots,
called epoché, Husserl’s method entails the suspension of judgment while relying on the intuitive grasp of
knowledge, free of presuppositions and intellectualizing. Sometimes depicted as the “science of experience,” the
phenomenological method is rooted in intentionality, Husserl’s theory of consciousness (developed from Brentano).
Intentionality represents an alternative to the representational theory of consciousness, which holds that reality
cannot be grasped directly because it is available only through perceptions of reality that are representations of it in
the mind. Husserl countered that consciousness is not “in” the mind but rather conscious of something other than
itself (the intentional object), whether the object is a substance or a figment of imagination (i.e., the real processes
associated with and underlying the figment). Hence the phenomenological method relies on the description of
phenomena as they are given to consciousness, in their immediacy.
According to Maurice Natanson (1973, p. 63), “The radicality of the phenomenological method is both continuous
and discontinuous with philosophy’s general effort to subject experience to fundamental, critical scrutiny: to take
nothing for granted and to show the warranty for what we claim to know.”
In practice, it entails an unusual combination of discipline and detachment to suspend, or bracket, theoretical
explanations and second-hand information while determining one's “naive” experience of the matter. The
phenomenological method serves to momentarily erase the world of speculation by returning the subject to his or her
primordial experience of the matter, whether the object of inquiry is a feeling, an idea, or a perception. According to
Husserl the suspension of belief in what we ordinarily take for granted or infer by conjecture diminishes the power of
what we customarily embrace as objective reality. According to Rüdiger Safranski (1998, 72), “[Husserl and his
followers’] great ambition was to disregard anything that had until then been thought or said about consciousness or
the world [while] on the lookout for a new way of letting the things [they investigated] approach them, without
covering them up with what they already knew.”
Martin Heidegger modified Husserl’s conception of phenomenology because of (what Heidegger perceived as)
Husserl's subjectivist tendencies. Whereas Husserl conceived humans as having been constituted by states of
consciousness, Heidegger countered that consciousness is peripheral to the primacy of one’s existence (i.e., the mode
of being of Dasein), which cannot be reduced to one’s consciousness of it. From this angle, one’s state of mind is an
“effect” rather than a determinant of existence, including those aspects of existence that one is not conscious of. By
shifting the center of gravity from consciousness (psychology) to existence (ontology), Heidegger altered the
subsequent direction of phenomenology, making it at once both personal and mysterious. As one consequence of
Heidegger’s modification of Husserl’s conception, phenomenology became increasingly relevant to psychoanalysis.
Whereas Husserl gave priority to a depiction of consciousness that was fundamentally alien to the psychoanalytic
conception of the unconscious, Heidegger offered a way to conceptualize experience that could accommodate those
aspects of one’s existence that lie on the periphery of sentient awareness.[5][6]
Phenomenology (philosophy) 3

Historical overview of the use of the term

Phenomenology has at least two main meanings in philosophical history: one in the writings of G.W.F. Hegel,
another in the writings of Edmund Husserl in 1920, and a third, deriving from Husserl's work, in the writings of his
former research assistant Martin Heidegger in 1927.
• For G.W.F. Hegel, phenomenology is an approach to philosophy that begins with an exploration of phenomena
(what presents itself to us in conscious experience) as a means to finally grasp the absolute, logical, ontological
and metaphysical Spirit that is behind phenomena. This has been called a "dialectical phenomenology".
• For Edmund Husserl, phenomenology is "the reflective study of the essence of consciousness as experienced from
the first-person point of view."[7] Phenomenology takes the intuitive experience of phenomena (what presents
itself to us in phenomenological reflexion) as its starting point and tries to extract from it the essential features of
experiences and the essence of what we experience. When generalized to the essential features of any possible
experience, this has been called "Transcendental Phenomenology". Husserl's view was based on aspects of the
work of Franz Brentano and was developed further by philosophers such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Max
Scheler, Edith Stein, Dietrich von Hildebrand and Emmanuel Levinas.
Although the term "phenomenology" was used occasionally in the history of philosophy before Husserl, modern use
ties it more explicitly to his particular method. Following is a list of thinkers in rough chronological order who used
the term "phenomenology" in a variety of ways, with brief comments on their contributions:[8]
• Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (1702–1782) German pietist, for the study of the "divine system of relations"[9]
• Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–1777) (mathematician, physician and philosopher) known for the theory of
appearances underlying empirical knowledge.[10]
• Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), in the Critique of Pure Reason, distinguished between objects as phenomena, which
are objects as shaped and grasped by human sensibility and understanding, and objects as things-in-themselves or
noumena, which do not appear to us in space and time and about which we can make no legitimate judgments.
• G.W.F. Hegel (1770–1831) challenged Kant's doctrine of the unknowable thing-in-itself, and declared that by
knowing phenomena more fully we can gradually arrive at a consciousness of the absolute and spiritual truth of
Divinity, most notably in his Phenomenology of Spirit, published in 1807.
• Carl Stumpf (1848–1936), student of Brentano and mentor to Husserl, used "phenomenology" to refer to an
ontology of sensory contents.
• Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) established phenomenology at first as a kind of "descriptive psychology" and later
as a transcendental and eidetic science of consciousness. He is considered to be the founder of contemporary
phenomenology.
• Max Scheler (1874–1928) developed further the phenomenological method of Edmund Husserl and extended it to
include also a reduction of the scientific method. He influenced the thinking of Pope John Paul II, Dietrich von
Hildebrand, and Edith Stein.
• Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) criticized Husserl's theory of phenomenology and attempted to develop a theory
of ontology that led him to his original theory of Dasein, the non-dualistic human being.
• Alfred Schütz (1899–1959) developed a phenomenology of the social world on the basis of everyday experience
that has influenced major sociologists such as Harold Garfinkel, Peter Berger, and Thomas Luckmann.
• Francisco Varela (1946–2001) Chilean philosopher and biologist. Developed the basis for experimental
phenomenology and neurophenomenology.
Later usage is mostly based on or (critically) related to Husserl's introduction and use of the term. This branch of
philosophy differs from others in that it tends to be more "descriptive" than "prescriptive".
Phenomenology (philosophy) 4

Phenomenological terminology

Intentionality
Intentionality refers to the notion that consciousness is always the consciousness of something. The word itself
should not be confused with the "ordinary" use of the word intentional, but should rather be taken as playing on the
etymological roots of the word. Originally, intention referred to a "stretching out" ("in tension," lat.
intendere[11][12]), and in this context it refers to consciousness "stretching out" towards its object (although one
should be careful with this image, seeing as there is not some consciousness first that, subsequently, stretches out to
its object. Rather, consciousness occurs as the simultaneity of a conscious act and its object.) Intentionality is often
summed up as "aboutness."
Whether this something that consciousness is about is in direct perception or in fantasy is inconsequential to the
concept of intentionality itself; whatever consciousness is directed at, that is what consciousness is conscious of.
This means that the object of consciousness doesn't have to be a physical object apprehended in perception: it can
just as well be a fantasy or a memory. Consequently, these "structures" of consciousness, i.e., perception, memory,
fantasy, etc., are called intentionalities.
The cardinal principle of phenomenology, the term intentionality originated with the Scholastics in the medieval
period and was resurrected by Brentano who in turn influenced Husserl’s conception of phenomenology, who refined
the term and made it the cornerstone of his theory of consciousness. The meaning of the term is complex and
depends entirely on how it is conceived by a given philosopher. The term should not be confused with “intention” or
the psychoanalytic conception of unconscious “motive” or “gain.”

Intuition
Intuition in phenomenology refers to those cases where the intentional object is directly present to the intentionality
at play; if the intention is "filled" by the direct apprehension of the object, you have an intuited object. Having a cup
of coffee in front of you, for instance, seeing it, feeling it, or even imagining it - these are all filled intentions, and the
object is then intuited. The same goes for the apprehension of mathematical formulae or a number. If you do not
have the object as referred to directly, the object is not intuited, but still intended, but then emptily. Examples of
empty intentions can be signitive intentions - intentions that only imply or refer to their objects.

Evidence
In everyday language, we use the word evidence to signify a special sort of relation between a state of affairs and a
proposition: State A is evidence for the proposition "A is true." In phenomenology, however, the concept of evidence
is meant to signify the "subjective achievement of truth."[13] This is not an attempt to reduce the objective sort of
evidence to subjective "opinion," but rather an attempt to describe the structure of having something present in
intuition with the addition of having it present as intelligible: "Evidence is the successful presentation of an
intelligible object, the successful presentation of something whose truth becomes manifest in the evidencing
itself."[14]

Noesis and Noema

In Husserl's phenomenology, which is quite common, this pair of terms, derived from the Greek nous (mind),
designate respectively the real content, noesis, and the ideal content, noema, of an intentional act (an act of
consciousness). The Noesis is the part of the act that gives it a particular sense or character (as in judging or
perceiving something, loving or hating it, accepting or rejecting it, and so on). This is real in the sense that it is
actually part of what takes place in the consciousness (or psyche) of the subject of the act. The Noesis is always
correlated with a Noema; for Husserl, the full Noema is a complex ideal structure comprising at least a noematic
sense and a noematic core. The correct interpretation of what Husserl meant by the Noema has long been
Phenomenology (philosophy) 5

controversial, but the noematic sense is generally understood as the ideal meaning of the act[15] and the noematic
core as the act's referent or object as it is meant in the act. One element of controversy is whether this noematic
object is the same as the actual object of the act (assuming it exists) or is some kind of ideal object.[16]

Empathy and Intersubjectivity

In phenomenology, empathy refers to the experience of one's own body as another. While we often identify others
with their physical bodies, this type of phenomenology requires that we focus on the subjectivity of the other, as well
as our intersubjective engagement with them. In Husserl's original account, this was done by a sort of apperception
built on the experiences of your own lived-body. The lived body is your own body as experienced by yourself, as
yourself. Your own body manifests itself to you mainly as your possibilities of acting in the world. It is what lets you
reach out and grab something, for instance, but it also, and more importantly, allows for the possibility of changing
your point of view. This helps you differentiate one thing from another by the experience of moving around it, seeing
new aspects of it (often referred to as making the absent present and the present absent), and still retaining the notion
that this is the same thing that you saw other aspects of just a moment ago (it is identical). Your body is also
experienced as a duality, both as object (you can touch your own hand) and as your own subjectivity (you experience
being touched).
The experience of your own body as your own subjectivity is then applied to the experience of another's body,
which, through apperception, is constituted as another subjectivity. You can thus recognise the Other's intentions,
emotions, etc. This experience of empathy is important in the phenomenological account of intersubjectivity. In
phenomenology, intersubjectivity constitutes objectivity (i.e., what you experience as objective is experienced as
being intersubjectively available - available to all other subjects. This does not imply that objectivity is reduced to
subjectivity nor does it imply a relativist position, cf. for instance intersubjective verifiability).
In the experience of intersubjectivity, one also experiences oneself as being a subject among other subjects, and one
experiences oneself as existing objectively for these Others; one experiences oneself as the noema of Others' noeses,
or as a subject in another's empathic experience. As such, one experiences oneself as objectively existing
subjectivity. Intersubjectivity is also a part in the constitution of one's lifeworld, especially as "homeworld."

Lifeworld
The lifeworld (German: Lebenswelt) is the "world" each one of us lives in. One could call it the "background" or
"horizon" of all experience, and it is that on which each object stands out as itself (as different) and with the meaning
it can only hold for us. The lifeworld is both personal and intersubjective (it is then called a "homeworld"), and, as
such, it does not enclose each one of us in a solus ipse.

Husserl's Logische Untersuchungen (1900/1901)

In the first edition of the Logical Investigations, still under the influence of Brentano, Husserl describes his position
as "descriptive psychology." Husserl analyzes the intentional structures of mental acts and how they are directed at
both real and ideal objects. The first volume of the Logical Investigations, the Prolegomena to Pure Logic, begins
with a devastating critique of psychologism, i.e., the attempt to subsume the a priori validity of the laws of logic
under psychology. Husserl establishes a separate field for research in logic, philosophy, and phenomenology,
independently from the empirical sciences.[17]
Phenomenology (philosophy) 6

Transcendental phenomenology after the Ideen (1913)

Some years after the publication of the Logical Investigations, Husserl made some key elaborations that led him to
the distinction between the act of consciousness (noesis) and the phenomena at which it is directed (the noemata).
• "noetic" refers to the intentional act of consciousness (believing, willing, etc.)
• "noematic" refers to the object or content (noema), which appears in the noetic acts (the believed, wanted, hated,
and loved ...).
What we observe is not the object as it is in itself, but how and inasmuch it is given in the intentional acts.
Knowledge of essences would only be possible by "bracketing" all assumptions about the existence of an external
world and the inessential (subjective) aspects of how the object is concretely given to us. This procedure Husserl
called epoché.
Husserl in a later period concentrated more on the ideal, essential structures of consciousness. As he wanted to
exclude any hypothesis on the existence of external objects, he introduced the method of phenomenological
reduction to eliminate them. What was left over was the pure transcendental ego, as opposed to the concrete
empirical ego. Now Transcendental Phenomenology is the study of the essential structures that are left in pure
consciousness: This amounts in practice to the study of the noemata and the relations among them. The philosopher
Theodor Adorno criticised Husserl's concept of phenomenological epistemology in his metacritique Against
Epistemology, which is anti-foundationalist in its stance.
Transcendental phenomenologists include Oskar Becker, Aron Gurwitsch, and Alfred Schutz.

Realist phenomenology
After Husserl's publication of the Ideen in 1913, many phenomenologists took a critical stance towards his new
theories. Especially the members of the Munich group distanced themselves from his new transcendental
phenomenology and preferred the earlier realist phenomenology of the first edition of the Logical Investigations.
Realist phenomenologists include Adolf Reinach, Alexander Pfänder, Johannes Daubert, Max Scheler, Roman
Ingarden, Nicolai Hartmann, Dietrich von Hildebrand.

Existential phenomenology
Existential phenomenology differs from transcendental phenomenology by its rejection of the transcendental ego.
Merleau-Ponty objects to the ego's transcendence of the world, which for Husserl leaves the world spread out and
completely transparent before the conscious. Heidegger thinks of a conscious being as always already in the world.
Transcendence is maintained in existential phenomenology to the extent that the method of phenomenology must
take a presuppositionless starting point - transcending claims about the world arising from, for example, natural or
scientific attitudes or theories of the ontological nature of the world.
While Husserl thought of philosophy as a scientific discipline that had to be founded on a phenomenology
understood as epistemology, Heidegger held a radically different view. Heidegger himself states their differences
this way:
For Husserl, the phenomenological reduction is the method of leading phenomenological vision from the
natural attitude of the human being whose life is involved in the world of things and persons back to the
transcendental life of consciousness and its noetic-noematic experiences, in which objects are constituted as
correlates of consciousness. For us, phenomenological reduction means leading phenomenological vision
back from the apprehension of a being, whatever may be the character of that apprehension, to the
understanding of the Being of this being (projecting upon the way it is unconcealed).[]
According to Heidegger, philosophy was not at all a scientific discipline, but more fundamental than science itself.
According to him science is only one way of knowing the world with no special access to truth. Furthermore, the
Phenomenology (philosophy) 7

scientific mindset itself is built on a much more "primordial" foundation of practical, everyday knowledge. Husserl
was skeptical of this approach, which he regarded as quasi-mystical, and it contributed to the divergence in their
thinking.
Instead of taking phenomenology as prima philosophia or a foundational discipline, Heidegger took it as a
metaphysical ontology: "being is the proper and sole theme of philosophy... this means that philosophy is not a
science of beings but of being.".[] Yet to confuse phenomenology and ontology is an obvious error. Phenomena are
not the foundation or Ground of Being. Neither are they appearances, for, as Heidegger argues in Being and Time, an
appearance is "that which shows itself in something else," while a phenomenon is "that which shows itself in itself."
While for Husserl, in the epoché, being appeared only as a correlate of consciousness, for Heidegger being is the
starting point. While for Husserl we would have to abstract from all concrete determinations of our empirical ego, to
be able to turn to the field of pure consciousness, Heidegger claims that "the possibilities and destinies of philosophy
are bound up with man's existence, and thus with temporality and with historicality."[]
However, ontological being and existential being are different categories, so Heidegger's conflation of these
categories is, according to Husserl's view, the root of Heidegger's error. Husserl charged Heidegger with raising the
question of ontology but failing to answer it, instead switching the topic to the Dasein, the only being for whom
Being is an issue. That is neither ontology nor phenomenology, according to Husserl, but merely abstract
anthropology. To clarify, perhaps, by abstract anthropology, as a non-existentialist searching for essences, Husserl
rejected the existentialism implicit in Heidegger's distinction between being (sein) as things in reality and Being
(Da-sein) as the encounter with being, as when being becomes present to us, that is, is unconcealed.[18]
Existential phenomenologists include: Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), Emmanuel
Levinas (1906–1995), Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), Paul Ricoeur (1913–2005) and
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961).

Phenomenology and Eastern thought

Some researchers in phenomenology (in particular in reference to Heidegger's legacy) see possibilities of
establishing dialogues with traditions of thought outside of the so-called Western philosophy, particularly with
respect to East-Asian thinking, and despite perceived differences between "Eastern" and "Western".[19] Furthermore,
it has been claimed that a number of elements within phenomenology (mainly Heidegger's thought) have some
resonance with Eastern philosophical ideas, particularly with Zen Buddhism and Taoism.[20] According to
Tomonubu Imamichi, the concept of Dasein was inspired — although Heidegger remained silent on this — by
Okakura Kakuzo's concept of das-in-der-Welt-sein (being in the world) expressed in The Book of Tea to describe
Zhuangzi's philosophy, which Imamichi's teacher had offered to Heidegger in 1919, after having studied with him
the year before.[21]
There are also recent signs of the reception of phenomenology (and Heidegger's thought in particular) within
scholarly circles focused on studying the impetus of metaphysics in the history of ideas in Islam and Early Islamic
philosophy;[22] perhaps under the indirect influence of the tradition of the French Orientalist and philosopher Henri
Corbin.[23]
In addition, the work of Jim Ruddy in the field of comparative philosophy, combined the concept of Transcendental
Ego in Husserl's phenomenology with the concept of the primacy of self-consciousness in the work of
Sankaracharya. In the course of this work, Ruddy uncovered a wholly new eidetic phenomenological science, which
he called "convergent phenomenology." This new phenomenology takes over where Husserl left off, and deals with
the constitution of relation-like, rather than merely thing-like, or "intentional" objectivity.[24]
Phenomenology (philosophy) 8

Phenomenology and Technoethics

Phenomenology (philosophy) (from Greek: phainómenon "that which appears"; and lógos "study") is a broad
philosophical movement emphasizing the study of conscious experience. It was founded in the early years of the
20th century by Edmund Husserl, expanded together with a circle of his followers at the universities of Göttingen
and Munich in Germany and spread across to France, the United States, and elsewhere, often in contexts far removed
from Husserl's early work.

Phenomenological Approach to Technology

James Moor has argued that computers show up policy vacuums that require new thinking and the establishment of
new policies.[25] Others have argued that the resources provided by classical ethical theory such as utilitarianism,
consequentialism and deontological ethics is more than enough to deal with all the ethical issues emerging from our
design and use of information technology.[26] For the phenomenologist the ‘impact view’ of technology as well as the
constructivist view of the technology/society relationships is valid but not adequate (Heidegger 1977, Borgmann
1985, Winograd and Flores 1987, Ihde 1990, Dreyfus 1992, 2001). They argue that these accounts of technology,
and the technology/society relationship, posit technology and society as if speaking about the one does not
immediately and already draw upon the other for its ongoing sense or meaning. For the phenomenologist society and
technology co-constitute each other; they are each other's ongoing condition or possibility for being what they are.
For them technology is not just the artifact. Rather, the artifact already emerges from a prior ‘technological’ attitude
towards the world (Heidegger 1977).

Heidegger’s Approach (Pre-Technological Age)

For Heidegger the essence of technology is the way of being of modern humans—a way of conducting themselves
towards the world—that sees the world as something to be ordered and shaped in line with projects, intentions and
desires—a ‘will to power’ that manifest itself as a ‘will to technology'.[27] Heidegger claims that there were other
times in human history, a pre-modern time, where humans did not orient themselves towards the world in a
technological way—simply as resources for our purposes.[27] However, according to Heidegger this
‘pre-technological’ age (or mood) is one where humans’ relation with the world and artifacts, their way of being
disposed, was poetic and aesthetic rather than technological (enframing).[27] There are many who disagree with
Heidegger's account of the modern technological attitude as the ‘enframing’ of the world.[28] For example Andrew
Feenberg argues that Heidegger's account of modern technology is not borne out in contemporary everyday
encounters with technology.[27]

Hubert Dreyfus Approach (Contemporary Society)

In critiquing the artificial intelligence (AI) programme Hubert Dreyfus (1992) argues that the way skill development
has become understood in the past has been wrong. He argues, this is the model that the early artificial intelligence
community uncritically adopted. In opposition to this view he argues, with Heidegger, that what we observe when
we learn a new skill in everyday practice is in fact the opposite. We most often start with explicit rules or
preformulated approaches and then move to a multiplicity of particular cases, as we become an expert. His argument
draws directly on Heidegger's account in Being and Time of humans as beings that are always already situated
in-the-world. As humans ‘in-the-world’ we are already experts at going about everyday life, at dealing with the
subtleties of every particular situation—that is why everyday life seems so obvious. Thus, the intricate expertise of
everyday activity is forgotten and taken for granted by AI as an assumed starting point.[27] What Dreyfus highlighted
in his critique of AI was the fact that technology (AI algorithms) does not make sense by itself. It is the assumed, and
forgotten, horizon of everyday practice that make technological devices and solutions show up as meaningful. If we
are to understand technology we need to ‘return’ to the horizon of meaning that made it show up as the artifacts we
need, want and desire. We also need to consider how these technologies reveal (or disclose) us.[27]
Phenomenology (philosophy) 9

Virtualization Theory
There seems to be at least one information technology theme that has attracted some sustained attention from
phenomenologists (especially with regard to its ethical implications)—the phenomenon of virtualization or
virtuality.[27] The term ‘virtuality’ is used here to refer to the mediation of interaction through an electronic medium
between humans and humans as well as between humans and machines. The Internet is the most evident example of
the virtualization of interaction[27]
The proponents of the virtualization of society (and its institutions) argue that virtuality extends the social in
unprecedented ways (Fernback 1997, Rheingold 1993a, 1993b, Turkle 1995, 1996, Benedikt 1991, Horn 1998).
They argue that it opens up an entirely new domain of social being. For example Rheingold (1993a) argues that it
offers “tools for facilitating all the various ways people have discovered to divide and communicate, group and
subgroup and regroup, include and exclude, select and elect.[27]
Turkle suggests that cyberspace makes possible the construction of an identity that is so fluid and multiple that it
strains the very limits of the notion [of authenticity].[29] People become masters of self-presentation and
self-creation. There is an unparalleled opportunity to play with one's identity and to ‘try out’ new ones. The very
notion of an inner, ‘true self’ is called into question. An individual can literally decide to be who they wish to be. For
example, the obese can be slender, the beautiful can be plain and the ‘nerdy’ can be elegant.
The claims by Rheingold, Turkle and others are certainly bold. If they are right then virtuality may indeed represent
entirely new possibilities for humans to relate, extend, and express themselves, which should be encouraged,
especially for those that have become excluded from the traditional domains of social relations, due to disability.[27]
Phenomenologists would suggest that these responses are all important but they assume something more
primary—i.e., the conditions that render such acts as the presentation of the self, ongoing communication and
sharing meaningful and significant in the first instance. They might suggest that these social acts are all grounded in
an already presumed sense of community. They might further argue that social interaction, community and identity
(as we know it) are phenomena that are local, situated and embodied, which is characterized by mutual involvement,
concern and commitment (Dreyfus 2001; Borgmann 1999, Ihde 2002, Introna 1997, Coyne 1995, Heim 1993). In
other words that these phenomena draw on an implied sense of involvement, place, situation, and body for its
ongoing meaning.[27]
Borgmann (1999) argues that the unparalleled opportunity of virtuality suggested by Turkle comes at a cost. To
secure the charm of virtual reality at its most glamorous, the veil of virtual ambiguity must be dense and thick.
Inevitably, however, such an enclosure excludes the commanding presence of reality. Hence the price of sustaining
virtual ambiguity is triviality.Indeed such fluid and multiple identity is only feasible as long as it is “kept barren of
real consequences”
Dreyfus (1999, 2001) argues, in a similar vein that without a situated and embodied engagement there can be no
commitment and no risk. They argue that in such an environment moral engagement is limited and human relations
become trivialized. Ihde (2002) does not go as far as Borgmann and Dreyfus in discounting the virtual as ‘trivial'.
Coyne (1995) argues that the proximity of community has nothing to do with physical distance. He argues that
proximity is rather a matter of shared concerns—i.e., my family is ‘close’ to me even if they are a thousand miles
away and my neighbors may be ‘distant’ to me even if they are next door.
Phenomenology (philosophy) 10

References
[1] Hicks, Stephen (2004). Understanding Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, Tempe, AZ: Scholargy.
[2] Hicks, p. 43-44
[4] Husserl, Edmund. The Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970,
pg. 240.
[5] Natanson, M. (1973) Edmund Husserl: Philosopher of infinite tasks. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
[6] Safranski, R. (1998) Martin Heidegger: Between good and evil. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[8] Partially based on
[9] Ernst Benz, Christian Kabbalah: Neglected Child of Theology
[10] Lambert, Johann Heinrich (1772). Anmerkungen und Zusätze zur Entwerfung der Land- und Himmelscharten. Von J. H. Lambert (1772.)
Hrsg. von A. Wangerin. Mit 21 Textfiguren. (xml). W. Engelmann, reprint 1894.
[11] http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ intentionality/
[12] http:/ / www. etymonline. com/ index. php?term=intent
[13] Robert Sokolowski, Introduction to Phenomenology, Cambridge University Press (2000). Pp. 159–160. This use of the word evidence may
seem strange in English, but is more common in German, which is the language Husserl wrote in.
[14] Sokolowski, Introduction, pp. 160–161.
[15] I.e. if A loves B, loving is a real part of A's conscious activity - Noesis - but gets its sense from the general concept of loving, which has an
abstract or ideal meaning, as "loving" has a meaning in the English language independently of what an individual means by the word when
they use it.
[16] For a full account of the controversy and a review of positions taken, see David Woodruff Smith, Husserl, Routledge, 2007, pp304-311.
[17] On the Logical Investigations, see

and
[18] I have attempted to respond to the request for clarification of Heidegger's distinction between being and Being. My info source was http:/ /
www. uni. edu/ boedeker/ NNhHeidegger2. doc. It was not copied and pasted but rephrased for copyright reasons.
[19] See for instance references to Heidegger's "A Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an Inquirer," in On the Way to Language (New
York: Harper & Row, 1971). Heidegger himself had contacts with some leading Japanese intellectuals, including members of the Kyoto
School, notably Hajime Tanabe, Kuki Shūzō and Kiyoshi Miki.
[20] An account given by Paul Hsao (in Heidegger and Asian Thought) records a remark by Chang Chung-Yuan claiming that "Heidegger is the
only Western Philosopher who not only intellectually understands but has intuitively grasped Taoist thought"
[21] Tomonubu Imamichi, In Search of Wisdom. One Philosopher's Journey, Tokyo, International House of Japan, 2004 (quoted by Anne
Fagot-Largeau during her lesson (http:/ / www. college-de-france. fr/ default/ EN/ all/ phi_sci/ p1184676830986. htm) at the Collège de
France on December 7, 2006).
[22] See for instance: Nader El-Bizri, The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger (Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications
SUNY, 2000) ISBN 1-58684-005-3
[23] A book-series under the title: Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology in Dialogue (http:/ / www. springer. com/ series/ 6137)
has been recently established by Springer (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht) in association with the World Phenomenology Institute
(http:/ / www. phenomenology. org/ ). This initiative has been initiated by the Polish phenomenologist Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, editor of
Analecta Husserliana.
[24] See the thesis, "Convergent Phenomenology," presented to the University of Madras, June, 1979.
[25] Moor, J. H. (1985). “What Is Computer Ethics?” In T. W. Bynum (ed.), Computersand Ethics. Blackwell.
[26] Bernard, G. (1999). Common Morality and Computing. Ethics and Information Technology 1(1).
[27] Introna, L. (2005) Disclosing the Digital Face: The ethics of facial recognition systems, Ethics and Information Technology, 7(2)
[28] Feenberg, A. (1999) ‘Technology and Meaning’, in Questioning Technology, London and New York: Routledge.
[29] Turkle, S. 1996, “Parallel lives: Working on identity in virtual space.” in D. Grodin & T. R. Lindlof, (eds.), Constructing the self in a
mediated world, London: Sage
Phenomenology (philosophy) 11

External links
• What is Phenomenology? (http://www.phenomenologycenter.org/phenom.htm)
• About Edmund Husserl (http://www.husserlpage.com/)
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/)
• Organization of Phenomenology Organizations (http://www.o-p-o.net/)
• Romanian Society for Phenomenology (http://www.phenomenology.ro)
• Phenomenology Online (http://www.phenomenologyonline.com/)
• Dialectical Phenomenology (http://www.thenewdialectics.org)
• The New Phenomenology (http://www.thenewphenomenology.org)
• Springer's academic Phenomenology program (http://www.springer.com/philosophy/phenomenology)
• Phenomenology and First Philosophy (http://www.fenomenologiayfilosofiaprimera.com/)
• Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy (http://www.metajournal.org/
display_page.php?title=home)
• Phenomenology Research Center (http://www.phenomenologyresearchcenter.org/)
Edmund Husserl 12

Edmund Husserl
Edmund Husserl

Edmund Husserl in about 1900.

Born April 8, 1859

Proßnitz, Moravia, Austria (present-day Prostějov, Czech Republic)

Died April 28, 1938 (aged 79)

Freiburg, Germany

Era 20th-century philosophy

Region Western Philosophy

School Phenomenology

Main interests Epistemology, Ontology, Mathematics

Notable ideas Phenomenology, epoché, natural standpoint, noema, noesis, eidetic reduction, phenomenological reduction, retention and
[1]
protention, Lebenswelt, pre-reflective self-consciousness

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Edmund Husserl 13

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Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (German: [ˈhʊsɐl]; April 8, 1859 – April 26, 1938) was a philosopher and
mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the
positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of
psychologism in logic. Not limited to empiricism, but believing that experience is the source of all knowledge, he
worked on a method of phenomenological reduction by which a subject may come to know directly an essence.
Although born into a Jewish family, Husserl was baptized as a Lutheran in 1886. He studied mathematics under Karl
Weierstrass and Leo Königsberger, and philosophy under Franz Brentano and Carl Stumpf. Husserl himself taught
philosophy as a Privatdozent at Halle from 1887, then as professor, first at Göttingen from 1901, then at Freiburg
from 1916 until he retired in 1928. Thereafter he gave two notable lectures: at Paris in 1929, and at Prague in 1935.
The notorious 1933 race laws of the Nazi regime took away his academic standing and privileges. Following an
illness, he died at Freiburg in 1938.
Edmund Husserl 14

Life and career

Youth and education

Husserl was born in 1859 in Prostějov (German: Prossnitz), a town in the Bohemian province of Moravia, which was
then in the Austrian Empire, after 1918 in Czechoslovakia, and since 1993 in the Czech Republic. He was born into a
Jewish family, the second of four children (boy, boy, girl, boy). His father was a milliner (one who designs, makes,
trims, or sells hats). His childhood was spent in Prostějov, where he attended the elementary school. Then Husserl
traveled to Vienna to study at the Realgymnasium there, followed next by the Staatsgymnasium in Olomouc (Ger:
Olmütz).[2][3]
At the University of Leipzig from 1876 to 1878, Husserl studied mathematics, physics, and astronomy. At Leipzig he
was inspired by philosophy lectures given by Wilhelm Wundt, one of the founders of modern psychology. Then he
moved to the Humboldt University of Berlin (at that time called the Friedrich William University) in 1878 where he
continued his study of mathematics under Leopold Kronecker and the renowned Karl Weierstrass. In Berlin he found
a mentor in Thomas Masaryk, then a former philosophy student of Franz Brentano and later the first president of
Czechoslovakia. There Husserl also attended Friedrich Paulsen's philosophy lectures. In 1881 he left for the
University of Vienna to complete his mathematics studies under the supervision of Leo Königsberger (a former
student of Weierstrass). At Vienna in 1883 he obtained his Ph.D. with the work Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung
("Contributions to the Calculus of Variations").[2]
Evidently as a result of his becoming familiar with the New Testament during his twenties, he asked to be baptized
into the Lutheran Church in 1886. Husserl's father Adolf had died in 1884. Prof. Herbert Spiegelberg writes, "While
outward religious practice never entered his life any more than it did that of most academic scholars of the time, his
mind remained open for the religious phenomenon as for any other genuine experience." At times Husserl saw his
goal as one of moral "renewal". Although a steadfast proponent of a radical and rational autonomy in all things,
Husserl could also speak "about his vocation and even about his mission under God's will to find new ways for
philosophy and science," observes Spiegelberg.[4]
Following his doctorate in mathematics, he returned to Berlin to work as the assistant to Karl Weierstrass. Yet
already Husserl had felt the desire to pursue philosophy. Then professor Weierstrass became very ill. Husserl
became free to return to Vienna where, after serving a short military duty, he devoted his attention to philosophy. In
1884 at the University of Vienna he attended the lectures of Franz Brentano on philosophy and philosophical
psychology. Brentano introduced him to the writings of Bernard Bolzano, Hermann Lotze, J. Stuart Mill, and David
Hume. Husserl was so impressed by Brentano that he decided to dedicate his life to philosophy; indeed, Franz
Brentano is often credited as being his most important influence, e.g., with regard to intentionality.[citation needed]
Following academic advice, two years later in 1886 Husserl followed Carl Stumpf, a former student of Brentano, to
the University of Halle, seeking to obtain his Habilitation which would qualify him to teach at the university level.
There, under Stumpf's supervision, he wrote Über den Begriff der Zahl (On the Concept of Number) in 1887, which
would serve later as the basis for his first important work, Philosophie der Arithmetik (1891).[5]
In 1887 he married Malvine Steinschneider, a union that would last over fifty years. In 1892 their daughter Elizabeth
was born, in 1893 their son Gerhard, and in 1894 their son Wolfgang. Elizabeth would marry in 1922, and Gerhard
in 1923; Wolfgang, however, became a casualty of the First World War.[3] Gerhard would become a philosopher of
law, contributing to the subject of comparative law, teaching in the USA and after the war in Austria.
Edmund Husserl 15

Professor of philosophy
Following his marriage Husserl began his long teaching career in philosophy. He started where he was in 1887 as a
Privatdozent at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. In 1891 he published his Philosophie der
Arithmetik. Psychologische und logische Untersuchungen which, drawing on his prior studies in mathematics and
philosophy, proposed a psychological context as the basis of mathematics. It drew the adverse notice of Gottlob
Frege, who criticized its psychologism.[6][7]
In 1901 Husserl with his family moved to the Georg-August University of Göttingen where he taught as
extraordinarius professor. Just prior to this a major work of his, Logische Untersuchungen (Halle 1900–1901), was
published. Volume One contains seasoned reflections on "pure logic" in which he carefully refutes
"psychologism".[8][9] This work was well received and became the subject of a seminar given by Wilhelm Dilthey;
Husserl in 1905 traveled to Berlin to visit Dilthey. Two years later in Italy he paid a visit to Franz Brentano his
inspiring old teacher and to Constantin Carathéodory the mathematician. Kant and Descartes were also now
influencing his thought. In 1910 he became joint editor of the journal Logos. During this period Husserl had
delivered lectures on internal time consciousness, which several decades later his former student Heidegger edited
for publication.[10]
In 1912 at Freiburg the journal Jahrbuch für Philosophie und Phänomenologische Forschung ("Yearbook for
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research") was founded by Husserl and his school, and which published articles
of their phenomenological movement from 1913 to 1930. His important work Ideen[11] was published in its first
issue. Before beginning Ideen Husserl's thought had reached the stage where "each subject is 'presented' to itself, and
to each all others are 'presentiated' (Vergegenwartigung), not as parts of nature but as pure consciousness."[12] Ideen
advanced his transition to a "transcendental interpretation" of phenomenology, a view later criticized by, among
others, Jean-Paul Sartre.[13] In Ideen Paul Ricœur sees the development of Husserl's thought as leading "from the
psychological cogito to the transcendental cogito." As phenomenology further evolves, it leads (when viewed from
another vantage point in Husserl's 'labyrinth') to "transcendental subjectivity".[14] Also in Ideen Husserl explicitly
elaborates the eidetic and phenomenological reductions.[15][16] In 1913 Karl Jaspers visited Husserl at Göttingen.
In October 1914 both his sons were sent to the fighting on the Western Front of World War I. The next year his son
Wolfgang was badly injured at the front. On March 8, 1916, on the battlefield of Verdun, Wolfgang Husserl was
killed in action. The next year his son Gerhard was wounded in the war but survived, and his mother Julia died. In
November 1917 one of his outstanding students and later a noted philosophy professor in his own right, Adolf
Reinach, was killed in the war while serving in Flanders.[3]
Husserl had transferred in 1916 to the Albert Ludwigs
University of Freiburg (Freiburg im Breisgau) where he
continued bringing his work in philosophy to fruition,
now as a full professor.[17] Edith Stein served as his
personal assistant during his first few years in Freiburg,
followed later by Martin Heidegger from 1920 to 1923.
The mathematician Hermann Weyl began
corresponding with him in 1918. Husserl gave four
lectures on Phenomenological method at University
College, London in 1922. The University of Berlin in
1923 called on him to relocate there, but he declined
The Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics in Freiburg, Husserl's
the offer. In 1926 Heidegger dedicated his book Sein home 1916 -1937
und Zeit ("Being and Time") to him "in grateful respect
and friendship."[18] Husserl remained in his professorship at Freiburg until he requested retirement, teaching his last
class on July 25, 1928. A Festschrift to celebrate his seventieth birthday was presented to him on April 8, 1929.
Edmund Husserl 16

For Husserl 1933 was an ugly year, when the racial laws of the new Nazi regime were enacted. On April 6 Husserl
was suspended from the University of Freiburg by the Badische Ministry of Culture; the following week he was
disallowed any university activities. Yet his colleague Heidegger was elected Rektor of the university on April
21–22, and joined the Nazi party. By contrast, in July Husserl resigned from the Deutsche Academie.[3]
Despite retirement, Husserl gave several notable lectures. The first, at Paris in 1929,[19] led to Méditations
cartésiennes (Paris 1931).[20] Husserl here reviews the epoche and transcendental reduction, presented earlier in his
pivotal Ideen (1913), in terms of a further reduction of experience to what he calls a 'sphere of ownness.' From
within this sphere, which Husserl enacts in order to show the impossibility of solipsism, the transcendental ego finds
itself always already paired with the lived body of another ego, another monad. This a priori interconnection of
bodies, given in perception, is what founds the interconnection of consciousnesses known as transcendental
intersubjectivity, which Husserl would go on to describe at length in volumes of unpublished writings. There has
been a debate over whether or not Husserl's description of ownness and its movement into intersubjectivity is
sufficient to reject the charge of solipsism, to which Descartes, for example, was subject. One argument against
Husserl's description works this way: instead of infinity and the Deity being the ego's gateway to the Other, as in
Descartes, Husserl's ego in the _Cartesian Meditations_ itself becomes transcendent. It remains, however, alone
(unconnected). Only the ego's grasp "by analogy" of the Other (e.g., by conjectural reciprocity) allows the possibility
for an 'objective' intersubjectivity, and hence for community.[21] But more recently, scholars such as Kathleen
Haney, James Mensch, and Dan Zahavi have worked to prove that Husserl's descriptions of intercorporeality and
intersubjectivity might actually work much more efficiently to show how intersubjectivity in fact is given through
embodiment. In 1934 José Ortega y Gasset came to visit him.
Later Husserl lectured at Prague in 1935 and Vienna in 1936, which resulted in a very differently styled work that
while innovative is no less problematic: Die Krisis (Belgrade 1936).[22][23] Husserl describes here the cultural crisis
gripping Europe, then approaches a philosophy of history, discussing Galileo, Descartes, several British
philosophers, and Kant. The apolitical Husserl before had specifically avoided such historical discussions, pointedly
preferring to go directly to an investigation of consciousness. Merleau-Ponty and others question whether Husserl
here does not undercut his own position, in that Husserl had attacked in principle historicism, while specifically
designing his phenomenology to be rigorous enough to transcend the limits of history. On the contrary, Husserl may
be indicating here that historical traditions are merely features given to the pure ego's intuition, like any other.[24][25]
A longer section follows on the "life world" [Lebenswelt], one not observed by the objective logic of science, but a
world seen in our subjective experience.[26] Yet a problem arises similar to that dealing with 'history' above, a
chicken-and-egg problem. Does the life world contextualize and thus compromise the gaze of the pure ego, or does
the phenomenological method nonetheless raise the ego up transcendent?[27] These last writings presented the fruits
of his professional life. Since his university retirement Husserl had "worked at a tremendous pace, producing several
major works."[2]
After suffering a fall the autumn of 1937, the philosopher became ill with pleurisy. Edmund Husserl died at Freiburg
on April 27, 1938, having just turned 79. His wife Malvine survived him. Eugen Fink, his research assistant,
delivered his eulogy.[28] Gerhard Ritter was the only Freiburg faculty member to attend the funeral, as an anti-Nazi
protest.

Heidegger and the Nazi era

Husserl was incorrectly rumoured to have been denied the use of the library at Freiburg as a result of the anti-Jewish
legislation of April 1933.[29] However, among other disabilities Husserl was unable to publish his works in Nazi
Germany; cf., above footnote to Die Krisis (1936). It was also rumoured that his former pupil and Nazi Party
member, Martin Heidegger, informed Husserl that he was discharged, but it was actually the former rector.[30]
Apparently Husserl and Heidegger had moved apart during the 1920s, which became clearer after 1928 when
Husserl retired and Heidegger succeeded to his University chair. In the summer of 1929 Husserl had studied
Edmund Husserl 17

carefully selected writings of Heidegger, coming to the conclusion that on several of their key positions they
differed, e.g., Heidegger substituted Dasein ["Being-there"] for the pure ego, thus transforming phenomenology into
an anthropology, a type of psychologism strongly disfavored by Husserl. Such observations of Heidegger, along with
a critique of Max Scheler, were put into a lecture Husserl gave to various Kant Societies in Frankfurt, Berlin, and
Halle during 1931 entitled Phänomenologie und Anthropologie.[31][32]
In the war-time 1941 edition of Heidegger's primary work, Being and Time (first published in 1927), the original
dedication to Husserl was removed. This was not due to a negation of the relationship between the two philosophers,
however, but rather was the result of a suggested censorship by Heidegger's publisher who feared that the book
might otherwise be banned by the Nazi regime.[33] The dedication can still be found in a footnote on page 38,
thanking Husserl for his guidance and generosity. Husserl, of course, had died several years earlier. In post-war
editions of Sein und Zeit the dedication to Husserl is restored. The complex, troubled, and sundered philosophical
relationship between Husserl and Heidegger has been widely discussed.[34][35]
On May 4, 1933, Professor Edmund Husserl addressed the recent regime change in Germany and its consequences:
"The future alone will judge which was the true Germany in 1933, and who were the true
Germans--those who subscribe to the more or less materialistic-mythical racial prejudices of the day, or
those Germans pure in heart and mind, heirs to the great Germans of the past whose tradition they revere
and perpetuate."[36]
After his death, Husserl's manuscripts, amounting to approximately 40,000 pages of "Gabelsberger" stenography
and his complete research library, were in 1939 smuggled to Belgium by the Franciscan priest Herman Van Breda.
There they were deposited at Leuven to form the Husserl-Archives of the Higher Institute of Philosophy.[37] Much of
the material in his research manuscripts has since been published in the Husserliana critical edition series.[38]

Development of his thought

Several early themes

In his first works Husserl tries to combine mathematics, psychology and philosophy with a main goal to provide a
sound foundation for mathematics. He analyzes the psychological process needed to obtain the concept of number
and then tries to build up a systematical theory on this analysis. To achieve this he uses several methods and
concepts taken from his teachers. From Weierstrass he derives the idea that we generate the concept of number by
counting a certain collection of objects.
From Brentano and Stumpf he takes over the distinction between proper and improper presenting. In an example
Husserl explains this in the following way: if you are standing in front of a house, you have a proper, direct
presentation of that house, but if you are looking for it and ask for directions, then these directions (e.g. the house on
the corner of this and that street) are an indirect, improper presentation. In other words, you can have a proper
presentation of an object if it is actually present, and an improper (or symbolic as he also calls it) if you only can
indicate that object through signs, symbols, etc. Husserl's Logical Investigations (1900–1901) is considered the
starting point for the formal theory of wholes and their parts known as mereology.[39]
Another important element that Husserl took over from Brentano is intentionality, the notion that the main
characteristic of consciousness is that it is always intentional. While often simplistically summarised as "aboutness"
or the relationship between mental acts and the external world, Brentano defined it as the main characteristic of
mental phenomena, by which they could be distinguished from physical phenomena. Every mental phenomenon,
every psychological act, has a content, is directed at an object (the intentional object). Every belief, desire, etc. has
an object that it is about: the believed, the wanted. Brentano used the expression "intentional inexistence" to indicate
the status of the objects of thought in the mind. The property of being intentional, of having an intentional object,
was the key feature to distinguish mental phenomena and physical phenomena, because physical phenomena lack
intentionality altogether.
Edmund Husserl 18

The elaboration of phenomenology

Some years after the 1900-1901 publication of his main work, the Logische Untersuchungen (Logical
Investigations), Husserl made some key conceptual elaborations which led him to assert that in order to study the
structure of consciousness, one would have to distinguish between the act of consciousness and the phenomena at
which it is directed (the objects as intended). Knowledge of essences would only be possible by "bracketing" all
assumptions about the existence of an external world. This procedure he called epoché. These new concepts
prompted the publication of the Ideen (Ideas) in 1913, in which they were at first incorporated, and a plan for a
second edition of the Logische Untersuchungen.
From the Ideen onward, Husserl concentrated on the ideal, essential structures of consciousness. The metaphysical
problem of establishing the material reality of what we perceive was of little interest to Husserl in spite of his being a
transcendental idealist. Husserl proposed that the world of objects and ways in which we direct ourselves toward and
perceive those objects is normally conceived of in what he called the "natural standpoint", which is characterized by
a belief that objects materially exist and exhibit properties that we see as emanating from them. Husserl proposed a
radical new phenomenological way of looking at objects by examining how we, in our many ways of being
intentionally directed toward them, actually "constitute" them (to be distinguished from materially creating objects or
objects merely being figments of the imagination); in the Phenomenological standpoint, the object ceases to be
something simply "external" and ceases to be seen as providing indicators about what it is, and becomes a grouping
of perceptual and functional aspects that imply one another under the idea of a particular object or "type". The notion
of objects as real is not expelled by phenomenology, but "bracketed" as a way in which we regard objects instead of
a feature that inheres in an object's essence founded in the relation between the object and the perceiver. In order to
better understand the world of appearances and objects, phenomenology attempts to identify the invariant features of
how objects are perceived and pushes attributions of reality into their role as an attribution about the things we
perceive (or an assumption underlying how we perceive objects).
In a later period, Husserl began to wrestle with the complicated issues of intersubjectivity, specifically, how
communication about an object can be assumed to refer to the same ideal entity (Cartesian Meditations, Meditation
V). Husserl tries new methods of bringing his readers to understand the importance of phenomenology to scientific
inquiry (and specifically to psychology) and what it means to "bracket" the natural attitude. The Crisis of the
European Sciences is Husserl's unfinished work that deals most directly with these issues. In it, Husserl for the first
time attempts a historical overview of the development of Western philosophy and science, emphasizing the
challenges presented by their increasingly (one-sidedly) empirical and naturalistic orientation. Husserl declares that
mental and spiritual reality possess their own reality independent of any physical basis,[40] and that a science of the
mind ('Geisteswissenschaft') must be established on as scientific a foundation as the natural sciences have managed:
"It is my conviction that intentional phenomenology has for the first time made spirit as spirit the field of
systematic scientific experience, thus effecting a total transformation of the task of knowledge."[41]

Thought
Husserl's thought is revolutionary in several ways, most notably in the distinction between 'natural' and
'phenomenological' modes of understanding. In the former, sense-perception in correspondence with the material
realm constitutes the known reality, and understanding is premised on the accuracy of the perception and the
objective knowability of what is called the 'real world'.[] Phenomenological understanding strives to be rigorously
'presuppositionless' by means of what Husserl calls a 'phenomenological reduction'.[42] This reduction is not
conditioned but rather transcendental: in Husserl's terms, pure consciousness of absolute Being.[43] In Husserl's
work, consciousness of any given thing calls for discerning its meaning as an 'intentional object'.[44] Such an object
does not simply strike the senses, to be interpreted or misinterpreted by mental reason; it has already been selected
and grasped, grasping being an etymological connotation, of percipere, the root of 'perceive.[45]
Edmund Husserl 19

Meaning and object

From Logical Investigations (1900/1901) to Experience and Judgment (published in 1939), Husserl expressed
clearly the difference between meaning and object. He identified several different kinds of names. For example,
there are names that have the role of properties that uniquely identify an object. Each of these names expresses a
meaning and designates the same object. Examples of this are "the victor in Jena" and "the loser in Waterloo", or
"the equilateral triangle" and "the equiangular triangle"; in both cases, both names express different meanings, but
designate the same object. There are names which have no meaning, but have the role of designating an object:
"Aristotle", "Socrates", and so on. Finally, there are names which designate a variety of objects. These are called
"universal names"; their meaning is a "concept" and refers to a series of objects (the extension of the concept). The
way we know sensible objects is called "sensible intuition".
Husserl also identifies a series of "formal words" which are necessary to form sentences and have no sensible
correlates. Examples of formal words are "a", "the", "more than", "over", "under", "two", "group", and so on. Every
sentence must contain formal words to designate what Husserl calls "formal categories". There are two kinds of
categories: meaning categories and formal-ontological categories. Meaning categories relate judgments; they include
forms of conjunction, disjunction, forms of plural, among others. Formal-ontological categories relate objects and
include notions such as set, cardinal number, ordinal number, part and whole, relation, and so on. The way we know
these categories is through a faculty of understanding called "categorial intuition".
Through sensible intuition our consciousness constitutes what Husserl calls a "situation of affairs" (Sachlage). It is a
passive constitution where objects themselves are presented to us. To this situation of affairs, through categorial
intuition, we are able to constitute a "state of affairs" (Sachverhalt). One situation of affairs through objective acts of
consciousness (acts of constituting categorially) can serve as the basis for constituting multiple states of affairs. For
example, suppose a and b are two sensible objects in a certain situation of affairs. We can use it as basis to say,
"a<b" and "b>a", two judgments which designate the same state of affairs. For Husserl a sentence has a proposition
or judgment as its meaning, and refers to a state of affairs which has a situation of affairs as a reference base.

Philosophy of logic and mathematics

Husserl believed that truth-in-itself has as ontological correlate being-in-itself, just as meaning categories have
formal-ontological categories as correlates. Logic is a formal theory of judgment, that studies the formal a priori
relations among judgments using meaning categories. Mathematics, on the other hand, is formal ontology; it studies
all the possible forms of being (of objects). Hence for both logic and mathematics, the different formal categories are
the objects of study, not the sensible objects themselves. The problem with the psychological approach to
mathematics and logic is that it fails to account for the fact that this approach is about formal categories, and not
simply about abstractions from sensibility alone. The reason why we do not deal with sensible objects in
mathematics is because of another faculty of understanding called "categorial abstraction." Through this faculty we
are able to get rid of sensible components of judgments, and just focus on formal categories themselves.
Thanks to "eidetic intuition" (or "essential intuition"), we are able to grasp the possibility, impossibility, necessity
and contingency among concepts and among formal categories. Categorial intuition, along with categorial
abstraction and eidetic intuition, are the basis for logical and mathematical knowledge.
Husserl criticized the logicians of his day for not focusing on the relation between subjective processes that give us
objective knowledge of pure logic. All subjective activities of consciousness need an ideal correlate, and objective
logic (constituted noematically) as it is constituted by consciousness needs a noetic correlate (the subjective activities
of consciousness).
Husserl stated that logic has three strata, each further away from consciousness and psychology than those that
precede it.
Edmund Husserl 20

• The first stratum is what Husserl called a "morphology of meanings" concerning a priori ways to relate judgments
to make them meaningful. In this stratum we elaborate a "pure grammar" or a logical syntax, and he would call its
rules "laws to prevent non-sense", which would be similar to what logic calls today "formation rules".
Mathematics, as logic's ontological correlate, also has a similar stratum, a "morphology of formal-ontological
categories".
• The second stratum would be called by Husserl "logic of consequence" or the "logic of non-contradiction" which
explores all possible forms of true judgments. He includes here syllogistic classic logic, propositional logic and
that of predicates. This is a semantic stratum, and the rules of this stratum would be the "laws to avoid
counter-sense" or "laws to prevent contradiction". They are very similar to today's logic "transformation rules".
Mathematics also has a similar stratum which is based among others on pure theory of pluralities, and a pure
theory of numbers. They provide a science of the conditions of possibility of any theory whatsoever. Husserl also
talked about what he called "logic of truth" which consists of the formal laws of possible truth and its modalities,
and precedes the third logical third stratum.
• The third stratum is metalogical, what he called a "theory of all possible forms of theories." It explores all
possible theories in an a priori fashion, rather than the possibility of theory in general. We could establish theories
of possible relations between pure forms of theories, investigate these logical relations and the deductions from
such general connection. The logician is free to see the extension of this deductive, theoretical sphere of pure
logic.
The ontological correlate to the third stratum is the "theory of manifolds". In formal ontology, it is a free
investigation where a mathematician can assign several meanings to several symbols, and all their possible valid
deductions in a general and indeterminate manner. It is, properly speaking, the most universal mathematics of all.
Through the posit of certain indeterminate objects (formal-ontological categories) as well as any combination of
mathematical axioms, mathematicians can explore the apodeictic connections between them, as long as consistency
is preserved.
According to Husserl, this view of logic and mathematics accounted for the objectivity of a series of mathematical
developments of his time, such as n-dimensional manifolds (both Euclidean and non-Euclidean), Hermann
Grassmann's theory of extensions, William Rowan Hamilton's Hamiltonians, Sophus Lie's theory of transformation
groups, and Cantor's set theory.
Jacob Klein was one student of Husserl who pursued this line of inquiry, seeking to "desedimentize" mathematics
and the mathematical sciences.[46]

Husserl and psychologism

Philosophy of arithmetic and Frege

After obtaining his PhD in mathematics, Husserl began analyzing the foundations of mathematics from a
psychological point of view. In his professorial doctoral dissertation, On the Concept of Number (1886) and in his
Philosophy of Arithmetic (1891), Husserl sought, by employing Brentano's descriptive psychology, to define the
natural numbers in a way that advanced the methods and techniques of Karl Weierstrass, Richard Dedekind, Georg
Cantor, Gottlob Frege, and other contemporary mathematicians. Later, in the first volume of his Logical
Investigations, the Prolegomena of Pure Logic, Husserl, while attacking the psychologistic point of view in logic and
mathematics, also appears to reject much of his early work, although the forms of psychologism analysed and refuted
in the Prolegomena did not apply directly to his Philosophy of Arithmetic. Some scholars question whether Frege's
negative review of the Philosophy of Arithmetic helped turn Husserl towards Platonism, but he had already
discovered the work of Bernhard Bolzano independently around 1890/91 and explicitly mentioned Bernard Bolzano,
Gottfried Leibniz and Hermann Lotze as inspirations for his newer position.
Edmund Husserl 21

Husserl's review of Ernst Schröder, published before Frege's landmark 1892 article, clearly distinguishes sense from
reference; thus Husserl's notions of noema and object also arose independently. Likewise, in his criticism of Frege in
the Philosophy of Arithmetic, Husserl remarks on the distinction between the content and the extension of a concept.
Moreover, the distinction between the subjective mental act, namely the content of a concept, and the (external)
object, was developed independently by Brentano and his school, and may have surfaced as early as Brentano's
1870's lectures on logic.
Scholars such as J. N. Mohanty, Claire Ortiz Hill, and Guillermo E. Rosado Haddock, among others, have argued
that Husserl's so-called change from psychologism to Platonism came about independently of Frege's review.[47] For
example, the review falsely accuses Husserl of subjectivizing everything, so that no objectivity is possible, and
falsely attributes to him a notion of abstraction whereby objects disappear until we are left with numbers as mere
ghosts. Contrary to what Frege states, in Husserl's Philosophy of Arithmetic we already find two different kinds of
representations: subjective and objective. Moreover, objectivity is clearly defined in that work. Frege's attack seems
to be directed at certain foundational doctrines then current in Weierstrass's Berlin School, of which Husserl and
Cantor cannot be said to be orthodox representatives.
Furthermore, various sources indicate that Husserl changed his mind about psychologism as early as 1890, a year
before he published the Philosophy of Arithmetic. Husserl stated that by the time he published that book, he had
already changed his mind—that he had doubts about psychologism from the very outset. He attributed this change of
mind to his reading of Leibniz, Bolzano, Lotze, and David Hume.[48] Husserl makes no mention of Frege as a
decisive factor in this change. In his Logical Investigations, Husserl mentions Frege only twice, once in a footnote to
point out that he had retracted three pages of his criticism of Frege's The Foundations of Arithmetic, and again to
question Frege's use of the word Bedeutung to designate "reference" rather than "meaning" (sense).
In a letter dated May 24, 1891, Frege thanked Husserl for sending him a copy of the Philosophy of Arithmetic and
Husserl's review of Ernst Schröder's Vorlesungen über die Algebra der Logik. In the same letter, Frege used the
review of Schröder's book to analyze Husserl's notion of the sense of reference of concept words. Hence Frege
recognized, as early as 1891, that Husserl distinguished between sense and reference. Consequently, Frege and
Husserl independently elaborated a theory of sense and reference before 1891.
Commentators argue that Husserl's notion of noema has nothing to do with Frege's notion of sense, because noemata
are necessarily fused with noeses which are the conscious activities of consciousness. Noemata have three different
levels:
• The substratum, which is never presented to the consciousness, and is the support of all the properties of the
object;
• The noematic senses, which are the different ways the objects are presented to us;
• The modalities of being (possible, doubtful, existent, non-existent, absurd, and so on).
Consequently, in intentional activities, even non-existent objects can be constituted, and form part of the whole
noema. Frege, however, did not conceive of objects as forming parts of senses: If a proper name denotes a
non-existent object, it does not have a reference, hence concepts with no objects have no truth value in arguments.
Moreover, Husserl did not maintain that predicates of sentences designate concepts. According to Frege the
reference of a sentence is a truth value; for Husserl it is a "state of affairs." Frege's notion of "sense" is unrelated to
Husserl's noema, while the latter's notions of "meaning" and "object" differ from those of Frege.
In detail, Husserl's conception of logic and mathematics differs from that of Frege, who held that arithmetic could be
derived from logic. For Husserl this is not the case: mathematics (with the exception of geometry) is the ontological
correlate of logic, and while both fields are related, neither one is strictly reducible to the other.
Edmund Husserl 22

Husserl's criticism of psychologism

Reacting against authors such as J. S. Mill, Christoph von Sigwart and his own former teacher Brentano, Husserl
criticised their psychologism in mathematics and logic, i.e. their conception of these abstract and a priori sciences as
having an essentially empirical foundation and a prescriptive or descriptive nature. According to psychologism, logic
would not be an autonomous discipline, but a branch of psychology, either proposing a prescriptive and practical
"art" of correct judgement (as Brentano and some of his more orthodox students did)[49] or a description of the
factual processes of human thought. Husserl pointed out that the failure of anti-psychologists to defeat psychologism
was a result of being unable to distinguish between the foundational, theoretical side of logic, and the applied,
practical side. Pure logic does not deal at all with "thoughts" or "judgings" as mental episodes but about a priori laws
and conditions for any theory and any judgments whatsoever, conceived as propositions in themselves.
"Here ‘Judgement’ has the same meaning as ‘proposition’, understood, not as a grammatical, but as an ideal
unity of meaning. This is the case with all the distinctions of acts or forms of judgement, which provide the
foundations for the laws of pure logic. Categorial, hypothetical, disjunctive, existential judgements, and
however else we may call them, in pure logic are not names for classes of judgements, but for ideal forms of
propositions."[50]
Since "truth-in-itself" has "being-in-itself" as ontological correlate, and since psychologists reduce truth (and hence
logic) to empirical psychology, the inevitable consequence is scepticism. Psychologists have also not been successful
in showing how from induction or psychological processes we can justify the absolute certainty of logical principles,
such as the principles of identity and non-contradiction. It is therefore futile to base certain logical laws and
principles on uncertain processes of the mind.
This confusion made by psychologism (and related disciplines such as biologism and anthropologism) can be due to
three specific prejudices:
1. The first prejudice is the supposition that logic is somehow normative in nature. Husserl argues that logic is
theoretical, i.e., that logic itself proposes a priori laws which are themselves the basis of the normative side of logic.
Since mathematics is related to logic, he cites an example from mathematics: If we have a formula like "(a + b)(a –
b) = a² – b²" it does not tell us how to think mathematically. It just expresses a truth. A proposition that says: "The
product of the sum and the difference of a and b should give us the difference of the squares of a and b" does express
a normative proposition, but this normative statement is based on the theoretical statement "(a + b)(a – b) = a² – b²".
2. For psychologists, the acts of judging, reasoning, deriving, and so on, are all psychological processes. Therefore, it
is the role of psychology to provide the foundation of these processes. Husserl states that this effort made by
psychologists is a "metábasis eis állo génos" (Gr. μετάβασις εἰς ἄλλο γένος, "a transgression to another
field").[citation needed] It is a metábasis because psychology cannot possibly provide any foundations for a priori laws
which themselves are the basis for all the ways we should think correctly. Psychologists have the problem of
confusing intentional activities with the object of these activities. It is important to distinguish between the act of
judging and the judgment itself, the act of counting and the number itself, and so on. Counting five objects is
undeniably a psychological process, but the number 5 is not.
3. Judgments can be true or not true. Psychologists argue that judgments are true because they become "evidently"
true to us. This evidence, a psychological process that "guarantees" truth, is indeed a psychological process. Husserl
responds by saying that truth itself as well as logical laws always remain valid regardless of psychological
"evidence" that they are true. No psychological process can explain the a priori objectivity of these logical truths.
From this criticism to psychologism, the distinction between psychological acts and their intentional objects, and the
difference between the normative side of logic and the theoretical side, derives from a platonist conception of logic.
This means that we should regard logical and mathematical laws as being independent of the human mind, and also
as an autonomy of meanings. It is essentially the difference between the real (everything subject to time) and the
ideal or irreal (everything that is atemporal), such as logical truths, mathematical entities, mathematical truths and
meanings in general.
Edmund Husserl 23

Influence
David Carr of Yale University commented in 1970 on
Husserl's following: "It is well known that Husserl was
always disappointed at the tendency of his students to
go their own way, to embark upon fundamental
revisions of phenomenology rather than engage in the
communal task" as originally intended by the radical
new science.[51] Notwithstanding, he did attract
philosophers to phenomenology.

Martin Heidegger is the best known of Husserl's

students, the one whom Husserl chose as his successor
at Freiburg. Heidegger's magnum opus Being and Time
was dedicated to Husserl. They shared their thoughts
and worked alongside each other for over a decade at
the University of Freiburg, Heidegger being Husserl's
assistant during 1920-1923.[52][53][54] Heidegger's early
work followed his teacher, but with time he began to
develop new insights distinctively variant. Husserl
became increasingly critical of Heidegger's work, Husserl's gravestone at Freiburg Günterstal

especially in 1929, and included pointed criticism of

Heidegger in lectures he gave during 1931.[55] Heidegger, while acknowledging his debt to Husserl, followed a
political position offensive and harmful to Husserl after the Nazis came to power in 1933, Husserl being of Jewish
origin and Heidegger infamously being then a Nazi proponent.[56] Academic discussion of Husserl and Heidegger is
extensive.

At Göttingen in 1913 Adolf Reinach (1884–1917) "was now Husserl's right hand. He was above all the mediator
between Husserl and the students, for he understood extremely well how to deal with other persons, whereas Husserl
was pretty much helpless in this respect."[57] He was an original editor of Husserl's new journal, Jahrbuch; one of his
works (giving a phenomenological analysis of the law of obligations) appeared in its first issue.[58] Reinach was
widely admired and a remarkable teacher. Husserl, in his 1917 obituary, wrote, "He wanted to draw only from the
deepest sources, he wanted to produce only work of enduring value. And through his wise restrain he succeeded in
this."[59]
Edith Stein was Husserl's student at Göttingen while she wrote her On the Problem of Empathy (1916). She then
became his assistant at Freiburg 1916-1918. She later adapted her phenomenology to the modern school of Thomas
Aquinas.[60]
Ludwig Landgrebe became assistant to Husserl in 1923. From 1939 he collaborated with Eugen Fink at the
Husserl-Archives in Leuven. In 1954 he became leader of the Husserl-Archives. Landgrebe is known as one of
Husserl's closest associates, but also for his independent views relating to history, religion and politics as seen from
the viewpoints of existentialist philosophy and metaphysics.
Eugen Fink was a close associate of Husserl during the 1920s and 1930s. He wrote the _Sixth Cartesian Meditation_
which Husserl said was the truest expression and continuation of his own work. Fink delivered the eulogy for
Husserl in 1938.[3]
Roman Ingarden, an early student of Husserl at Freiburg, corresponded with Husserl into the mid-1930s. Ingarden
did not accept, however, the later transcendental idealism of Husserl which he thought would lead to relativism.
Ingarden has written his work in German and Polish. In his Spór o istnienie świata (Ger: "Der Streit um die Existenz
der Welt", Eng: "Dispute about existence of the world") he created his own realistic position, which also helped to
Edmund Husserl 24

spread phenomenology in Poland.

Max Scheler met Husserl in Halle in 1901 and found in his phenomenology a methodological breakthrough for his
own philosophy. Scheler, who was at Göttingen when Husserl taught there, was one of the original few editors of the
journal Jahrbuch für Philosophie und Phänomenologische Forschung (1913). Scheler's work Formalism in Ethics
and Nonformal Ethics of Value appeared in the new journal (1913 and 1916) and drew acclaim. The personal
relationship between the two men, however, became strained, due to Scheler's legal troubles, and Scheler returned to
Munich.[61] Although Scheler later criticised Husserl's idealistic logical approach and proposed instead a
"phenomenology of love", he states that he remained "deeply indebted" to Husserl throughout his work.
Nicolai Hartmann was once thought to be at the center of phenomenology, but perhaps no longer. In 1921 the
prestige of Hartmann the Neo-Kantian, who was Professor of Philosophy at Marburg, was added to the Movement;
he "publicly declared his solidarity with the actual work of die Phänomenologie." Yet Hartmann's connections were
with Max Scheler and the Munich circle; Husserl himself evidently did not consider him as a phenomenologist. His
philosophy, however, is said to include an innovative use of the method.[62]
Emmanuel Levinas in 1929 gave a presentation at one of Husserl's last seminars in Freiburg. Also that year he wrote
on Husserl's Ideen (1913) a long review published by a French journal. With Gabrielle Peiffer, Levinas translated
into French Husserl's Méditations cartésiennes (1931). He was at first impressed with Heidegger and began a book
on him, but broke off the project when Heidegger became involved with the Nazis. After the war he wrote on Jewish
spirituality; most of his family had been murdered by the Nazis in Lithuania. Levinas then began to write works that
would become widely known and admired.[63]
Jean-Paul Sartre was also largely influenced by Husserl, although he later came to disagree with key points in his
analyses. Sartre rejected Husserl's transcendental interpretations begun in his Ideen (1913) and instead followed
Heidegger's ontology.[64]
Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception is influenced by Edmund Husserl's work on perception,
intersubjectivity, intentionality, and temporality, including Husserl's theory of retention and protention.
Merleau-Ponty's description of 'motor intentionality' and sexuality, for example, retain the important structure of the
noetic-noematic correlation of Ideas I, yet furher concretize what it means for Husserl when consciousness
particularizes itself into modes of intuition. Merleau-Ponty's most clearly Husserlian work is, perhaps, "the
Philosopher and His Shadow." Depending on the interpretation of Husserl's accounts of eidetic intuition, given in
Husserl's _Phenomenological Psychology_ and _Experience and Judgment,_ it may be that Merleau-Ponty did not
accept the "eidetic reduction" nor the "pure essence" said to result.[65] Merleau-Ponty was the first student to study at
the Husserl-archives in Leuven.
Gabriel Marcel explicitly rejected existentialism, due to Sartre, but not phenomenology, which has enjoyed a wide
following among French Catholics. He appreciated Husserl, Scheler, and (but with apprehension) Heidegger.[66] His
expressions like "ontology of sensability" when referring to the body, indicate influence by phenomenological
thought.[67]
Kurt Gödel is known to have read Cartesian Meditations. He expressed very strong appreciation for Husserl's work,
especially with regard to "bracketing" or epoché.
Hermann Weyl's interest in intuitionistic logic and impredicativity appears to have resulted from his reading of
Husserl. He was introduced to Husserl's work through his wife, Helene Joseph, herself a student of Husserl at
Göttingen.
Rudolf Carnap was also influenced by Husserl, not only concerning Husserl's notion of essential insight that Carnap
used in his Der Raum, but also his notion of "formation rules" and "transformation rules" is founded on Husserl's
philosophy of logic.
Karol Wojtyla, who would later become became Pope John-Paul II was influenced by Husserl. Phenomenology
appears in a work co-authored by him, The Acting Person (1969). Originally published in Polish, it was written in
Edmund Husserl 25

collaboration with the Polish phenomenologist Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka.[68] It combines phenomenological work
with Thomistic Ethics.[69]
Paul Ricœur has translated many works of Husserl into French and has
also written many of his own studies of the philosopher.[70] Among
other works, Ricœur employed phenomenology in his Freud &
Philosophy (1965).[71]
Jacques Derrida wrote several critical studies of Husserl early in his
academic career. These included his dissertation, The Problem of
Genesis in Husserl's Philosophy, and also his introduction to The
Origin of Geometry. Derrida continued to make reference to Husserl in
works such as Of Grammatology.
Stanisław Leśniewski and Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz were inspired by
Plaque commemorating Husserl in his home town
Husserl's formal analysis of language. Accordingly, they employed
of Prostějov, Czech Republic
phenomenology in the development of categorial grammar.[72]
Ortega y Gasset visited Husserl at Freiburg in 1934. He credited phenomenology for having 'liberated him' from a
narrow neo-Kantian thought. While perhaps not a phenomenologist himself, he introduced the philosophy to Iberia
and Latin America.[73]
Wilfrid Sellars, an influential figure in the so-called "Pittsburgh School" (Robert Brandom, John McDowell) had
been a student of Marvin Farber, a pupil of Husserl, and was influenced by phenomenology through him:
Marvin Farber led me through my first careful reading of the Critique of Pure Reason and introduced me to
Husserl. His combination of utter respect for the structure of Husserl's thought with the equally firm conviction
that this structure could be given a naturalistic interpretation was undoubtedly a key influence on my own
subsequent philosophical strategy.[74]
Hans Blumenberg received his postdoctoral qualification in 1950, with a dissertation on 'Ontological distance', an
inquiry into the crisis of Husserl's phenomenology.
The influence of the Husserlian phenomenological tradition in the 21st century extends beyond the confines of the
European and North American legacies. It has already started to impact (indirectly) scholarship in Eastern and
Oriental thought, including research on the impetus of philosophical thinking in the history of ideas in Islam.[75][76]

Reference notes
[1] Shaun Gallagher and Dan Zahavi's term for Husserl's idea that consciousness always involves a self-appearance (für-sich-selbst-erscheinens);
"Phenomenological Approaches to Self-Consciousness" (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ self-consciousness-phenomenological/ ),
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
[2] Joseph J. Kockelmans, "Biographical Note" per Edmund Husserl, at 17-20, in his edited Phenomenology. The Philosophy of Edmund Husserl
and Its Interpretation (Garden City NY: Doubleday Anchor 1967).
[3] Husserl Page Biography (http:/ / www. husserlpage. com/ hus_bio. html)
[4] H. Spiegelberg, The Phenomenological Movement. A historical introduction (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 2d ed. 1971) at I: 85-87. It was
reported "from witnesses of Husserl's last days - that Husserl had something like a deathbed conversion." Spiegelberg (1971) at I:85.
[5] Kockelmans, "Biographical Note" per Edmund Husserl, 17-20, at 17-18, in his edited Phenomenology (Doubleday Anchor 1967). 'Husserl's
'Philosophie der Arithmetik is further discussed here below.
[6] Cf., "Illustrative extracts from Frege's Review of Husserl's Philosophie der Arithmetik", translated by P.T.Geach, at 79-85, in Peter Geach and
Max Black, editors, Translations from the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege (Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1977).
[7] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Husserl (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ husserl/ ) What the exact impact this criticism by Frege
may have had on Husserl's subsequent positions is the subject of debate. See below herein the section "Husserl and the Critique of
Psychologism" and the subsection "Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics".
[8] Husserl's Logische, in its disentangling of psychology from logic, also served as preparation for the later development of his work in
phenomenological reduction. Marvin Farber, "Husserl and Philosophical Radicalism. The ideas of a presuppositionless philosophy" 37-57 at
47-48, in Kockelmans, ed., Phenomenology (1967).
Edmund Husserl 26

[9] Cf., Paul Ricœur, Husserl. An Analysis of His Phenomenology (Northwestern University 1967) at 29-30. Ricœur traces Husserl's development
from the Logische Untersuchungen to his later Ideen (1913), as leading from the psychological to the transcendental, regarding the intuition of
essences (which the methodology of the phenomenological reduction allows). The book Husserl contains translations of Ricœur's essays of
1949-1967.
[10] Husserl, Vorlesungen zur Phänomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins (1928), translated as The Phenomenology of Internal Time
Consciousness (Indiana University 1964).
[11] Husserl, Ideen au einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie (1913), translated as Ideas. General Introduction to
Pure Phenomenology (New York: Macmillan 1931; reprint Collier), with "Author's Preface to the English Edition" at 5-22. Therein, Husserl
in 1931 refers to "Transcendental Subjectivity" being "a new field of experience" opened as a result of practicing phenomenological reduction,
and giving rise to an a priori science not empirically based but somewhat similar to mathematics. By such practice the individual becomes the
"transcendental Ego", although Husserl acknowledges the problem of solipsism. Later he emphasizes "the necessary stressing of the difference
between transcendental and psychological subjectivity, the repeated declaration that transcendental phenomenology is not in any sense
psychology... " but rather (in contrast to naturalistic psychology) by the phenomenological reduction "the life of the soul is made intelligible in
its most intimate and originally intuitional essence" and whereby "objects of the most varied grades right up to the level of the objective world
are there for the Ego... ." Ibid. at 5-7, 11-12, 18.
[12] Ricoeur, Husserl. An Analysis of His Phenomenology (1967) at 33. In his "Ideen period" (1911-1925) Husserl also produced two
unpublished manuscripts later referred to as Ideen II and Ideen III. Ricœur (1967) at 35.
[13] Jean-Paul Sartre, "La Transcendance de L'Ego. Esquisse d'une description phénoménologique" in Recherches Philosophiques, VI (1937),
translated as The Transcendence of the Ego. An existentialist theory of consciousness (New York: The Noonday Press 1957). Sartre's
"disagreement with Husserl seems to have facilitated the transition from phenomenology to the existentialist doctrines of L'Être et le Néant
[1943]." F. Williams and R. Kirkpatrick, "Translator's introduction" 11-27, at 12, to Transcendance of the Ego (1957).
[14] Ricoeur Paul Ricœur, Husserl. An Analysis of His Phenomenology (Northwestern University 1967) (1967) at 29, 30; cf., 177-178.
[15] Husserl, Ideen (1913), translated as Ideas (1931), e.g., at 161-165.
[16] Ricoeur, Husserl (1967) at 25-27. Ideen does not address the problem of solipsism. Ricœur (1967) at 31.
[17] Peter Koestenbaum, "Introductory Essay" ix-lxxvii, at lxxv, in Husserl, The Paris Lectures (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 2d ed. 1967).
[18] In the 1962 translation Being and Time by Macquarrie and Robinson, Heidegger states: "Dedicated to Edmund Husserl in friendship and
admiration. Todnauberg in Baden, Black Forest, 8 April 1926".
[19] Edmund Husserl, Pariser Vorträge [1929], translated as The Paris Lectures (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 2d ed. 1967), by Peter
Koestenbaum, with an "Introductory Essay" at ix-lxxvii.
[20] This work was published first in French. Husserl, Méditations cartésiennes (Paris: Armand Colin 1931), translated by Gabrielle Peiffer and
Emmanuel Levinas. A German edition Cartesianische Meditationen (which Husserl had reworked) came out in 1950.
[21] Ricoeur, Husserl. An Analysis of His Phenomenology (Northwestern University 1967) at 82-85, 115-116, 123-142. Ricoeur wonders whether
here Husserl does not "square the circle" regarding the issue of solipsism.
[22] Husserl, Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften un die transzendentale Phänomenologie (Belgrade 1936). "As a Jew who was denied
any public platform in Germany, Husserl had to publish, as he had lectured, outside his own country." Philosophia in Belgrade began its
publication. David Carr, "Translator's Introdution" xv-xliii, at xvii, to Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental
Phenomenology (Northwestern University 1970).
[23] Quentin Lauer, "Introduction" 1-68, at 6-7, in Edumund Husserl, Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy (New York: Harper &
Row/Torchbook 1965); translated are two works by Husserl: the 1935 Prague lecture "Philosophy and the Crisis of European Man"
[Philosophie und die Krisis der europäischen Menschentums], and the 1911 essay "Philosophy as Rigorous Science" [Philosophie als strenge
Wissenschaft].
[24] David Carr, "Translator's Introdution" xv-xliii, at xxx-xxxi, xxxiv-xxxv, xxxvii-xxxviii (historicism), xxxvi-xxxvii (as given), to Husserl,
The Crises of European Sciences (1970).
[25] Paul Ricœur, "Husserl et le sens de l'histoire" (1949), as translated in his Husserl. An Analysis of His Phenomenology (1967) at 143-174.
[26] Husserl, The Crises of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (Northwestern University 1970), e.g., at 127.
[27] Carr, "Translator's Introdution" xv-xliii, at xxxviii-xlii, to Husserl, The Crises of European Sciences (1970).
[28] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Husserl (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ husserl/ )
[29] Hugo Ott, Martin Heidegger, Unterwegs zu seiner Biographie Campus Verlag p.168, Walter Biemel "Erinnerungsfragmente" in Erinnerung
an Martin Heidegger Neske 1977 S.22
[30] Rüdiger Safranski, Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil (Cambridge, Mass., & London: Harvard University Press, 1998), pp. 253-8.
[31] Herbert Spiegelberg, The Phenomenological Movement. A historical introduction (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 2d ed. 1971) at I: 281-283.
"Around this time, Husserl also began to refer to Heidegger and Scheler as his philosophical antipodes." Spiegelberg (1970) at 283.
[32] Cf., Edmund Husserl, Psychological and Transcendental Phenomenology and the Confrontation with Heidegger (1927-1931), translated by
T. Sheehan and R. Palmer (Dordrecht: Kluwer 1997), which contains his "Phänomenologie und Anthropologie" at 485-500.
[33] "Nur noch ein Gott kann uns retten". Der Spiegel, 31 May 1967.
[34] E.g., Husserl, Psychological and Transcendental Phenomenology and the Confrontation with Heidegger (Dordrecht: Kluwer 1997).
[35] Husserl is mentioned by Bernard Stiegler in the 2004 film The Ister.
[36] Richard Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich (Penguin 2003) at 421 [source not confirmed].
Edmund Husserl 27

[37] Cf., Peter Koestenbaum, "Introductory Essay" ix-lxxvii, at lxxv-lxxvi, in his edited Edmund Husserl, The Paris Lectures (The Hague:
Martinus Nijhoff, 2d ed. 1967). His widow Malvine Husserl was instrumental in this rescue project; she became a convert to Catholicism in
1941.
[38] Kockelmans, "The Husserl-Archives", at 20-21, in his edited Phenomenology (Doubleday Anchor 1967).
[40] This assumption led Husserl to an idealistic position (which he originally had tried to overcome or avoid). On Husserl's phenomenological
idealism see Hans Köchler, Die Subjekt-Objekt-Dialektik in der transzendentalen Phänomenologie. Das Seinsproblem zwischen Idealismus
und Realismus. (Monographien zur philosophischen Forschung, Vol. 112.) Meisenheim a. G.: Anton Hain, 1974.
[41] Crisis of European Humanity, Pt. II, 1935
[42] Edmund Husserl, Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology, tr. W. R. Boyce Gibson (New York: Macmillan, 1962) 96–103,
155–67.
[43] Husserl, Ideas 194.
[44] Husserl, Ideas 242–43.
[45] Husserl, Ideas 105–109; Mark P. Drost, 'The Primacy of Perception in Husserl's Theory of Imagining,' PPR 1 (1990) 569–82. The German
begreifen, cognate with English 'grip,' carries the same sense.
[46] See especially Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra (MIT Press, 1968).
[47] Consider Jitendra Nath Mohanty, 1995, "The Development of Husserl's Thought" in Barry Smith & David Woodruff Smith, eds., The
Cambridge Companion to Husserl. Cambridge Univ. Press. For further commentaries on the review, see Willard, Dallas, 1984. Logic and the
Objectivity of Knowledge. Athens OH: Ohio University Press, p. 63; J. Philip Miller, 1982. "Numbers in Presence and Absence,
Phaenomenologica 90 (Den Haag: Nijhoff): p. 19 ff.; and Jitendra Nath Mohanty, 1984, "Husserl, Frege and the Overcoming of
Psychologism", in Cho, Kay Kyung, ed., Philosophy and Science in Phenomenological Perspective, Phaenomenologica 95
(Dordrecht/Boston/Lancaster: Nijhoff), p. 145.
[48] Husserl-Chronik, p. 25-26
[49] See the quotes in Carlo Ierna, “Husserl’s Critique of Double Judgments”, in: Filip Mattens, editor, Meaning and Language:
Phenomenological Perspectives, Phaenomenologica 187 (Dordrecht/Boston/London: Springer, 2008, pp. 50 f.
[50] Edmund Husserl, Logical Investigations, volume 1, edited by Dermot Moran, trans. by J.N. Findlay (New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 112.
[51] David Carr, "Translator's Introduction" xv-xlii, at xxv, to Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Science and Transcendental
Phenomenology (Northwestern University 1970).
[52] Kockelmans, "Introduction [Martin Heidegger]" 267-276, 273, in Kockelmans, editor, Phenomenology (1967).
[53] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Husserl (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ husserl)
[54] Heidegger was at Marburg 1923-1925.
[55] See above subsection "Heidegger and the Nazi era".
[56] The multivalent, including the "horrifying", aspects of Heidegger in a parallel context are recounted in Peter Eli Gordon, Rosensweig and
Heidegger: Between Judaism and German Philosophy (University of California 2003) at 13-14 (Heidegger and Rosensweig's early "kinship"
with him). "In 1929, however, one could still read Heidegger's philosophy without being drawn into a controversy concerning its relationship
to National Socialism, anti-semitism, and the like. The German philosophical world as a whole still cloaked itself in a mantle of relative
innocence." Gordon (2003) at 303-304. "Rosensweig's work represents the culmination of what is often called the German Jewish Tradition."
Gordon, "Preface" (2003) at xix.
[57] Edith Stein, "Reinach as a Philosophical Personality [Selection from her memoirs] xxvii-xxix, at xxvii, in Aletheia, III (1985).
[58] Adolf Reinach, "Die apriorischen Grundlagen des bürgerlichen Rechtes" in Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung, I:
685-847 (1913), translated as "The A Priori Foundation of Civil Law" in Aletheia, III: 1-142 (1983).
[59] Edmund Husserl, "Reinach as a Philosophical Personality [Obituary notice] xi-xiv, at xi, in Aletheia, III (1985).
[60] Waltraud Herbstrith, Edith Stein. A Biography ([1971]; New York: Harper and Row 1985) at 13-14, 24; 42-44.
[61] John Raphael Staude, Max Scheler (New York: Free Press 1967) at 19-20, 27-28.
[62] Herbert Spiegelberg, The Phenomenological Movement (2d ed. 1971) at 258-259; 371 (Scheler), 379-384 (use of method).
[63] Unsigned "Preface" at vii-x, to Emmanuel Levinas. Basic philosophical writings (Indiana University 1996), edited by Adriaan Peperzak,
Simon Critchley, and Robert Bernasconi.
[64] Sartre, The Transcendent of the Ego. An Existentialist Theory of Consciousness [1937] (New York: Noonday 1957).
[65] Remy C. Kwant, "Merleau-Ponty's Criticism of Husserl's Eidetic Reduction" in Joseph J. Kochelmans, Phenomenology. The Philosophy of
Edmund Husserl and its Interpretation (Garden City NY: Doubleday Anchor 1967) at 393-408, 394-395, 404-405.
[66] Herbert Spiegelberg and Karl Schuhmann, The Phenomenological Movement (Springer Verlag 1982) at 438-439, 448-449.
[67] Cf., A. Robert Caponigri, A History of Western Philosophy (University of Notre Dame 1971) at V: 284-285.
[68] The World Phenomenology Institute (http:/ / www. phenomenology. org)
[70] Cf., Paul Ricœur, Husserl. An analysis of his phenomenology (Northwestern University 1967), collected essays, translated.
[71] Ricœur, Freud and Philosophy: An essay in interpretation ([1965]; Yale University 1970).
[72] Cf.
[73] Herbert Spiegelberg and Karl Schuhmann, The Phenomenological Movement (Springer Verlag 1982) at 658-659.
[75] See for instance: Nader El-Bizri, The Phenomenological Quest Between Avicenna and Heidegger (Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications
SUNY at Binghamton, 2000); and also refer to: Nader El-Bizri, "Avicenna's De Anima between Aristotle and Husserl", in The Passions of the
Soul in the Metamorphosis of Becoming, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), pp. 67-89
Edmund Husserl 28

[76] Refer also to the book-series published by SPRINGER on phenomenology and Islamic philosophy: (http:/ / www. springer. com/ series/
6137)

Bibliography

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• 1900. Logische Untersuchungen. Erster Teil: Prolegomena zur reinen Logik (Logical Investigations, Vol 1)
• 1901. Logische Untersuchungen. Zweiter Teil: Untersuchungen zur Phänomenologie und Theorie der Erkenntnis
(Logical Investigations, Vol 2)
• 1911. Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft (included in Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy:
Philosophy as Rigorous Science and Philosophy and the Crisis of European Man)
• 1913. Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie. Erstes Buch: Allgemeine
Einführung in die reine Phänomenologie (Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology)
• 1923-24. Erste Philosophie. Zweiter Teil: Theorie der phänomenologischen Reduktion (First Philosophy, Vol 2:
Phenomenological Reductions)
• 1925. Erste Philosophie. Erster Teil: Kritische Ideengeschichte (First Philosophy Vol 1: Critical History of
Ideas)
• 1928. Vorlesungen zur Phänomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins.
• 1929. Formale und transzendentale Logik. Versuch einer Kritik der logischen Vernunft (Formal and
Transcendental Logic)
• 1931. Méditations cartésiennes (Cartesian Meditations)
• 1936. Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie: Eine Einleitung in
die phänomenologische Philosophie (The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An
Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy)
• 1939. Erfahrung und Urteil. Untersuchungen zur Genealogie der Logik. (Experience and Judgment)
• 1952. Ideen II: Phänomenologische Untersuchungen zur Konstitution.
• 1952. Ideen III: Die Phänomenologie und die Fundamente der Wissenschaften.

In English
• Philosophy of Arithmetic, Willard, Dallas, trans., 2003 [1891]. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Logical Investigations, 1973 [1900, second revised editions 1913], Findlay, J. N., trans. London: Routledge.
• "Philosophy as Rigorous Science", translated in Quentin Lauer, editor, 1965 [1910] Phenomenology and the
Crisis of Philosophy. New York: Harper & Row.
• Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy - First Book: General
Introduction to a Pure Phenomenology, 1982 [1913]. Kersten, F., trans. The Hague: Nijhoff.
• Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy - Second Book: Studies in the
Phenomenology of Constitution, 1989. R. Rojcewicz and A. Schuwer, translators. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy - Third Book: Phenomenology
and the Foundations of the Sciences, 1980, Klein, T. E., and Pohl, W. E., translators. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time (1893-1917), 1990 [1928]. Brough, J.B., trans.
Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Cartesian Meditations, 1960 [1931]. Cairns, D., trans. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Online. (http://www.archive.org/
details/cartesianmeditat017661mbp)
• Formal and Transcendental Logic, 1969 [1929], Cairns, D., trans. The Hague: Nijhoff.
Edmund Husserl 29

• Experience and Judgement, 1973 [1939], Churchill, J. S., and Ameriks, K., translators. London: Routledge.
• The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Philosophy, 1970 [1936/54], Carr, D., trans. Evanston:
Northwestern University Press.
• “Universal Teleology”. Telos (http://www.telospress.com) 4 (Fall 1969). New York: Telos Press.
Anthologies:
• Willard, Dallas, trans., 1994. Early Writings in the Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Welton, D., ed., 1999. The Essential Husserl. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Secondary literature
• Bernet, Rudolf, et al., 1993. Introduction to Husserlian Phenomenology. Evanston: Northwestern University
Press. ISBN 0-8101-1030-X
• Hopkins, Burt C., (2011) The Philosophy of Husserl. Durham: Acumen.
• Derrida, Jacques, 1954 (French), 2003 (English). The Problem of Genesis in Husserl's Philosophy. Chicago &
London: University of Chicago Press.
• --------, 1962 (French), 1976 (English). Introduction to Husserl's The Origin of Geometry. Includes Derrida's
translation of Appendix III of Husserl's 1936 The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental
Phenomenology.
• --------, 1967 (French), 1973 (English). Speech and Phenomena (La Voix et le Phénomène), and other Essays on
Husserl's Theory of Signs. ISBN 0-8101-0397-4
• Everdell, William R. (1998), The First Moderns, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-22480-5
• Fine, Kit, 1995, "Part-Whole" in Smith, B., and Smith, D. W., eds., The Cambridge Companion to Husserl.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Fink, Eugen 1995, Sixth Cartesian meditation. The Idea of a Transcendental Theory of Method with textual
notations by Edmund Husserl. Translated with an introduction by Ronald Bruzina, Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.
• Føllesdal, Dagfinn, 1972, "An Introduction to Phenomenology for Analytic Philosophers" in Olson, R. E., and
Paul, A. M., eds., Contemporary Philosophy in Scandinavia. John Hopkins Univ. Press: 417-30.
• Hill, C. O., 1991. Word and Object in Husserl, Frege, and Russell: The Roots of Twentieth-Century Philosophy.
Ohio Univ. Press.
• -------- and Rosado Haddock, G. E., 2000. Husserl or Frege? Meaning, Objectivity, and Mathematics. Open
Court.
• Levinas, Emmanuel, 1963 (French), 1973 (English). The Theory of Intuition in Husserl's Phenomenology.
Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
• Köchler, Hans, 1983, "The Relativity of the Soul and the Absolute State of the Pure Ego", Analecta Husserliana
16: 95-107.
• --------, 1986. Phenomenological Realism. Selected Essays. Frankfurt a. M./Bern: Peter Lang.
• Mohanty, J. N., 1974, "Husserl and Frege: A New Look at Their Relationship", Research in Phenomenology 4:
51-62.
• --------, 1982. Edmund Husserl's Theory of Meaning. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
• --------, 1982. Husserl and Frege. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Moran, D. and Cohen, J., 2012, The Husserl Dictionary. London, Continuum Press.
• Natanson, Maurice, 1973. Edmund Husserl: Philosopher of Infinite Tasks. Evanston: Northwestern University
Press. ISBN 0-8101-0425-3
• Ricœur, Paul, 1967. Husserl: An Analysis of His Phenomenology. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
• Rollinger, R. D., 1999, Husserl's Position in the School of Brentano in Phaenomenologica 150. Kluwer. ISBN
0-7923-5684-5
Edmund Husserl 30

• --------, 2008. Austrian Phenomenology: Brentano, Husserl, Meinong, and Others on Mind and Language.
Frankfurt am Main: Ontos-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86838-005-7
• Schuhmann, K., 1977. Husserl – Chronik (Denk- und Lebensweg Edmund Husserls). Number I in Husserliana
Dokumente. Martinus Nijhoff. ISBN 90-247-1972-0
• Simons, Peter, 1987. Parts: A Study in Ontology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Sokolowski, Robert. Introduction to Phenomenology (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521667925). New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-521-66792-0
• Smith, B. & Smith, D. W., eds. (1995), The Cambridge companion to Husserl (http://books.google.ru/
books?id=1PIhzc6ZBlIC&printsec=frontcover&dq="cambridge+companion+to+husserl"#v=onepage&q&
f=false), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-43616-8
• Smith, David Woodruff, 2007. Husserl London: Routledge.
• Stiegler, Bernard, 2009. Technics and Time, 2: Disorientation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Zahavi, Dan, 2003. Husserl's Phenomenology. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4546-3

External links

Husserl archives
• Husserl-Archives Leuven (http://www.hiw.kuleuven.ac.be/hiw/eng/husserl/), the main Husserl-Archive in
Leuven, International Centre for Phenomenological Research.
• Husserliana: Edmund Husserl Gesammelte Werke (http://www.hiw.kuleuven.be/hiw/eng/husserl/
Husserliana.php), the ongoing critical edition of Husserl's works.
• Husserliana:Materialien (http://www.hiw.kuleuven.be/hiw/eng/husserl/Materialien.php), edition for
lectures and shorter works.
• Edmund Husserl Collected Works (http://www.hiw.kuleuven.be/hiw/eng/husserl/Collected.php), English
translation of Husserl's works.
• Husserl-Archives (http://www.husserl.uni-koeln.de/) at the University of Cologne.
• Husserl-Archives Freiburg (http://www.husserlarchiv.uni-freiburg.de/husserl.html).
• Husserl Archives at the New School (http://www.newschool.edu/gf/phil/husserl/) (New York).
• Archives Husserl de Paris (http://www.umr8547.ens.fr/fonds-d'Archives.html), at the École normale
supérieure, Paris.
• Husserl Archives at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh (http://www.library.duq.edu/silverman/collections.
htm).

Other links
• Edmund Husserl (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/husserl) entry by Christian Beyer in the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Phenomenology (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology) entry by David Woodruff Smith in the
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: " Edmund Husserl (1859-1938). (http://www.iep.utm.edu/husserl/) –
Marianne Sawicki. Accessed 2011-04-28.
• Barry Smith, Papers on Edmund Husserl (http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/articles/husserl.html)
• The Husserl Page by Bob Sandmeyer (http://www.husserlpage.com/) Includes a number of online texts in
German and English.
• Husserl.net (http://www.husserl.net), open content project.
• " Edmund Husserl: Formal Ontology and Transcendental Logic. (http://www.ontology.co/husserle.htm)"
Resource guide on Husserl's logic and formal ontology, with annotated bibliography.
Edmund Husserl 31

• The Husserl Circle. (http://www.husserlcircle.org/)

• Cartesian Meditations (http://archive.org/details/CartesiamMeditations) in Internet Archive
• Ideas, Part I (http://www.archive.org/details/IdeasPartI) in Internet Archive

Phenomenological sociology
Phenomenological sociology is the study of the formal structures of concrete social existence as made available in
and through the analytical description of acts of intentional consciousness. The object of such an analysis is the
meaningful lived world of everyday life: the Lebenswelt, or "Life-world". The task of phenomenological sociology,
like that of every other phenomenological investigation, is to account for, or describe, the formal structures of this
object of investigation in terms of subjectivity, as an object-constituted-in-and-for-consciousness.[] That which
makes such a description different from the "naive" subjective descriptions of the man in the street, or those of the
traditional social scientist, both operating in the natural attitude of everyday life, is the utilizaton of
phenomenological methods.
The leading exponent of Phenomenological Sociology was Alfred Schütz(1899–1959). Schütz sought to provide a
critical philosophical foundation for Max Weber's interpretive sociology / verstehende soziologie by applying
methods and insights derived from the phenomenological philosophy of Edmund Husserl(1859–1938) to the study of
the social world.[][] Wikipedia:Please clarify It is the building of this bridge between Husserlian phenomenology and
Weberian sociology that serves as the starting point for contemporary phenomenological sociology. This does not
mean, of course, that all versions of phenomenological sociology must be based on Weberian themes. In point of
fact, there is some historical evidence [Dilthey's influence on Weber re: the former's theory of Weltanschauung, and
Husserl's influence on Dilthey re: the former's theory of meaning] that would support the argument that elements of
Weberian sociology are themselves based on certain phenomenological themes; especially in regard to the theory of
the intended meaning of an act, and ideas regarding theory and concept formation.
While Husserl's work was directed at establishing the formal structures of intentional consciousness, Schütz's work
was directed at establishing the formal structures of what he termed the Life-world.[] Husserl's work was conducted
as a transcendental phenomenology of consciousness. Schütz's work was conducted as a mundane phenomenology of
the social world.[] Wikipedia:Please clarify The difference in their respective projects rests at the level of analysis,
the objects taken as a topic of study, and the type of phenomenological reduction that is employed for the purposes
of analysis.
Ultimately these two distinct phenomenological projects should be seen as complementary, with the structures of the
latter dependent on the structures of the former. That is, valid phenomenological descriptions of the formal structures
of the Life-world should be wholly consistent with the descriptions of the formal structures of intentional
consciousness. It is from the latter that the former derives its validity, verifiability, and truth value.[] This is in
keeping with Husserl's conception of phenomenology as "First Philosophy", the foundation, or ground, for both
philosophy and all of the sciences.[]

General thesis of the natural attitude

The general thesis of the natural attitude is the ideational foundation for the fact-world of our straightforward,
common sense social experience Wikipedia:Please clarify. It unites the world of individual objects into a unified
world of meaning, which we assume is shared by any and all who share our culture (Schütz:1962) Wikipedia:Please
clarify. It forms the underpinning for our thoughts and actions. It is the projected assumption, or belief, in a naturally
occurring social world that is both factually objective in its existential status, and unquestioned in its "natural"
appearance; social objects [persons, language, institutions, etc.] have the same existential "thing" status as objects
occurring in nature [rocks, trees, and animals, etc.].
Phenomenological sociology 32

Although it is often referred to as the "General Thesis of the Natural Attitude", it is not a thesis in the formal sense of
the term, but a non-thematic assumption, or belief, that underlies our sense of the objectivity and facticity of the
world, and the objects appearing in this world. The facticity of this world of common sense is both unquestioned and
virtually "unquestionable"; it is sanctionable as to its status as that which "is", and that which "everyone", or, at least,
"any reasonable person", agrees to be the case with regard to the factual character of the world.
As far as traditional social science is concerned, this taken-for-granted world of social facts is the starting and end
point for any and all investigations of the social world. It provides the raw, observable, taken-for-granted "data" upon
which the findings of the social sciences are idealized, conceptualized, and offered up for analysis and discourse.
Within traditional social science, this "data" is formulated into a second order world of abstractions and idealizations
constituted in accordance with these sciences' pre-determined interpretive schemes (Husserl:1989).
Schutz's phenomenological descriptions are made from within the phenomenoloigcal attitude, after the
phenomenological reduction [epoche], which serves to suspend this assumption, or belief, and reveal the phenomena
occurring within the natural attitude as objects-for-consciousness.

Phenomenological reduction
Martin Heidegger aptly characterizes Husserl's phenomenological research project as, "...the analytic description of
intentionality in its a priori" (Heidegger:1992); as it is the phenomenon of intentionality which provides the mode of
access for conducting any and all phenomenological investigations, and the ultimate ground or foundation
guaranteeing any findings resulting from any such inquiry. In recognizing consciousness as having the formal
structure of intentionality, as always having consciousness of an intended object, Husserlian phenomenology has
located the access point to a radical new form of scientific description.
Methodologically, access to this field is obtained through the phenomenological reduction. While there is some
controversy as to the official name, number, and levels of the reduction, this internal argument among the
philosophers need not concern us. For the purposes of a mundane phenomenology of the social world, we, as
phenomenological social scientists, engage in a mundane phenomeological reduction called the epoche. The
hallmark of this form of the reduction is what it reveals about its field of inquiry: a mundane phenomenology of the
social world defines its phenomenal field as the intersubjective region of mundane consciousness as appearing from
within the natural attutude.
The phenomenological reduction as applied to a mundane analysis of the social world consists of the bracketing
[equivalents: methodical disregard, putting out of play, suspension] of the thesis of the natural attitude. This
bracketing is nothing more than a bracketing of the existential belief in the existence of the objective world; the
existential status of the world itself is not called into question. The result of this bracketing is that our attention is
shifted from the objects in the world as they occur in nature, to the objects in the world as they appear for
consciousness - as phenomenon for intentional consciousness. Our descriptions of objects in the world are now
transformed from the naive descriptions of objects as occurring in nature, to phenomenological descriptions of
objects as appearing for consciousness. In short, for the purpose of a mundane phenomenological analysis within the
natural attitude, the epoche transforms objects as occurring in nature into: objects-for-subjectivity,
objects-for-consciousness, objects-as-intended.
Keep in mind that for positivism, the meaning of an object is, by definition, "objective". That is, the meaning of the
object is a property of the object itself, is independent of any particular observer, and "the same" for any and all
observers regardless of their orientation or perspective. For phenomenology, an object is always intended, and
constituted, as meaningful by a particular intending subject from a particular orientation and from a particular
perspectival viewing point. In addition, phenomenologically speaking, the meaning of the object cannot be separated
from its phenomenonality, or materiality, and cannot be constituted qua meaningful object without the meaning
bestowing act of intending on the part of a constituting subject.
Phenomenological sociology 33

For a phenomenology undertaken within the natural attitude, meaning does not inherently accrue to an object as a
thing-in-itself, is not an "add-on" to the object [a label], and is not separable from the object as constituted by the
intending subject in the act of meaning constitution. For phenomenology, the meaning and the object [in its
"materiality"] are co-constituted in the intending of the object by the subject - phenomenologically speaking there are
only meaningful objects. There is no such thing as a neutrally valued object, or a meaningless object, and the notion
of an object as "nonsense" is itself a meaningful determination - as the existentialists would say, we are condemned
to meaning.
Note that because we are born into an already existing social world that is already pre-interpreted and meaningful as
an intersubjectively available "entity", any proposal that the subject is creating the object, or creating the meaning of
the object as an individual achievement in a particular situation is a misrepresentation of what is actually taking
place. Within the Natural Attitude of Everyday Life, the subject's role in the constitution of meaninngful objects is
better understood as a reading off, or interpretation, of the meaning from the object-as-intended. This reading off, or
interpretation, of the object's meaning is an intersubjective achievement of the intending subject that takes place
within the intersubjective realm of the natural attitude.

References

Phenomenology (psychology)
Phenomenology is an approach to psychological subject matter that has its roots in the philosophical work of
Edmund Husserl.[1] Early phenomenologists such as Husserl, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty
conducted philosophical investigations of consciousness in the early 20th century. Their critiques of psychologism
and positivism later influenced at least two main fields of contemporary psychology: the phenomenological
psychological approach of the Duquesne School (The Descriptive Phenomenological Method in Psychology),
including Amedeo Giorgi[1][2] and Frederick Wertz; and the experimental approaches associated with Francisco
Varela, Shaun Gallagher, Evan Thompson, and others (embodied mind thesis). Other names associated with the
movement include Jonathan Smith (Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis), Steinar Kvale, and Wolfgang
Köhler. Phenomenological psychologists have also figured prominently in the history of the humanistic psychology
movement.
The experiencing subject can be considered to be the person or self, for purposes of convenience. In
phenomenological philosophy (and in particular in the work of Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty),
"experience" is a considerably more complex concept than it is usually taken to be in everyday use. Instead,
experience (or being, or existence itself) is an "in-relation-to" phenomenon, and it is defined by qualities of
directedness, embodiment, and worldliness, which are evoked by the term "Being-in-the-World".[3]
The quality or nature of a given experience is often referred to by the term qualia, whose archetypical exemplar is
"redness". For example, we might ask, "Is my experience of redness the same as yours?" While it is difficult to
answer such a question in any concrete way, the concept of intersubjectivity is often used as a mechanism for
understanding how it is that humans are able to empathise with one another's experiences, and indeed to engage in
meaningful communication about them. The phenomenological formulation of Being-in-the-World, where person
and world are mutually constitutive, is central here.
Phenomenology (psychology) 34

Difficulties in considering subjective phenomena

The philosophical psychology prevalent before the end of the 19th century relied heavily on introspection. The
speculations concerning the mind based on those observations were criticized by the pioneering advocates of a more
scientific approach to psychology, such as William James and the behaviorists Edward Thorndike, Clark Hull, John
B. Watson, and B. F. Skinner. However, not everyone agrees that introspection is intrinsically problematic, such as
Francisco Varela, who has trained experimental participants in the structured "introspection" of phenomenological
reduction.[4]
In the early 1970's, Amedeo Giorgi applied phenomenological theory to his development of the Descriptive
Phenomenological Method in Psychology in order to overcome certain problems he perceived, from his work in
psychophysics, with approaching subjective phenomena from the traditional hypothetical-deductive framework of
the natural sciences. Giorgi hoped to use what he had learned from his natural science background to develop a
rigorous qualitative research method. Giorgi has thus described his overall project as such: "[Phenomenological
psychology] is nothing like natural sciences... because its [dealing with] human experiences and human phenomena.
[However] I want to be sure that our criteria is this: that every natural scientist will have to respect our method. I’m
not just trying to satisfy clinicians, or therapists, or humanists, I’m trying to satisfy the most severe criterion—natural
scientists... because I anticipate that some day, when qualitative research develops and gets strong, the natural
science people are going to criticize it. And I want to be able to stand up and say, 'Go ahead, criticize it—but you
won’t find any flaws here'."[5]
Philosophers have long confronted the problem of "qualia". Few philosophers believe that it is possible to be sure
that one person's experience of the "redness" of an object is the same as another person's, even if both persons had
effectively identical genetic and experiential histories.[citation needed] In principle, the same difficulty arises in feelings
(the subjective experience of emotion), in the experience of effort, and especially in the "meaning" of
concepts.[citation needed] As a result, many qualitative psychologists have claimed phenomenological inquiry to be
essentially a matter of "meaning-making" and thus a question to be addressed by interpretive approaches.[3][6]

Psychotherapy and the phenomenology of emotion

Carl Rogers' person-centered psychotherapy theory is based directly on the "phenomenal field" personality theory of
Combs and Snygg.[7][8] That theory in turn was grounded in phenomenological thinking.[9] Rogers attempts to put a
therapist in closer contact with a person by listening to the person's report of their recent subjective experiences,
especially emotions of which the person is not fully aware. For example, in relationships the problem at hand is often
not based around what actually happened but, instead, based around the perceptions and feelings of each individual
in the relationship. The phenomenal field focuses on "how one feels right now".

References
[1] Giorgi, Amedeo. (1970). Psychology as a Human Science. New York : Harper & Row.
[2] Giorgi, Amedeo. (2009). The Descriptive Phenomenological Method in Psychology. Duquesne University Press: Pittsburgh, PA.
[3] Langdridge, D. (2006). Phenomenological psychology: theory, research and method. Harlow: Pearson.
[4] Varela, F.J. (1996). Neurophenomenology: a methodological remedy to the hard problem. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3330-350.
[5] http:/ / phenomenologyblog. com/ ?p=485
[6] Seidner, Stanley S. (1989). "Köhler's Dilemma", In Issues of Language Assessment. vol 3. Ed., Stanley S.Seidner. Springfield, Il.: State Board
of Education. pp. 5–6.
[7] Snygg, Donald and Combs, Arthur W. (1949), Individual Behavior: A New Frame of Reference for Psychology. New York, Harper &
Brothers 1949
[8] Rogers, Carl R. (1951) Client-Centered Therapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
[9] "Personality Theories" (http:/ / webspace. ship. edu/ cgboer/ snygg& combs. html), Boeree, C. George, Donald Snygg and Arthur Combs in
Personality Theory retrieved Oct. 7, 2007
Intersubjectivity 35

Intersubjectivity
Intersubjectivity is a key term used in philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology to conceptualize the
psychological relation between people. It is usually used in contrast to solipsistic individual experience, emphasizing
our inherently social being.

Definition
The term has been defined in at least three ways:[1]
1. First, in its weakest sense intersubjectivity refers to agreement. There is intersubjectivity between people if they
agree on a given set of meanings or a definition of the situation. For example, Thomas Scheff defines
intersubjectivity as "the sharing of subjective states by two or more individuals."[2]
2. Second, and more subtly intersubjectivity refers to the "common-sense," shared meanings constructed by people
in their interactions with each other and used as an everyday resource to interpret the meaning of elements of
social and cultural life. If people share common sense, then they share a definition of the situation.[3]
3. Third, the term has been used to refer to shared (or partially shared) divergences of meaning. Self-presentation,
lying, practical jokes, and social emotions, for example, all entail not a shared definition of the situation, but
partially shared divergences of meaning. Someone who is telling a lie is engaged in an intersubjective act because
they are working with two different definitions of the situation. Lying is thus genuinely inter-subjective (in the
sense of operating between two subjective definitions of reality).
Intersubjectivity emphasizes that shared cognition and consensus is essential in the shaping of our ideas and
relations. Language, quintessentially, is viewed as communal rather than private. Therefore, it is problematic to view
the individual as partaking in a private world, one which has a meaning defined apart from any other subjects. But in
our shared divergence from a commonly understood experience, these private worlds of semi-solipsism naturally
emerge.
Intersubjectivity can also be understood as the process of psychological energy moving between two or more
subjects. In a room where someone is lying on their deathbed, for example, the room can appear to be enveloped in a
shroud of gloom for other people interacting with the dying person. The psychological weight of one subject comes
to bear on the minds of others depending on how they react to it, thereby creating an intersubjective experience that,
without multiple consciousnesses interacting with each other, would be otherwise strictly solitary. Love is a prime
example of intersubjectivity that implies a shared feeling of care and affection, among others.

In psychoanalysis
Intersubjectivity is an important concept in modern schools of psychoanalysis, where it has found application to the
theory of the interrelations between analyst and analysand. Adopting an intersubjective perspective in
psychoanalysis means, above all, to give up what Robert Stolorow and George E. Atwood define as "the myth of
isolated mind."[4] In Stolorow, Atwood, and Orange's "intersubjective-systems theory," "intersubjective" refers not to
the sharing of subjective states but to the constitution of psychological systems or fields in the interplay of
differently organized experiential worlds. In their view, emotional experience always takes form within such
intersubjective systems.
Among the early authors who explored this conception in psychoanalysis, in an explicit or implicit way, were Heinz
Kohut, Robert Stolorow, George E. Atwood, Jessica Benjamin in the United States and Silvia Montefoschi in Italy.
Since the late 1980s, a direction in psychoanalysis often referred to as relational psychoanalysis or just relational
theory has developed. A central person figure in the theory is Daniel Stern.[5] Empirically, the intersubjective school
is inspired by research on the non-verbal communication of infants, young children, and their parents.[6][7] A central
question is how relational issues are communicated at a very fast pace in a non-verbal fashion. Scholars also stress
Intersubjectivity 36

the importance of real relationships between two equivalent partners. The journal Psychoanalytic Dialogues is
devoted to relational psychoanalysis.

In philosophy
Intersubjectivity is a major topic in philosophy. The duality of self and other has long been contemplated by
philosophers, and what it means to have an intersubjective experience, and what sort of lessons can be drawn from
them. Ethics, for example, deals with how one should act and what one owes in an intersubjective experience where
there is an identifiable other.

Phenomenology
In phenomenology, intersubjectivity performs many functions. It allows empathy, which in phenomenology involves
experiencing another person as a subject rather than just as an object among objects. In so doing, one experiences
oneself as seen by the Other, and the world in general as a shared world instead of one only available to oneself.
Early studies on the phenomenology of intersubjectivity were done by Edmund Husserl, the founder of
phenomenology. His student, Edith Stein, extended the concept and its basis in empathy in her 1917 doctoral
dissertation On the Problem of Empathy (Zum Problem der Einfühlung).
Intersubjectivity also helps in the constitution of objectivity: in the experience of the world as available not only to
oneself, but also to the Other, there is a bridge between the personal and the shared, the self and the Others.

In Psychology
Studies of dialogue and dialogism have revealed how language is deeply intersubjective. When we speak, we always
address our interlocutors, taking their perspective, and orienting to what we think they think (or more usually don't
think).[8] Within this tradition of research it has been argued that the structure of individual signs or symbols, the
basis of language, are intersubjective[9] and that the psychological process of self-reflection entails
intersubjectivity.[10] Recent research on mirror neurons provides evidence for the deeply intersubjective basis of
human psychology,[11] and arguably much of the literature on empathy and theory of mind relate directly to
intersubjectivity.

References
[1] Gillespie, A. & Cornish, F. (2010). Intersubjectivity: Towards a dialogical analysis (http:/ / lse. academia. edu/ AlexGillespie/ Papers/
1347646/ Intersubjectivity_Towards_a_dialogical_analysis). Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 40, 19-46
[2] Scheff, Thomas et al. (2006). Goffman Unbound!: A New Paradigm for Social Science (The Sociological Imagination), Paradigm Publishers
(ISBN 978-1-59451-196-7)
[3] Clive Seale. Glossary (http:/ / people. brunel. ac. uk/ ~hsstcfs/ glossary. htm), Researching Society and Culture.
[4] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=EbuJO7ZOHtMC& pg=PA7& lpg=PA7& dq=the+ myth+ of+ isolated+ mind& source=web&
ots=q8NGjSl1CH& sig=JlbsdG9ldNL_K3yffYPf5waPbmQ
[7] Schechter DS (2003). Intergenerational communication of maternal violent trauma: Understanding the interplay of reflective functioning and
posttraumatic psychopathology. In S.W. Coates, J.L. Rosenthal and D.S. Schechter (eds.) September 11: Trauma and Human Bonds. Hillside,
NJ: Analytic Press, Inc. pp. 115-142.
[8] Linell, P. (2009). Rethinking language, mind and world dialogically. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing
[9] Gillespie, A. (2009). The intersubjective nature of symbols (http:/ / lse. academia. edu/ AlexGillespie/ Papers/ 1347714/
The_intersubjective_nature_of_symbols). In Brady Wagoner (Ed), Symbolic transformations. London: Routledge
[10] Gillespie, A. (2007). The social basis of self-reflection (http:/ / lse. academia. edu/ AlexGillespie/ Papers/ 1347645/
The_social_basis_of_self-reflection). In Valsiner and Rosa (Eds), The Cambridge handbook of sociocultural psychology. Cambridge:
Cambridge University press
[11] Rizzolatti, G. & Arbib, M. A. (1998). Language within our grasp. Trends in neurosciences, 21, 188-194.
Intersubjectivity 37

Further reading

In psychoanalysis
• Laplanche, J. & Pontalis, J. B. (1974). The Language of Psycho-Analysis, Edited by W. W. Norton & Company,
ISBN 0-393-01105-4
• Stolorow, R. D., Atwood, G. E., & Orange, D. M. (2002). Worlds of Experience: Interweaving Philosophical and
Clinical Dimensions in Psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books.

Philosophy
• Edmund Husserl Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass 1905-1920
• Edmund Husserl Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass 1921-1928
• Edmund Husserl Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass 1929-1935
• Edmund Husserl Cartesian Meditations, Edited by S. Strasser, 1950. ISBN 978-90-247-0068-4

External links
• Critique of intersubjectivity (http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-73784/intersubj.htm) Article by Mats Winther
• Edmund Husserl: Empathy, intersubjectivity and lifeworld (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/husserl/
#EmpIntLif), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Alfred Schütz 38

Alfred Schütz
Alfred Schütz
Born April 13, 1899
Vienna, Austria-Hungary

Died May 20, 1959 (aged 60)

New York City, New York

Institutions The New School

Alma mater The University of Vienna

Known for Social phenomenology

Influences Ludwig von Mises, Henri Bergson, William James, Edmund Husserl, Max Weber

Influenced Peter Ludwig Berger, Thomas Luckmann, Harold Garfinkel, David Sudnow, Dan Zahavi

Sociology

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Alfred Schütz (13 April 1899 – 20 May 1959) was an Austrian social scientist, whose work bridged sociological
and phenomenological traditions to form a social phenomenology, and who is "gradually achieving recognition as
one of the foremost philosophers of social science of the [twentieth] century".[1] Schütz "attempted to relate the
thought of Edmund Husserl to the social world and the social sciences. His Phenomenology of the Social World
supplied philosophical foundations for Max Weber's sociology and for economics."[2]

Biography
Schütz was born in Vienna, Austria into an upper-middle class family as an only child. He studied law and business
at the University of Vienna where he received his degree in law. He worked as an international lawyer for Reitler
and Company, and moved to the United States in 1939, where he became a member of the faculty of The New
School. He taught sociology and philosophy as well as serving as chair of the Philosophy department. Schütz died in
New York City at the age of 60.[3] His primary focuses were concentrated on phenomenology, social science
methodology and the philosophy of Edmund Husserl, William James and others.
Schütz is unique as a scholar of the social sciences in that he pursued a career as a lawyer for an Austrian banking
firm for almost his entire life, teaching part-time at the New School for Social Research in New York and producing
Alfred Schütz 40

key papers in phenomenological sociology that fill three volumes (published by Nijhoff, The Hague).

Work
Schütz's principal task was to create a philosophical foundation for the social sciences. He was strongly influenced
by Ludwig von Mises, Henri Bergson, William James, and Edmund Husserl. Contrary to common belief, George
Herbert Mead - whose 'concern with the analysis of meaning in social interaction paralleled that of Schütz, although
it had been arrived at by a completely different road'[4] - was of little importance for Schütz, who was very critical of
his behavioristic approach.[5] Although Schütz was never a student of Husserl, he, together with a colleague, Felix
Kaufmann, studied Husserl's work intensively in seeking a basis for interpretive sociology derived from the work of
Max Weber. This work and its continuation resulted in 1932 in his first book, Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen
Welt (literally, The meaningful construction of the social world, but published in English as The phenomenology of
the social world). The publication brought him to the attention of Husserl, whom he 'frequently thereafter visited';
but 'although he corresponded with Husserl until the latter's death [in 1938], he was unable for personal reasons to
accept the offer to become his assistant'[4] at Freiburg University.
Schütz's main concerns were with the way in which people grasp the consciousness of others while they live within
their own stream of consciousness. He talked much about intersubjectivity but in a larger sense. He used it to mean a
concern with the social world, specifically the social nature of knowledge. A great deal of his work deals with the
"life world". Within this, people create social reality as well as they are constrained by the preexisting factors and
structures that are in place both socially and culturally. He was very focused on the "dialectical relationship between
the way people construct social reality and the obdurate social and cultural reality that they inherit from those who
preceded them in the social world"[6]
Schütz's writings had a lasting impact on sociology, both on phenomenological approaches to sociology (especially
through the work of Thomas Luckmann and Peter L. Berger) and in ethnomethodology through the writings of
Harold Garfinkel. Luckmann was heavily influenced by Schütz's work. Luckmann, a student of Schutz (along with
Peter L. Berger), ultimately finished Schutz's work on the Structures of the Lifeworld after Schutz died by filling out
his unfinished notes. Berger and Luckmann went on to use Schütz's work to further understand human culture and
reality.[7]

Phenomenology
Phenomenology originated with Edmund Husserl. Schütz became friends with Husserl and soon after began working
on this concept. Phenomenology is the study of things as they appear (phenomena). It is also often said to be
descriptive rather than explanatory: a central task of phenomenology is to provide a clear, undistorted description of
the ways things appear".[8]

The Lifeworld
In this world of everyday life, "people both create social reality and are constrained by the preexisting social and
cultural structures created by their predecessors."[9] Within this world, relationships between the social and natural
world are what come into doubt. There is this existence of meaning which comes into play yet most people simply
accept the world how it is and never second guess the concept or problem of meaning.[10] Schütz delves even more
into specific relationships such as the difference between intimate face-to-face relationships and distant and
impersonal relationships.
Alfred Schütz 41

The four divisions of the lifeworld

'Schütz is, according to Natanson, "phenomenology's spokesman of the Lebenswelt"...the mundane lifeworld',[11]
which he divided into four distinct subworlds in what has been called 'the crux of Schütz's theoretical contribution.
He believes that our social experience makes up a vast world...distinguish[d] between directly experienced social
reality and a social reality lying beyond the horizon of direct experience'.[12] The former consisted of the Umwelt of
what Schütz termed "consociates" or "fellow-men" - of the man who 'shares with me a community of space and a
community of time'.[13]
By contrast, 'those who I am not directly perceiving fall into three classes. First comes the world of my
contemporaries (Mitwelt), then the world of my predecessors (Vorwelt), and finally the world of my successors
(Folgewelt)'.[12] The last two represent the past and the future, whereas one's contemporaries share a community of
time, if not space, and 'are distinguished from the other two by the fact that it is in principle possible for them to
become my consociates'.[12]
Schütz was interested in mapping 'the transition from direct to indirect experience...as two poles between which
stretches a continuous series of experiences',[14] as well as in what he called the progressive anonymisation of the
Mitwelt: a 'scale of increasing anonymity. There is, for instance, my absent friend, his brother whom he has
described to me, the professor whose books I have read, the postal clerk, the Canadian Parliament, abstract entities
like Canada herself, the rules of English grammar, or the basic principles of jurisprudence'.[15] For Schütz, 'the
further out we go into the world of contemporaries, the more anonymous its inhabitants become', ending with the
most anonymous of all - 'artifacts of any kind which bear witness to the subjective meaning-context of some
unknown person',[16] but nothing more.
In his later writings, Schütz explored the way that 'in social situations of everyday life relations pertaining to all these
dimensions are frequently intertwined...in various degrees of anonymity'.[17] Thus for instance, 'if in a face-to-face
relationship with a friend I discuss a magazine article dealing with the attitude of the President and Congress
toward...China...I am in a relationship not only with the perhaps anonymous contemporary writer of the article but
also with the contemporary individual or collective actors on the social scene designated by the terms "President",
"Congress", "China"'.[18]

Biographies
• Wagner, H. R. (1983). Alfred Schütz: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago and London, The University of Chicago
Press.
• Barber, M. (2004). The Participating Citizen: A Biography of Alfred Schütz. New York, State University of New
York Press.

Bibliography
1932. Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt: eine Einleitung in die verstehende Soziologie. Wien: J. Springer.
1941. "William James' Concept of the Stream of Consciousness Phenonemologically Interpreted." In Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research. 1: 442-451.
1942. "Scheler's Theory of Intersubjectivity & the General Thesis of the Alter Ego." In Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research. 2: 323-347.
1945. "On Multiple Realities." In Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 5: 533-576.
1948. "Sartre's Theory of Alter Ego." In Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 9: 181-199.
1951. "Choosing Among Projects of Action." In Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 12: 161-184.
1953. "Edmund Husserl's Ideas, Volume II." In Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 13: 394-413.
1953. "Die Phänomenologie und die fundamente der Wissenschaften. (Ideas III by Edmund Husserl: A Review.)" In
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 13: 506-514.
Alfred Schütz 42

1953. "Common-sense and Scientific Interpretation in Human Action." In Philosophy and Phenomenological
Research. 14: 1-38.
1954. "Concept and Theory Formation in the Social Sciences." In the Journal of Philosophy. 51: 257-272.
1957. "Max Scheler's Epistemology and Ethics: I." In Review of Metaphysics. 11: 304-314.
1958. "Max Scheler's Epistemology and Ethics: II." In Review of Metaphysics. 11: 486-501.
1959. "Type and Eidos in Husserl's Late Philosophy." In Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 20: 147-165.
1962-66. Collected Papers I: The Problem of Social Reality. Edited by M.A. Natanson and H.L. van Breda.
Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
1962-66. Collected Papers II. Studies in Social Theory. Edited by A. Brodersen. Dordrecht, The Netherlands:
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
1962-66. Collected Papers III. Studies in Phenomenological Philosophy. Edited by I. Schutz, Aron Gurwitsch.
Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
1967. The Phenomenology of the Social World. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
1970. Reflections on the Problem of Relevance. Edited by Richard Zaner. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
1971. Das Problem der Relevanz. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
1970. On Phenomenology and Social Relations: Selected Writings. Edited by Helmut R. Wagner. Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
1972. Gesammelte Aufsätze: Band I. Das Problem der Sozialen Wirklichkeit Translated by B. Luckmann and R.H.
Grathoff. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
1972. Gesammelte Aufsätze: Band II. Studien zur Soziologischen Theorie. Edited by A. Brodersen. Translated by A.
von Baeyer. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
1972. Gesammelte Aufsätze: Band III. Studien zur Phaenomenologischen Philosophie Edited by I. Schutz. Translated
by A. von Baeyer. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
1973. The Structures of the Life-World. (Strukturen der Lebenswelt.) By Alfred Schütz and Thomas Luckmann.
Translated by Richard M. Zaner and H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
1976. "Fragments on the Phenomenology of Music." In Music Man. 2: 5-72.
1977. Zur Theorie sozialen Handelns: e. Briefwechsel Alfred Schütz, Talcott Parsons: Herausgegeben u. eingel. von
Walter M. Sprondel. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
1978. The Theory of Social Action: The Correspondence of Alfred Schütz and Talcott Parsons. Edited by Richard
Grathoff. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
1982. Life forms and meaning structure. (Lebensformen und Sinnstruktur.) Translated by Helmut R. Wagner.
London: Routledge & K. Paul.
1985. Alfred Schütz, Aron Gurwitsch: Briefwechsel, 1939-1959. mit einer Einleitung von Ludwig Landgrebe.
Herausgegeben von Richard Grathoff. München: W. Fink.
1989. Philosophers in Exile: the Correspondence of Alfred Schütz and Aron Gurwitsch, 1939-1959. Edited by
Richard Grathoff. Translated by J. Claude Evans. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
1996. Collected Papers IV. Edited by Helmut Wagner, George Psathas, and Fred Kersten. Dordrecht, The
Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Alfred Schütz 43

References
[1] George Walsh, "Introduction", Alfred Schütz, The Phenomenology of the Social World (Illinois 1997) p. xv
[4] Walsh, p. xviii
[11] Lester E. Embree, Schützian Social Science (1999) p. 91
[12] Walsh, p. xxvii
[13] Schütz, Phenomenology p. 163
[14] Schütz, Phenomenology p. 177
[15] Walsh, p. xxviii
[16] Schütz, Phenomenology p. 181
[17] Alfred Schütz, The Problem of Social Reality (The Hague 1973) p. 352
[18] Schütz, Social Reality p. 352

External links
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, " Alfred Schütz, (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schutz/)" by Michael
Barber
• Alfred Schütz Papers (http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.schutz). General Collection, Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
• Schützian Research - A Yearbook of Mundane Phenomenology and Qualitative Social Science. (http://www.
zetabooks.com/schutzian-research-2.html)
• Bibliography of Secondary Sources on Alfred Schütz, 1932-1998. (http://phenomenologycenter.org/about/
specialized-bibliographies/schutz/)
• The Alfred Schütz Archive. (http://www.waseda.jp/Schutz/AlfredEng.htm)
• Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. (http://www.spep.org/)
• Alfred Schutz Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schutz/)
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Phenomenology (http://www.iep.utm.edu/phenom/)
Lifeworld 44

Lifeworld
Lifeworld (German Lebenswelt) may be conceived as a universe of what is self-evident or given,[1] a world that
subjects may experience together.[2] For Husserl, the lifeworld is the fundament for all epistemological enquiries.
The concept has its origin in biology and cultural Protestantism.[3][4]
The lifeworld concept is used in philosophy and in some social sciences, particularly sociology. The concept
emphasizes a state of affairs in which the world is experienced, the world is lived (German erlebt). The lifeworld is a
pre-epistemological stepping stone for phenomenological analysis in the Husserlian tradition.

The phenomenological concept of lifeworld

Edmund Husserl introduced the concept of the lifeworld in his Crisis of European Sciences (1936):
In whatever way we may be conscious of the world as universal horizon, as coherent universe of existing
objects, we, each “I-the-man” and all of us together, belong to the world as living with one another in the
world; and the world is our world, valid for our consciousness as existing precisely through this 'living
together.' We, as living in wakeful world-consciousness, are constantly active on the basis of our passive
having of the world... Obviously this is true not only for me, the individual ego; rather we, in living together,
have the world pre-given in this together, belong, the world as world for all, pre-given with this ontic
meaning... The we-subjectivity... [is] constantly functioning.[5]
This collective inter-subjective pool of perceiving, Husserl explains, is both universally present and, for humanity's
purposes, capable of arriving at 'objective truth,' or at least as close to objectivity as possible.[6] The 'lifeworld' is a
grand theatre of objects variously arranged in space and time relative to perceiving subjects, is already-always there,
and is the “ground” for all shared human experience.[7] Husserl's formulation of the lifeworld was also influenced by
Wilhelm Dilthey's "life-nexus" (German Lebenszusammenhang) and Martin Heidegger's Being-in-the-world[citation
needed]
(German In-der-Welt-Sein). The concept was further developed by students of Husserl such as Maurice
Merleau-Ponty, Jan Patočka, and Alfred Schütz. The lifeworld can be thought of as the horizon of all our
experiences, in the sense that it is that background on which all things appear as themselves and meaningful. The
lifeworld cannot, however, be understood in a purely static manner; it isn't an unchangeable background, but rather a
dynamic horizon in which we live, and which "lives with us" in the sense that nothing can appear in our lifeworld
except as lived.
The concept represented a turning point in Husserl's phenomenology from the tradition of Descartes and Kant. Up
until then, Husserl had been focused on finding, elucidating, and explaining an absolute foundation of philosophy in
consciousness, without any presuppositions except what can be found through the reflective analysis of
consciousness and what is immediately present to it. Originally, all judgments of the real were to be "bracketed" or
suspended, and then analyzed to bring to light the role of consciousness in constituting or constructing them. With
the concept of the lifeworld, however, Husserl embarked on a different path, which recognizes that, even at its
deepest level, consciousness is already embedded in and operating in a world of meanings and pre-judgements that
are socially, culturally, and historically constituted. Phenomenology thereby became the study not just of the pure
consciousness and meanings of a transcendental ego, as in Husserl's earlier work, but of consciousness and meaning
in context. The lifeworld is one of the more complicated concepts in phenomenology, mainly because of its status as
both personal and intersubjective.
Even if a person's historicity is intimately tied up with his lifeworld, and each person thus has a lifeworld, this
doesn't necessarily mean that the lifeworld is a purely individual phenomenon. In keeping with the
phenomenological notion of intersubjectivity, the lifeworld can be intersubjective even though each individual
necessarily carries his own "personal" lifeworld ("homeworld"); meaning is intersubjectively accessible, and can be
communicated (shared by one's "homecomrades"). However, a homeworld is also always limited by an alienworld.
Lifeworld 45

The internal "meanings" of this alienworld can be communicated, but can never be apprehended as alien; the alien
can only be appropriated or assimilated into the lifeworld, and only understood on the background of the lifeworld.

The sociological concept of lifeworld

The Husserlian elucidation of lifeworld provided a starting point for the phenomenological sociology of Alfred
Schütz, who tried to synthesize Husserl's phenomenology of consciousness, meaning, and the life-world with Max
Weber's sociology and its focus on subjectively meaningful action. Jürgen Habermas has further developed the
concept of the lifeworld in his social theory. For Habermas, the lifeworld is more or less the "background"
environment of competences, practices, and attitudes representable in terms of one's cognitive horizon. Compared to
Husserl with his focus on consciousness, however, Habermas, whose social theory is grounded in communication,
focuses on the lifeworld as consisting of socially and culturally sedimented linguistic meanings. It is the lived realm
of informal, culturally-grounded understandings and mutual accommodations. Rationalization and colonization of
the lifeworld by the instrumental rationality of bureaucracies and market-forces is a primary concern of Habermas's
two-volume Theory of Communicative Action.
For Habermas, communicative action is governed by practical rationality – ideas of social importance are mediated
through the process of linguistic communication according to the rules of practical rationality. By contrast, technical
rationality governs systems of instrumentality, like industries, or on a larger scale, the capitalist economy or the
democratic political government. Ideas of instrumental importance to a system are mediated according to the rules of
that system (the most obvious example is the capitalist economy's use of currency). Self-deception, and thus
systematically distorted communication, is possible only when the lifeworld has been 'colonized' by instrumental
rationality, so some social norm comes into existence and enjoys legitimate power even though it is not justifiable.
This occurs when means of mediating instrumental ideas gains communicative power – as when someone pays a
group of people to stay quiet during a public debate, or if financial or administrative resources are used to advertise
some social viewpoint. When people take the resulting consensus as normatively relevant, the lifeworld has been
colonized and communication has been systematically distorted. The 'colonization' metaphor is used because the use
of steering media to arrive at social consensus is not native to the lifeworld—the decision-making processes of the
systems world must encroach on the lifeworld in a way that is in a sense imperialistic:

“ When stripped of their ideological veils, the imperatives of autonomous subsystems make their way into the lifeworld from the outside—like

”
colonial masters coming into a tribal society—and force a process of assimilation upon it. The diffused perspectives of the local culture cannot
be sufficiently coordinated to permit the play of the metropolis and the world market to be grasped from the periphery.
[8]

The fragmentation of consciousness associated with the two Marxist concepts of alienation and false consciousness
illustrate why, in Habermas' perspective, they are merely special cases of the more general phenomenon of lifeworld
colonization.
Social coordination and systemic regulation occur by means of shared practices, beliefs, values, and structures of
communicative interaction, which may be institutionally based. We are inevitably lifeworldly, such that individuals
and interactions draw from custom and cultural traditions to construct identities, define situations, coordinate action,
and create social solidarity. Ideally this occurs by communicatively coming to understanding (German Verstehen),
but it also occurs through pragmatic negotiations (compare: Seidman, 1997:197).
The lifeworld is related to further concepts such as Pierre Bourdieu's notion of habitus and to the sociological notion
of everyday life.
Lifeworld 46

The epistemological concept of lifeworld

In the course of recent constructivist discourses a discussion about the lifeworld term took place as well. Björn
Kraus' systemic-constructivist version of the lifeworld term considers its phenomenological roots (Husserl and
Schütz), but expands it within the range of epistemological constructivist theory building.[9] In consequence, a new
approach is created, which is not only focusing on the individual perspective upon the lifeworld term, but is also
taking account of social and material environmental conditions and their relevance as emphasized for example by
Habermas. Essential therefore is Kraus' basic assumption that cognitive development depends on two determining
factors. On the one hand side a person's own reality is her subjective construct. On the other hand side, this construct
— in spite of all subjectivity — is not random: Since a person is still linked to her environment, her own reality is
influenced by the conditions of this environment[10] (German Grundsätzliche Doppelbindung menschlicher
Strukturentwicklung).[11]
Building up on this point of view, a separation of individual perception and the social and material environmental
conditions is made possible. Kraus accordingly picks up the lifeworld term, adds the term „life conditions“ (German
Lebenslage[12]) and opposes the two terms to each other.
By this means, lifeworld describes a person's subjectively experienced world, whereas life conditions describe the
person's actual circumstances in life. Accordingly, it could be said that a person's lifeworld is built depending on
their particular life conditions. More precisely, the life conditions include the material and immaterial living
circumstances as for example employment situation, availability of material resources, housing conditions, social
environment (friends, foes, acquaintances, relatives, etc.) as well as the persons physical condition (fat/thin,
tall/small, female/male, healthy/sick, etc.). The lifeworld, in contrast, describes the subjective perception of these
conditions.[13]
Kraus uses the epistemological distinction between subjective reality and objective reality. Thus, a person's lifeworld
correlates with the person's life conditions in the same way than subjective reality correlates with objective reality.
The one is the insurmountable, subjective construct built depending on the other one's conditions.[14]
This contrasting comparison provides a conceptual specification, enabling in the first step the distinction between a
subjectively experienced world and its material and social conditions and allowing in the second step to focus on
these conditions' relevance for the subjective construction of reality.

References
[1] The given (http:/ / www. iep. utm. edu/ e/ epis-per. htm) further explained
[2] Intersubjectivity#Definition
[3] fn: a German fin-de-siècle movement, which questioned the church hierarchy and sought to combine protestant and scientific beliefs (Treitel,
2000)
[4] Eden, 2004
[5] Husserl, Edmund. (1936/1970). The Crisis of the European Sciences, pp. 108-109
[6] Husserl, Edmund. (1936/1970). The Crisis of the European Sciences, p. 133.
[7] Husserl, Edmund. (1936/1970). The Crisis of the European Sciences, p. 142
[8] Habermas, 1987, The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 2, p. 355.
[9] Björn Kraus: Erkenntnistheoretisch-konstruktivistische Perspektiven auf die Soziale Arbeit. In: Wolfgang Krieger (ed.): Systemische Impulse
– Theorieansätze, neue Konzepte und Anwendungsfelder systemsicher Sozialer Arbeit. Ibidem, Stuttgart/Germany 2010.
[10] Björn Kraus: Soziale Arbeit – Macht – Hilfe und Kontrolle. Die Entwicklung und Anwendung eines systemisch-konstruktivistischen
Machtmodells. In: Björn Kraus, Wolfgang Krieger (ed.): Macht in der Sozialen Arbeit – Interaktionsverhältnisse zwischen Kontrolle,
Partizipation und Freisetzung. Jacobs, Lage/Germany 2011. 79-102.
[11] Björn Kraus.: Erkenntnistheoretisch-konstruktivistische Perspektive auf die Soziale Arbeit. In: Wolfgang Krieger (ed.): Systemische Impulse.
Theorieansätze, neue Konzepte und Anwendungsfelder systemischer Sozialer Arbeit. Ibidem, Stuttgart/Germany 2010. 105.
[12] Neurath 1931/Weisser 1956 in Björn Kraus: Lebenswelt und Lebensweltorientierung – eine begriffliche Revision als Angebot an eine
systemisch-konstruktivistische Sozialarbeitswissenschaft. Kontext. Magazine for systemic therapy and family therapy. Vandenhoek &
Ruprecht, Göttingen/Germany. Issue 37/02, 2006. 116–129.
[13] Björn Kraus: Lebenswelt und Lebensweltorientierung – eine begriffliche Revision als Angebot an eine systemisch-konstruktivistische
Sozialarbeitswissenschaft. Kontext. Magazine for systemic therapy and family therapy. Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, Göttingen/Germany. Issue
Lifeworld 47

37/02, 2006. 9.
[14] Björn Kraus: Lebenswelt und Lebensweltorientierung – eine begriffliche Revision als Angebot an eine systemisch-konstruktivistische
Sozialarbeitswissenschaft. Kontext. Magazine for systemic therapy and family therapy. Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, Göttingen/Germany. Issue
37/02, 2006. 11.

Further reading
• Eden, T. (2004). Lebenswelt. in Ebner, K., & Kadi, U. (2004). Wörterbuch der phänomenologischen Begriffe.
Hamburg: Meiner.
• Treitel, C. (2000). The culture of knowledge in the metropolis of science, spiritualism and liberalism in
fin-de-siècle Berlin. in * Goschler, C. (ed.). Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit in Berlin, 1870-1930 (pp. 127–155).
Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.
• Steinbock, A. J. (1995). Home and Beyond, Generative Phenomenology After Husserl. Northwestern University
Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy.

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Ethnomethodology is an approach to sociological inquiry introduced by the American sociologist Harold Garfinkel.
Ethnomethodology's research interest is the study of the everyday methods that people use for the production of
social order (Garfinkel:2002). Ethnomethodology's goal is to document the methods and practices through which
society's members make sense of their world.[1]

Definition
This particular approach in sociology is closely related to applications and approaches employed by researchers of
ethnology, ethnobotany, ethnophysiology, and ethnomusicology. According to Garfinkel, ethnomethodology is an
appropriate term for the study of, “a member’s knowledge of his ordinary affairs, of his own organized enterprises,
where that knowledge is treated by us [as researchers] as part of the same setting that makes it orderable.”[2]
According to Anne Rawls [editor of Garfinkel's Nachlass] ethno+method+ology means the study of members'
methods for producing recognizable social order/s[3]
Ethnomethodology 49

Example
Investigating the conduct of jury members, an ethnomethodologist would seek to describe the common sense
methods through which members of a jury produce themselves in a jury room as jurors: methods for establishing
matters of fact; methods for developing evidence chains; methods for determining the reliability of witness
testimony; methods for establishing the hierarchy of speakers in the jury room; methods for determining the guilt or
innocence of defendants, etc. (see Garfinkel:1967). Such methods, taken individually, in combination, or
collectively, depending on the scope of the investigation, would serve to constitute the social order of being a juror
for the participants, and researcher(s), in that specific social setting [see below: "Some leading policies...": "Social
Orders"]. For the ethnomethodologist, participants bring order to social settings - make them orderable - through the
sense making activities of their shared methods and practices as witnessably enacted in those settings.
In this way, ethnomethodology points to a broad and multi-faceted area of inquiry. John Heritage writes, “In it’s
open-ended reference to [the study of] any kind of sense-making procedure, the term represents a signpost to a
domain of uncharted dimensions rather than a staking out of a clearly delineated territory.”[4]

Origins of ethnomethodology
Theoretical concerns, influences and resources used in the development of ethnomethodology include: traditional
sociological concerns, especially the Parsonian [Talcott Parsons], "Problem of Order"; traditional sociological theory
and methods, primarily Parsons, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber; Aron Gurwitsch's phenomenological field theory
of consciousness / Gestalt Psychology; the Transcendental Phenomenology of Edmund Husserl; Alfred Schutz's
Phenomenology of the Natural Attitude; Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of embodiment, Martin
Heidegger's phenomenology of being / Existential Phenomenology; and Ludwig Wittgenstein's investigations
regarding ordinary language use (Heritage: 1986; Garfinkel: 2002).
Anne Rawls provides a brief developmental history of Garfinkel, and ethnomethodology, in "Ethnomethodology's
Program" (Rawls/Garfinkel: 2002).

Theory and methods

One of the most perplexing problems for those new to ethnomethodology is the discovery that it lacks both a
formally stated theory and a formal methodology. As serious as these problems might appear on the face of it,
neither has prevented ethnomethodologists from doing ethnomethodological studies, and generating a substantial
literature of "findings".[5]
John Heritage has noted the, "off-stage role of theory", in ethnomethodological writings, and the concern that there is
nowhere in the ethnomethodological corpus a systematic theoretical statement that would serve as a touchstone for
ethnomethodological inquiries.[6]
Instead, as in the case of, Studies in Ethnomethodology (1967), we are given oblique theoretical references to:
Wittgenstein [Ordinary Language Philosophy]; Husserl [Transcendental Phenomenology]; Gurwitsch
[Phenomenology/Gestalt Theory]; the works of the social phenomenologist Alfred Schutz [Phenomenology of the
Natural Attitude]; and an assortment of traditional social theorists generally appearing as antipodes and/or sounding
boards for ethnomethodological ideas.
Likewise in, Ethnomethodology's Program (2002), we again find a multiplicity of theoretical references, including
the usual suspects from Studies, and introducing among others [Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, etc.], a key theoretical
statement by Emile Durkheim regarding the objectivity of social facts, and a key insight into ethomethodology's way
of doing theory.
This statement by Durkheim, although not a fully worked out theory or directive in its original form, or conceived as
an aphorism for that matter, becomes, in the hands of Garfinkel, a theoretical directive - an "aphorism" - regarding
both the object of ethnomethodological studies, and the focus of ethnomethodological description. For this
Ethnomethodology 50

interpretation, Garfinkel "appropriates" Durkheim's statement, "misreads" it ethnomethodologically (2002:112:fn#36

/ see below:"Some leading policies...": "Misreading [A text]"), and transforms its meaning through its
"respecification" into an ethnomethodologically useful directive for ethnomethodological studies.
Durkheim's statement: "...our basic principle, that of the objective reality of social facts. It is...upon this principle that
in the end everything rests, and everything comes back to it" (Durkheim:1895:45 - as cited from
Rawls/Garfinkel:2002:2:fn#2).
Rawls/Garfinkel's characterization: "Durkheim's aphorism refers to Durkheim's statement in, The Rules of
Sociological Method, to the effect that, 'The objective reality of social facts is sociology's fundamental principle'"
(2002:9,119).
"Misreading" Durkheim's statement in the context of, as juxtaposed to, or read against, the fundamental
assumption of ethnomethodological studies [see below: "Some leading policies..."], produces an
ethnomethodological "respecification" of Durkheim's statement [a rationale w/a strictly textual reading is also
offered (Rawls/Garfinkel:2002:19-22; Garfinkel:2002:118-119:fn#46)].
Garfinkel writes: "Ethnomethodology's fundamental phenomenon and it's standing technical preoccupation in its
studies is to find, collect, specify, and make instructably observable the local endogenous production and natural
accountability of immortal familiar society's most ordinary organizational things in the world, and to provide for
them both and simultaneously, as objects, and procedurally, as alternate methods" (Garfinkel:2002:124).
"Durkheim's aphorism", now ethnomethodologically respecified, directs us to account for this, "objective reality of
social facts" (Durkheim), these, "organizational things in the world" (Garfinkel), as, social "objects", and their, in
situ "methods" of production; that is, in terms of their factual status as, "organizational things in the world", and
simultaneously, as methodic achievements by real individuals in actual social settings.
This, in a nutshell, becomes the central tenet of ethnomethodology's research program: "working out Durkheim's
aphorism" (2002:118-119:fn#46). Rawls states: "According to Garfinkel, the result of Ethnomethodological studies
is the fulfillment of Durkheim's promise that the objective reality of social facts is sociology's fundamental principle"
(Rawls/Garfinkel:2002:9). As such, ethnomethodology's programmatic directive becomes,"...to restore Sociology to
the pursuit of Durkheim's aphorism, through an insistence on the concreteness of things [as opposed to theoretical
and conceptual constructionism (see Garfinkel:2002:50-52)], and on the claim that the concreteness of things
necessarily depends on, and is produced in and through, complex mutually recognizable practices enacted by
participants in social scenes" (Rawls/Garfinkel:2002:2).
Such a reading serves to locate ethnomethodology firmly in the sociological tradition, if not de facto serving to
appropriate that tradition [despite periodic declarations to the contrary], and serves as an example of
ethnomethodological theorizing, but it does not in itself, or combined with any or all of the other references,
constitute a unified theoretical statement in any traditional sense.
The larger point here is that the authors and theoretical references cited in Garfinkel's work do not themselves serve
as a rigorous theoretical underpinning for ethnomethodology, in whole or in part. Ethnomethodology is not
Durkheimian, although it shares some of the interests of Durkheim; it is not a form of phenomenology, although it
borrows from Husserl and Schutz's studies of the Lifeworld [Lebenswelt]; it is not a form of Gestalt theory, although
it describes social orders as having Gestalt-like properties; and, it is not a version of Wittgenstein's Ordinary
Language Analysis, although it makes use of Wittgenstein's understanding of rule-use, etc.
Instead, these borrowings are only fragmentary references to theoretical works from which ethnomethodology has
"appropriated", "misread", and/or, "respecified", the theoretical ideas of others for the expressed purposes of doing
ethnomethodological investigations.
In terms of the question of ethnomethodological methods, it is the position of Anne Rawls, speaking for Garfinkel,
that ethnomethodology is itself not a method.[7] That is, it does not have a set of formal research methods or
procedures. Instead, the position taken is that ethnomethodologists have conducted their studies in a variety of
Ethnomethodology 51

ways,[8] and that the point of these investigations is, " ...to discover the things that persons in particular situations do,
the methods they use, to create the patterned orderliness of social life".[9]
As Rawls states: "Ethnomethodology...is not a methodology, but rather a study of methodology"
(Rawls/Garfinkel:2002:122:fn.#3). That is, it does not have a formal methodology, but is the study of, "member's
methods", the methods of others (Garfinkel:2002:72-73). Michael Lynch has also noted that: "Leading figures in the
field have repeatedly emphasized that there is no obligatory set of methods [employed by ethnomethodologists], and
no prohibition against using any research procedure whatsoever, if it is adequate to the particular phenomena under
study" (Lynch:1989; see Garfinkel:2002:175-176, Wieder/Garfinkel:1992:175-206).
Again, as perplexing as this position might seem to a traditional social scientist, such a proposition is consistent with
ethnomethodology's understanding of "member's methods", and has philosophical standing when looked at in terms
of certain lines of philosophical thought regarding the philosophy of science (Polyani:1974; Kuhn:1996;
Feyerabend:1975/2010), and the study of the actual practices of scientific procedure (Lynch:1993).

Some leading policies, methods and definitions

• The Fundamental Assumption of Ethnomethodological Studies. As characterized by Anne Rawls, speaking
for Garfinkel: "If one assumes, as Garfinkel does, that the meaningful, patterned, and orderly character of
everyday life is something that people must work to achieve, then one must also assume that they have some
methods for doing so". That is, "...members of society must have some shared methods that they use to mutually
construct the meaningful orderliness of social situations" (Rawls/Garfinkel: 2002:6).
• Ethnomethodology is an Empirical Enterprise. Rawls states: "Ethnomethodology is a thoroughly empirical
enterprise devoted to the discovery of social order and intelligibility [sense making] as witnessable collective
achievements." "The keystone of the [Ethnomethodological] argument is that local [social] orders exist; that these
orders are witnessable in the scenes in which they are produced; and that the possibility of [their] intelligibility is
based on the actual existence and detailed enactment of these orders" (Rawls:2000:146).
• Ethnomethodological Indifference. This is the policy of deliberate agnosticism, or indifference, towards the
dictates, prejudices, methods and practices of sociological analysis as traditionally conceived (examples: theories
of "deviance", analysis of behavior as rule governed, role theory, institutional (de)formations, theories of social
stratification, etc.). Dictates and prejudices which serve to pre-structure traditional social scientific investigations
independently of the subject matter taken as a topic of study, or the investigatory setting being subjected to
scrutiny.[10][11] The policy of ethnomethodological indifference is specifically not to be conceived of as
indifference to the problem of social order taken as a group [member's] concern.
• First Time Through. This is the practice of attempting to describe any social activity, regardless of its routine or
mundane appearance, as if it were happening for the very first time. This is in an effort to expose how the
observer of the activity assembles, or constitutes, the activity for the purposes of formulating any particular
description. The point of such an exercise is to make available and underline the complexities of sociological
analysis and description, particularly the indexical and reflexive properties of the actors', or observer's, own
descriptions of what is taking place in any given situation. Such an activity will also reveal the observer's
inescapable reliance on the hermeneutic circle as the defining "methodology" of social understanding for both lay
persons and social scientists.[12]
• Breaching Experiment. A method for revealing, or exposing, the common work that is performed by members
of particular social groups in maintaining a clearly recognizable and shared social order. For example, driving the
wrong way down a busy one-way street can reveal myriads of useful insights into the patterned social practices,
and moral order, of the community of road users. The point of such an exercise is to demonstrate that gaining
insight into the work involved in maintaining any given social order can often best be revealed by breaching that
social order and observing the results of that breach - especially those activities related to the reassembly of that
social order, and the normalization of that social setting.[13]
Ethnomethodology 52

• Member's Methods. [Coming Soon].

• Sacks' Gloss. A question about an aspect of the social order that recommends, as a method of answering it, that
the researcher should seek out members of society who, in their daily lives, are responsible for the maintenance of
that aspect of the social order. This is in opposition to the idea that such questions are best answered by a
sociologist. Sacks' original question concerned objects in public places and how it was possible to see that such
objects did or did not belong to somebody. He found his answer in the activities of police officers who had to
decide whether cars were abandoned (see Garfinkel:2002:186-187).
• Durkheim's Aphorism. Durkheim famously recommended: "...our basic principle, that of the objectivity of
social facts" (Durkheim:1895/1982:S.45 - as cited in Garfinkel/Rawls:2002:2:fn#2). This is usually taken to mean
that we should assume the objectivity of social facts as a principle of study (thus providing the basis of sociology
as a science). Garfinkel's alternative reading of Durkheim is that we should treat the objectivity of social facts as
an achievement of society's members, and make the achievement process itself the focus of study.[14] An
ethnomethodological respecification of Durkheim's statement via a "misreading" [see below] of his quote appears
above. There is also a textual link/rationale provided in the literature (Rawls/Garfinkel:2002:ppgs.19-22). Both
links involve a leap of faith on the part of the reader; that is, we don't believe that one method for this
interpretation is necessarily better than the other, or that one form of justification for such an interpretation
outweighs its competitor.
• Accounts. Accounts are the ways members signify, describe or explain the properties of a specific social
situation. They can consist of both verbal and non-verbal objectifications. They are always both indexical to the
situation in which they occur [see below], and, simultaneously reflexive - they serve to constitute that situation.
An account can consist of something as simple as a wink of the eye, a material object evidencing a state of affairs
[documents, etc.], or something as complex as a story detailing the boundaries of the universe.
• Indexicality. The concept of Indexicality is a key core concept for Ethnomethodology. Garfinkel states that it was
derived from the concept of indexical expressions appearing in ordinary language philosophy (1967), wherein a
statement is considered to be indexical insofar as it is dependent for its sense upon the context in which it is
embedded (Bar-Hillel:1954:359-379). The phenomenon is acknowledged in various forms of analytical
philosophy, and sociological theory and methods, but is considered to be both limited in scope and remedied
through specification [operationalization]. In ethnomethodology, the phenomenon is universalized to all forms of
language and behavior, and is deemed to be beyond remedy for the purposes of establishing a scientific
description and explanation of social behavior.[15][16] The consequence of the degree of contextual dependence
for a "segment" of talk or behavior can range from the problem of establishing a "working consensus" regarding
the description of a phrase, concept or behavior, to the end-game of social scientific description itself. Note that
any serious development of the concept must eventually assume a theory of meaning as its foundation [see
Gurwitsch:1985]. Without such a foundational underpinning, both the traditional social scientist and the
ethnomethodologist are relegated to merely telling stories around the campfire.[17]
• Misreading [A text]. Misreading a text, or fragments of a text, does not denote making an erroneous reading of a
text in whole or in part. As Garfinkel states, it means to denote an, "alternate reading", of a text or fragment of a
text. As such, the original and its misreading do not, "...translate point to point", but, "...instead, they go together"
(Garfinkel:2002:112:fn#36). No criteria are offered for the translation of an original text and its misreading - the
outcome of such translations are in Garfinkel's term: "incommensurable" (Garfinkel:2002:112:fn#36). The
misreading of texts or fragments of texts is a standard feature of ethnomethodology's way of doing theory,
especially in regards to topics in phenomenology.
• Reflexivity. Despite the fact that many sociologists use "reflexivity" as a synonym for "self-reflection," the way
the term is used in ethnomethodology is different: it is meant "to describe the acausal and non-mentalistic
determination of meaningful action-in-context."[18] (See also reflexivity (social theory).)
Ethnomethodology 53

• Documentary Method of Interpretation. The Documentary Method is the method of understanding utilized by
everyone engaged in trying to make sense of their social world - this includes the ethnomethodologist. Garfinkel
recovered the concept from the work of Karl Mannheim[19] and repeatedly demonstrates the use of the method in
the case studies appearing in his central text, Studies in Ethnomethodology (1967). Mannheim defined the term as
a search for an identical homologous pattern of meaning underlying a variety of totally different realizations of
that meaning. Garfinkel states that the documentary method of interpretation consists of treating an actual
appearance as the "document of", "as pointing to", as "standing on behalf of", a presupposed underlying
pattern.[20] These "documents" serve to constitute the underlying pattern, but are themselves interpreted on the
basis of what is already known about that underlying pattern. This seeming paradox is quite familiar to
hermeneuticians who understand this phenomenon as a version of the hemeneutic circle.[21] This phenomenon is
also subject to analysis from the perspective of Gestalt theory [part/whole relationships], and the
phenomenological theory of perception.[22]
• Social Orders. Theoretically speaking, the object of ethnomethodological research is social order taken as a
group members' concern. Methodologically, social order is made available for description in any specific social
setting as an accounting of specific social orders: the sensible coherencies of accounts that order a specific social
setting for the participants relative to a specific social project to be realized in that setting. Social orders
themselves are made available for both participants and researchers through phenomena of order: the actual
accounting of the partial [adumbrated] appearances of these sensibly coherent social orders. These appearances
[parts, adumbrates] of social orders are embodied in specific accounts, and employed in a particular social setting
by the members of the particular group of individuals party to that setting. Specific social orders have the same
formal properties as identified by A. Gurwitsch in his discussion of the constituent features of perceptual noema,
and, by extension, the same relationships of meaning described in his account of Gestalt Contextures (see
Gurwitsch:1964:228-279/2010). As such, it is little wonder that Garfinkel states: "you can't do anything unless
you do read his texts" (Garfinkel:2002:167).
• Ethnomethodology's Field of Investigation. For ethnomethodology the topic of study is the social practices of
real people in real settings, and the methods by which these people produce and maintain a shared sense of social
order.[23]

Ethnomethodology and traditional sociology

Core differences between traditional sociology and ethnomethodology are:
1. While traditional sociology usually offers an analysis of society which takes the facticity [factual character,
objectivity] of the social order for granted, ethnomethodology is concerned with the procedures [practices, methods]
by which that social order is produced, and shared.
2. While traditional sociology usually provides descriptions of social settings which compete with the actual
descriptions offered by the individuals who are party to those settings, ethnomethodology seeks to describe the actual
procedures [practices, methods] these individuals use in their actual descriptions of those settings.
3. While Structural Functionalist research programs methodically impose pre-existing analytical schemata on their
fields of study; Symbolic Interactionist programs assume the facticity of the symbols being interpreted by actors
party to social scenes; and various forms of Social Constructionism assume the objective character of the building
blocks that make up their descriptions of social structures, and then work retrospectively to account for these social
constructions in terms of a formal, predetermined conceptual apparatus; Ethnomethodology specifically avoids
engaging with these types of taken-for-granted programmatic assumptions and descriptive resources in its
descriptions of social scenes.
In contrast to traditional sociological forms of inquiry, it is a hallmark of the Ethnomethodological perspective that it
does not make theoretical or methodological appeals to: outside assumptions regarding the structure of an actor or
actors' characterization of social reality; refer to the subjective states of an individual or groups of individuals;
Ethnomethodology 54

attribute conceptual projections such as, "value states", "sentiments", "goal orientations", "mini-max economic
theories of behavior", etc., to any actor or group of actors; or posit a specific "normative order" as a transcendental
feature of social scenes, etc.
For the Ethnomethodologist, the methodic realization of social scenes takes place within the actual setting under
scrutiny, and is structured by the participants in that setting through the reflexive accounting of that setting's features.
The job of the Ethnomethodologist is to describe the methodic character of these activities, not account for them in a
way that transcends that which is made available in and through the actual accounting practices of the individual's
party to those settings.
In 1967, Garfinkel states: Ethnomethodology's, "...central recommendation is that the activities whereby members
produce and manage settings of organized everyday affairs are identical with member's procedures for making those
settings 'account-able' "(1967:1).
Over thirty-five years later, Garfinkel states: "Phenomena of order are identical with [the] procedures for their
endogenous production and accountability" (2002:72).
Although the language has changed, the message remains the same: social orders are identical with the procedures
[practices, methods] members of a particular social group employ to produce and manage a particular setting of
organized everyday affairs. These social orders are endogenous [generated from within the particular setting], and
made available for study through the demonstrable [objectified, recognizable, embodied] accounting practices of the
group members party to that particular setting.
These characters of particularity and embeddedness of the: social order, procedures [practices, methods], activities,
accounts, and person's party to such settings are essential features of the ethnomethodological perspective, and
clearly differentiate it from traditional sociological forms.

Ethnomethodology and phenomenology

Even though ethnomethodology has been characterized as having a "phenomenological sensibility",[24] and reliable
commentators have acknowledged that, "there is a strong influence of phenomenology on ethnomethodology..."
(Maynard/Kardash:sociologyencyclopedia.com:1484), orthodox adherents to the discipline - those who follow the
teachings of Garfinkel - know better than to represent it as a branch, or form, of phenomenology, or
phenomenological sociology.
The confusion between the two disciplines stems, in part, from the practices of some ethnomethodologists [including
Garfinkel], who sift through phenomenological texts, recovering phenomenological concepts and findings relevant to
their interests, and then transpose these concepts and findings to topics in the study of social order. Such interpretive
transpositions do not make the ethnomethodologist a phenomenologist, or ethnomethodology a form of
phenomenology.
To further muddy the waters, some phenomenological sociologists seize upon ethnomethodological findings as
examples of applied phenomenology; this even when the results of these ethnomethodological investigations clearly
do not make use of phenomenological methods, or formulate their findings in the language of phenomenology. So
called phenomenological analyses of social structures that do not have prima facie reference to any of the structures
of intentional consciousness should raise questions as to the phenomenological status of such analyses.
Another way of convincing yourself of the difference between these two disciplines is to read, Studies in
Ethnomethodology (1967), and try to find any reference to: a subject [other than experimental], consciousness,
intentionality, or phenomenological methodology, etc. There are no such references. A phenomenological analysis
should reflect phenomenological methods. This text clearly does not.
In, Ethnomethodology's Program (2002), Garfinkel speaks of phenomenological texts and findings as being,
"appropriated", and intentionally, "misread" (2002:112:fn#36), for the purposes of exploring topics in the study of
social order (2002:176-179; 255-258). These appropriations and methodical "misread[ings]" of phenomenological
Ethnomethodology 55

texts and findings are clearly made for the purposes of furthering ethnomethodological analyses (2002:177), and
should not be mistaken for logical extensions of these phenomenological texts and findings (2002:112:fn.#36).
Lastly, there is no claim in any of Garfinkel's work that ethnomethodology is a form of phenomenology, or
phenomenological sociology. To state that ethnomethodology has a, "phenomenological sensibility", or that, "there is
a strong influence of phenomenology on ethnomethodology", is not the equivalent of describing ethnomethodology
as a form of phenomenology (see Garfinkel/Liberman:2007:3-7).
This having been said, one should also note that even though ethnomethodology is not a form of phenomenology, the
reading and understanding of phenomenological texts, and developing the capability of seeing phenomenologically
is essential to the actual doing of ethnomethodological studies. As Garfinkel states in regard to the work of the
phenomenologist Aron Gurwitsch, especially his, "Field of Consciousness" (1964/2010: ethnomethodology's
phenomenological urtext): "you can't do anything unless you do read his texts" (Garfinkel:2002:167).

Ethnomethodology (EM) and conversation analysis (CA)

The relationship between EM and CA has always been somewhat contentious in terms of boundaries. The clearest
single statement appearing in the literature, from an orthodox EM perspective, appears in Rawls' formulation
spanning pages 40–41 of, Ethnomethodology's Program [Rawls/Garfinkel:2002].
Unpacking Rawls' statement, we can note two essential distinctions:
[1] In as much as the study of social orders is, "inexorably intertwined", with the constitutive features of talk about
those social orders, EM is committed to an interest in both conversational talk, and the role this talk plays in the
constitution of that order; think indexicality / reflexivity here and the essential embeddedness of talk in a specific
social order, and the role of the reflexivity of accounts in the constitution of that order. It is in this sense that Rawls
states that, "Conversational Analysis is not separate from Ethnomethodology" [2002:41]. Such a position is wholly
consistent with the orthodox EM literature, and posts as nothing new to any orthodox ethnomethodologist - one who
follows the teachings of Garfinkel.
[2] On the other hand, where the study of conversational talk is divorced from its situated context, and de-linked
from its reflexive character in terms of constituting a specific social order - that is, as it takes on the character of a
purely "technical method", and, "formal analytic enterprise in its own right" [2002:41] - it is not a form of
ethnomethodology understood in any orthodox sense. The "danger" of misunderstanding here, as Rawls notes, is that
CA in this sense, becomes just another formal analytic enterprise, like any other formal method which brings an
analytical toolbox of preconceptions, formal definitions, and operational procedures to the situation/setting under
study. It might further be noted that when such analytical concepts are generated from within one setting, and
conceptually applied (generalized) to another, the (re)application represents a violation of the orthodox EM position
regarding the ethnomethodological description of a given social order, as it ignores the essential/fundamental EM
principle of the embeddedness of talk in a specifically situated social order.
In general, we can say the following: [1] Both EM and CA are independent forms of investigation; [2] There is no
necessary connection between EM and CA studies in terms of principles or methods; [3] EM and CA studies may
overlap in terms of interests and projects; [4] CA studies must adhere to the foundational tenants of EM studies in
order to be considered properly ethnomethodological; [5] EM studies may utilize CA methods, as anecdotal
descriptions, as substantive findings (when in conformity with foundational EM principles), or as supplemental
findings germane to the in situ findings of a particular EM study; and, [6] Both disciplines can function very well
without the other, but in as much as their interests coincide in any given instance, both can profit from the
understanding of the others investigational methods and findings.
Ethnomethodology 56

Varieties of ethnomethodology
According to George Psathas, five types of ethnomethodological study can be identified (Psathas:1995:139-155).
These may be characterised as:
1. The organization of practical actions and practical reasoning. Including the earliest studies, such as those in
Garfinkel's seminal Studies in Ethnomethodology.
2. The organization of talk-in-interaction. More recently known as conversation analysis, Harvey Sacks established
this approach in collaboration with his colleagues Emanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson.
3. Talk-in-interaction within institutional or organizational settings. While early studies focused on talk abstracted
from the context in which it was produced (usually using tape recordings of telephone conversations) this
approach seeks to identify interactional structures that are specific to particular settings.
4. The study of work. 'Work' is used here to refer to any social activity. The analytic interest is in how that work is
accomplished within the setting in which it is performed.
5. The haecceity of work. Just what makes an activity what it is? e.g. what makes a test a test, a competition a
competition, or a definition a definition?
Further discussion of the varieties and diversity of ethnomethodological investigations can be found in Maynard &
Clayman.[25] Article is available online.
Reference Work: "Garfinkel", Sage "Masters" series (2003:4Vols:approx.1500 pages). Compendium of theoretical
papers, ethnomethodological studies, and discussions, edited by M.Lynch & W. Sharrock. Table of contents is
available on the publisher's website.
Reference Work: "Ethnomethodology", Sage "Research" series (2011:4Vols:approx. 1500 pages). Compendium of
theoretical papers, ethnomethodological studies, and discussions, edited by M.Lynch & W. Sharrock. Table of
contents is available on the publisher's website.

Notes
[1] Garfinkel, Harold. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967.
[2] In Hill and Crittenden (1968). Page 10.
[3] Rawls:2000:123.
[4] Heritage, J. (1984). Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press. Page 5.
[5] Doug Maynard & Steve Clayman, "The Diversity of Ethnomethodology", ASR, V.17,pp. 385-418. 1991. A survey of various
ethnomethodological approaches to the study of social practices. Page 413-418.
[6] John Heritage, Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology, Cambridge:Polity. 1991.(ISBN 0-7456-0060-3). Page 1
[7] Harold Garfinkel (2002). Ethnomethodology's Program. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-1642-3. Page 6.
[8] Doug Maynard & Steve Clayman, "The Diversity of Ethnomethodology", ASR, V.17,pp. 385-418. 1991. A survey of various
ethnomethodological approaches to the study of social practices.
[9] Harold Garfinkel (2002). Ethnomethodology's Program. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-1642-3. Page 6.
[10] Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology, Malden MA: Polity Press/Blackwell Publishing. 1984. (ISBN 0-7456-0005) (first
published in 1967). Page: 33
[11] Harold Garfinkel (2002). Ethnomethodology's Program. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-1642-3. Page 170-171.
[12] Mark Okrent, Heidegger's Pragmatism, Cornell University Press, 1988. Pages 157-172
[13] Harold Garfinkel (2002). Ethnomethodology's Program. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-1642-3. Pages 8, 32.
[14] Harold Garfinkel (2002). Ethnomethodology's Program. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-1642-3. Pages 117-118.
[15] Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology, Malden MA: Polity Press/Blackwell Publishing. 1984. (ISBN 0-7456-0005) (first
published in 1967). Page: 4-7
[16] Harold Garfinkel (2002). Ethnomethodology's Program. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-1642-3. Pages 204-207.
[17] Brooks:1974
[18] Michael Lynch, Mark Peyrot. "Introduction: A reader's guide to ethnomethodology". Qualitative Sociology. Springer Netherlands. 2005.
(http:/ / www. springerlink. com/ content/ mg60u8574h414t0l/ )
[19] Karl Mannheim, "On the Interpretation of Weltanschauung" (1952),in, From Karl Mannheim (ed. Kurt Wolf), Transaction Publishers, 1993.
[20] Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology, Malden MA: Polity Press/Blackwell Publishing. 1984. (ISBN 0-7456-0005) (first
published in 1967). Page: 78
[21] Mark Okrent, Heidegger's Pragmatism, Cornell University Press, 1988. Pages 157-172
Ethnomethodology 57

[22] Aron Gurwitsch, The Field of Consciousness, Duquesne University Press, 1964 [out-of-print].Pages 202-227
[23] Harold Garfinkel (2002). Ethnomethodology's Program. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-1642-3. Page 117.
[24] Doug Maynard & Steve Clayman, "The Diversity of Ethnomethodology", ASR, V.17,pp. 385-418. 1991. A survey of various
ethnomethodological approaches to the study of social practices. Page 388.
[25] Doug Maynard & Steve Clayman, "The Diversity of Ethnomethodology", ASR, V.17,pp. 385-418. 1991. A survey of various
ethnomethodological approaches to the study of social practices.

References
• Michael Lynch, Scientific Practice and Ordinary Action: Ethnomethodology and Social Studies of Science,
Cambridge UP, 1993.
• Michael Lynch, The Social Science Encyclopedia, Routledge, 2nd Ed., 1989. Article is available on line.
• Michael Lynch/Wes Sharrock, Harold Garfinkel, 4 Volumes, Sage, 2003.
• Michael Lynch/Wes Sharrock, Ethnomethdology, 4 Volumes, Sage, 2011.
• George Psathas, "Talk and Social Structure", and, "Studies of Work", in, Human Studies, 18: 139-155. 1995.
Typology of ethnomethodological studies of social practices.
• Anne Rawls, "Harold Garfinkel", Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists, ed. G. Ritzer. Blackwell:
London, 2000. Probably the best short introduction to Ethnomethodology extant. A run up to her more
comprehensive Introduction to Garfinkel 2002. Article is available online.

External links
• Ethno/CA News (http://www.paultenhave.nl/EMCA.htm) A primary source for ethnomethodology and
conversation analysis information and resources.
• AIEMCA.net (http://aiemca.net/) The Australian Institute for Conversation Analysis and Ethnomethodology.
• Ethnomethodology Meetup Group (http://www.meetup.com/Ethnomethodology/) Some people just interested
in ethnomethodology.
Harold Garfinkel 58

Harold Garfinkel
Harold Garfinkel

Born October 29, 1917

Newark, New Jersey

Died April 21, 2011 (aged 93)

Los Angeles, California

Fields sociological theory, social theory

Known for ethnomethodological indifference, member methods, unique adequacy requirement, shop floor problem

Influences Aron Gurwitsch, Talcott Parsons, Alfred Schütz

Influenced Harvey Sacks, Michael Lynch, Lucy Suchman and many others

Harold Garfinkel (October 29, 1917 – April 21, 2011) was a sociologist, ethnomethodologist, and a Professor
Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is known for establishing and developing
ethnomethodology as a field of inquiry in sociology. He published multiple books throughout his lifetime and is well
known for his book, Studies in Ethnomethodology, which was published in 1967.

Biography
Harold Garfinkel born in Newark, New Jersey on October 29, 1917 and was raised there throughout his childhood.[1]
His father, a furniture dealer, had hoped his son would follow him into the family business.[2] Although he did help
his father out with the family business, Garfinkel decided to also attend college and study accounting at the
University of Newark.[3] At the University of Newark, courses were mainly taught by Columbia graduate students,
who brought more theoretical experiences to the classroom.[4] This theoretical approach guided Garfinkel later on in
his theories he formed.[5] In the summer following graduation, Garfinkel worked as a volunteer at a Quaker work
camp in Cornelia, Georgia. This was an eye-opening experience for Garfinkel. He worked there with students with a
wide variety of interests and backgrounds, and this experience influenced his decision to later take up sociology as a
career.[6] While volunteering in Georgia, Garfinkel learned about the sociology program at the University of North
Carolina.[7] This program specifically focused on public work projects like one Garfinkel was working on.[8]
Garfinkel wrote his master's thesis on interracial homicide and completed his Masters in 1942 at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[9] With the onset of World War II, he was drafted into the Army Air Corps and served
as a trainer at a base in Florida. As the war effort wound down he was transferred to Gulfport, Mississippi. There he
met Arlene Steinbach who was to become his wife and lifelong partner.
After the war, Garfinkel went to study at Harvard and met Talcott Parsons at the newly-formed Department of Social
Relations at Harvard University.[10] Parsons studied and emphasized abstract categories and generalizations, where
Harold Garfinkel 59

Garfinkel focused on detailed description.[11] While still a student at Harvard, Garfinkel was invited by the
sociologist Wilbert Ellis Moore to work on the Organizational Behavior Project at Princeton University. Garfinkel
taught at Princeton University for two years.[12] This brought him in contact with some of the most prominent
scholars of the day in the behavioral, informational, and social sciences including: Gregory Bateson, Kenneth Burke,
Paul Lazarsfeld, Frederick Mosteller, Philip Selznick, Herbert A. Simon, and John von Neumann.[13] Garfinkel's
dissertation, "The Perception of the Other: A Study in Social Order," was completed in 1952.
After receiving his doctorate from Harvard, Garfinkel worked at Ohio State studying leadership on airplanes and
submarines.[14] Garfinkel also worked on the American Jury Project for which he did fieldwork in Arizona.
Garfinkel was asked to talk at a 1954 American Sociological Association meeting and created the term
"ethnomethodology."[15] In 1954 he joined the sociology faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles. During
the period 1963-64 he served as a Research Fellow at the Center for the Scientific Study of Suicide.[16] Garfinkel
spent the ’75-’76 school year at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and, in 1979-1980, was a
visiting fellow at Oxford University. In 1995 he was awarded the Cooley-Mead Award from the American
Sociological Association for his contributions to the field.[17] He received an honorary doctorate from the University
of Nottingham in 1996. He officially retired from UCLA in 1987, though continued as an emeritus professor until his
death on April 21, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.

Garfinkel's Thought

Influences
Garfinkel was very intrigued by Parson's study of social order.[18] Parsons sought to offer a solution to the problem
of social order (i.e., How do we account for the order that we witness in society?) and, in so doing, provide a
disciplinary foundation for research in sociology. Drawing on the work of earlier social theorists (Marshall, Pareto,
Durkheim, Weber), Parsons postulated that all social action could be understood in terms of an “action frame”
consisting of a fixed number of elements (an agent, a goal or intended end, the circumstances within which the act
occurs, and its “normative orientation”).[19] Agents make choices among possible ends, alternative means to these
ends, and the normative constraints that might be seen as operative. They conduct themselves, according to Parsons,
in a fashion “analogous to the scientist whose knowledge is the principal determinant of his action.”[20] Order, by this
view, is not imposed from above, but rather arises from rational choices made by the actor. Parsons sought to
develop a theoretical framework for understanding how social order is accomplished through these choices.
Ethnomethodology was not designed to supplant the kind of formal analysis recommended by Parsons. Garfinkel
stipulated that the two programs are “different and unavoidably related.”[21] Both seek to give accounts of social life,
but ask different kinds of questions and formulate quite different sorts of claims. Sociologists operating within the
formal program endeavor to produce objective (that is to say, non-indexical) claims similar in scope and to those
made in the natural sciences. To do so, they must employ theoretical constructs that pre-define the shape of the social
world. Unlike Parsons, and other social theorists before and since, Garfinkel’s goal was not to articulate yet another
explanatory system. He expressed an “indifference” to all forms of sociological theorizing.[22] Instead of viewing
social practice through a theoretical lens, Garfinkel sought to explore the social world directly and describe its
autochthonous workings in elaborate detail. Durkheim famously stated, "[t]he objective reality of social facts is
sociology’s fundamental principle."[23] Garfinkel substituted ‘phenomenon’ for ‘principle’, signaling a different
approach to sociological inquiry.[24] The task of sociology, as he envisions it, is to conduct investigations into just
how Durkheim’s social facts are brought into being. The result is an “alternate, asymmetric and incommensurable”
program of sociological inquiry.[25]
While Garfinkel was studying at Harvard, he also became acquainted with a number of European scholars who had
recently immigrated to the U.S. These would include Aron Gurwitsch, Felix Kaufmann, and Alfred Schütz, who
introduced the young sociologist to newly-emerging ideas in social theory, psychology and phenomenology.
Harold Garfinkel 60

Alfred Schütz, like Parsons, was concerned with establishing a sound foundation for research in the social sciences.
He took issue, however, with the Parsonsian assumption that actors in society always behave rationally. Schütz made
a distinction between reasoning in the ‘natural attitude’ and scientific reasoning.[26] The reasoning of scientists builds
upon everyday commonsense, but, in addition, employs a “postulate of rationality.”[27] This imposes special
requirements on their claims and conclusions (e.g., application of rules of formal logic, standards of conceptual
clarity, compatibility with established scientific ‘facts’). This has two important implications for research in the social
sciences. First, it is inappropriate for sociologists to use scientific reasoning as a lens for viewing human action in
daily life, as Parsons had proposed, since they are distinct kinds of rationality. On the other hand, the traditionally
assumed discontinuity between the claims of science and commonsense understandings is dissolved since scientific
observations employ both forms of rationality.[28] This raises a flag for researchers in the social sciences, since these
disciplines are fundamentally engaged in the study of the shared understandings that underlie the day-to-day
functioning of society. How can we make detached, objective claims about everyday reasoning, if our conceptual
apparatus is hopelessly contaminated with commonsense categories and rationalities?

The Roots of Ethnomethodology

Garfinkel's concept of Ethnomethodology started with his attempt at analyzing a jury discussion after a Chicago case
in 1945. Garfinkel was attempting to understand the way jurors knew how to act as jurors.[29] After attempting to
understand the jurors actions, Garfinkel created the term "ethnomethodology" as a way to describe how people use
different methods in order to understand the society they live in.[30] Garfinkel noticed through his study of
Ethnomethodology that the methods people use to understand the society they live in are very much fixed in people's
natural attitudes.[31]

Rationality
Accepting Schütz’s critique of the Parsonian program, Garfinkel sought to find another way of addressing the
Problem of Social Order. He wrote, “Members to an organized arrangement are continually engaged in having to
decide, recognize, persuade, or make evident the rational, i.e., the coherent, or consistent, or chosen, or planful, or
effective, or methodical, or knowledgeable character of [their activities]”.[32] On first inspection, this might not seem
very different from Parsons’ proposal. Their views on rationality, however, are not compatible. For Garfinkel,
society’s character is not dictated by an imposed standard of rationality, either scientific or otherwise.
To Garfinkel, rationality is itself produced as a local accomplishment in, and as, the very ways that society’s
members craft their moment-to-moment interaction. He writes:
Instead of the properties of rationality being treated as a methodological principle for interpreting activity,
they are to be treated only as empirically problematical material. They would have the status of data and
would have to be accounted for in the same way that the more familiar properties of conduct are accounted
for.[33]
Social order arises in the very ways that participants conduct themselves together. The sense of a situation arises
from their interactions. Garfinkel writes, “any social setting [can] be viewed as self-organizing with respect to the
intelligible character of its own appearances as either representations of or as evidences-of-a-social-order.”[34] The
orderliness of social life, therefore, is produced through the moment-to-moment work of society’s members and
ethnomethodology’s task is to explicate just how this work is done.
In his chapter, "Rational Behaviors" in his book, Studies in Ethnomethodology, 1967, Garfinkel discusses how there
are various meanings of the term "rationality" in relation to the way people behave. Garfinkel mentions Schutz' paper
on the issues of rationality and his various meanings of the term rationality. Garfinkel discusses each of these
"rationalities" and the "behaviors" that result.[35] The rationalities listed in Garfinkel's chapter are listed below.
1. Categorizing and Comparing 2. Tolerable error 3. Search for "means" 4. Analysis of alternatives and
consequences 5. Strategy 6. Concern for timing 7. Predictability 8. Rules of procedure 9. Choice 10. Grounds of
Harold Garfinkel 61

choice 11. Compatibility of ends-means relationships with principles of formal logic 12. Semantic clarity and
distinctness 13. Clarity and distinctness "for its own sake." 14. Compatibility of the definition of a situation with
scientific knowledge [36]
Garfinkel notes that oftentimes, rationality refers to "the person's feelings that accompany his conduct, e.g. "affective
neutrality," "unemotional," "detached," "disinterested," and "impersonal." For the theoretical tasks of this paper,
however, the fact that a person may attend his environment with such feelings is uninteresting. It is of interest,
however, that a person uses his feelings about his environment to recommend the sensible character of the thing he is
talking about or the warrant of a finding."[37]

Reflexivity
Garfinkel regarded indexical expressions as key phenomena. Words like here, now, and me shift their meaning
depending on when and where they are used. Philosophers and linguists refer to such terms as indexicals because
they point into (index) the situational context in which they are produced. One of Garfinkel’s contributions was to
note that such expressions go beyond "here", "now," etc. and encompass any and all utterances that members of
society produce. As Garfinkel specified, “The demonstrably rational properties of indexical expressions and
indexical actions [are] an ongoing achievement of the organized activities of everyday life”.[38] The pervasiveness of
indexical expressions and their member-ordered properties mean that all forms of action provide for their own
understandability through the methods by which they are produced.[39] That is, action has the property of reflexivity
whereby such action is made meaningful in the light of the very situation within which it is produced.
The contextual setting, however, should not be seen as a passive backdrop for the action. Reflexivity means that
members shape action in relation to context while the context itself is constantly being redefined through action.[40]
The initial insight into the importance of reflexivity occurred during the study of juror’s deliberations, wherein what
jurors had decided was used by them to reflexively organize the plausibility of what they were deciding. Other
investigations revealed that parties did not always know what they meant by their own formulations; rather, verbal
formulations of the local order of an event were used to collect the very meanings that gave them their coherent
sense. Garfinkel declared that the issue of how practical actions are tied to their context lies at the heart of
ethnomethodological inquiry. Using professional coffee tasting as an illustration here, taste descriptors do not merely
describe but also direct the tasting of a cup of coffee; hence, a descriptor is not merely the causal result of what is
tasted, as in:
coffee ⇒ taste descriptor
Nor is it an imperialism of a methodology:
taste descriptor ⇒ coffee
Rather, the description and what it describes are mutually determinative:
taste descriptor ⇔ coffee
The descriptors operate reflexively by finding in the coffee what they mean, and each is used to make the other more
explicit. Much the same may be said about rules-in-games or the use of accounts in ordinary action.[41] This
reflexivity of accounts is ubiquitous, and its sense has nearly nothing to do with how the term “reflexivity” is used in
analytic philosophy, in “reflexive ethnographies” that endeavor to expose the influence of the researcher in
organizing the ethnography, or the way many social scientists use "reflexivity" as a synonym for "self-reflection."
For ethnomethodology reflexivity is an actual, unavoidable feature of everyone’s daily life.
Harold Garfinkel 62

Service Lines
Garfinkel has frequently illustrated ethnomethodological analysis by means of the illustration of service lines.[42]
Everyone knows what it is like to stand in a line. Queues are a part of our everyday social life; they are something
within which we all participate as we carry out our everyday affairs. We recognize when someone is waiting in a line
and, when we are "doing" being a member of a line, we have ways of showing it. In other words, lines may seem
impromptu and routine, but they exhibit an internal, member-produced embodied structure. A line is “witnessably a
produced social object;”[43] it is, in Durkheimian terms, a “social fact.” Participants' actions as "seeably" what they
are (such as occupying a position in a queue) depend upon practices that the participant engages in relation to others'
practices in the proximate vicinity. To recognize someone as in a line, or to be seen as "in line" ourselves requires
attention to bodily movement and bodily placement in relation to others and to the physical environment that those
movements also constitute. This is another sense that we consider the action to be indexical—it is made meaningful
in the ways in which it is tied to the situation and the practices of members who produce it. The ethnomethodologist's
task becomes one of analyzing how members' ongoing conduct is a constituent aspect of this or that course of action.
Such analysis can be applied to any sort of social matter (e.g., being female, following instructions, performing a
proof, participating in a conversation). These topics are representative of the kinds of inquiry that ethnomethodology
was intended to undertake.

Breaching Experiments
According to George Ritzer, Breaching experiments are experiments where "social reality is violated in order to shed
light on the methods by which people construct social reality."[44] In Garfinkel's work, Garfinkel encouraged his
students to attempt breaching experiments in order to provide examples of basic ethnomethodology.[45] According to
Garfinkel, these experiments are important because they help us understand '"the socially standardized and
standardizing, 'seen but unnoticed,' expected, background features of everyday scenes.'"[46] He highlights many of
these experiments in his books.
The following is an example of one of Garfinkel's breaching experiments from his book, Studies in
Ethnomethodology.
Case 3: "On Friday night my husband and I were watching television. My husband remarked that he was tired.
I asked, 'How are you tired? Physically, mentally, or just bored?'"
S: I don't know, I guess physically, mainly.
E: You mean that your muscles ache or your bones?
S: I guess so. Don't be so technical. (After more watching)
S: All these old movies have the same kind of old iron bedstead in them.
E: What do you mean? Do you mean all old movies, or some of them, or just the ones you have seen?
S: What's the matter with you? You know what I mean.
E: I wish you would be more specific.
S: you know what I mean! Drop dead!" [47]

Influence on later research

A substantial corpus of empirical work has developed exploring the issues raised by Garfinkel’s writings.
Directly inspired by Garfinkel, Harvey Sacks undertook to investigate the sequential organization of conversational
interaction.[48] This program, pioneered with colleagues Gail Jefferson and Emanuel Schegloff, has produced a large
and flourishing research literature. A second, smaller literature has grown out of another of Sacks' interests having to
do with social categorization practices.[49]
Harold Garfinkel 63

Sociologist Emanuel A. Schegloff used the concept of ethnomethodology to study telephone conversations and how
these they influence social interaction.[50] Gail Jefferson used ethnomethodology to study laughter and how people
know when it is appropriate to laugh in conversation.[51] John Heritage and David Greatbach studied rhetoric of
political speeches and their relation to the amount of applause the speaker receives, whereas Steven Clayman studied
how booing in an audience is generated.[52] Philip Manning and George Ray studied shyness in an
ethnomethodological way.[53] Ethnomethodologists such as Button, Anderson, Hughes, Sharrock, Angela Garcia,
Whalen and Zimmerman all study ethnomethodology within institutions.[54]
Early on, Garfinkel issued a call for ethnomethodologically-informed investigations into the nature of work.[55] This
led to a wide variety of studies focusing on different occupations and professions including, laboratory science,[56]
law,[57][58] police work,[59] medicine,[60] jazz improvisation,[61] education,[62][63] mathematics,[64] philosophy,[65]
and others.
Lucy Suchman, an anthropologist, did an ethnomethodologically-informed analysis of learning to use a copy
machine.[66] It came to serve as an important critique of theories of planning in Artificial Intelligence.

Selected publications
The bulk of Garfinkel’s original writings came in the form of scholarly articles and technical reports most of which
were subsequently republished as book chapters. To appreciate the sequential development of Garfinkel's thought,
however, it is important to understand when these pieces were actually written. Although published in 2006, Seeing
Sociologically[67] was actually written as an annotated version of a draft dissertation proposal two years after
arriving at Harvard. Toward a Sociological Theory of Information[68] was also written while Garfinkel was a student
and was based on a 1952 report prepared in conjunction with the Organizational Behavior Project at Princeton. Some
of Garfinkel’s early papers on ethnomethodology were republished as Studies in Ethnomethodology.[69] This
publication is well known by many sociologists. Garfinkel subsequently published an edited anthology showcasing
selected examples of ethnomethodologically-informed work.[70] Later still, a mix of previously published papers and
some new writing was released as Ethnomethodology’s Program: Working Out Durkheim's Aphorism.[71] This latter
collection, in conjunction with the Studies, represent the definitive exposition of the ethnomethodological approach.
Garfinkel had planned to publish a companion piece to Ethnomethodology’s Program, which was tentatively entitled,
"Workplace and Documentary Diversity of Ethnomethodological Studies of Work and Sciences by
Ethnomethodology's Authors: What did we do? What did we learn?". This project was never completed, but some
preliminary notes were published in Human Studies.[72]

Notes
[1] Sica, Alan. 2005. “Harold Garfinkel: 1917.” Pp. 608-612 in Social Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Present. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education.
[2] Sica, Alan. 2005. “Harold Garfinkel: 1917.” Pp. 608-612 in Social Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Present. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education.
[3] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[4] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[5] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[6] Rawls, Anne Warfield. "Harold Garfinkel." In The Blackwell Companion to Major Contemporary Social Theorists, edited by George Ritzer,
122-53. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 2003.
[7] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[8] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[9] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[10] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[11] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[12] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[13] Rawls, Anne Warfield. "Editor's Introduction." In Harold Garfinkel's Toward a Sociological Theory of Information , 1-100. Boulder, CO:
Paradigm Publishers, 2008.
Harold Garfinkel 64

[14] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[15] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[16] Shneidman, Edwin S., ed. Essays in Self-Destruction . New York: Science House, 1967.
[17] Maynard, Douglas. Introduction of Harold Garfinkel for the Cooley-Mead award. Social Psychology Quarterly 59, no. 1 (1996): 1-4.
[18] Allan, Kenneth. 2006. "Organizing Ordinary Life: Harold Garfinkel (1917-)." Pp. 51-71 in "Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory."
Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
[19] Parsons, Talcott. The Structure of Social Action: A Study in Social Theory with Special Reference to a Group of Recent European Writers.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1937.
[20] Parsons, 1937, p. 58.
[21] Garfinkel, 1967, 115.
[22] Garfinkel, H., and Harvey Sacks. "On Formal Structures of Practical Actions." In Theoretical Sociology: Perspectives and Developments,
edited by J.C. McKinney and E. Tiryakian, 337-66. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1970, 345.
[23] Durkheim, Émile. "The Rules of Sociological Method." In The Rules of Sociological Method, edited by Steven Lukes, 31-163. New York:
Free Press, 1982.
[24] Garfinkel, 1967, vii.
[25] Garfinkel, 2002, 122.
[26] Schütz, Alfred. "The Problem of Rationality in the Social World." Economica 10, no. 38 (1943): 130-149.
[27] Schütz, 1943, p. 147
[28] Sharrock, Wes. "What Garfinkel Makes of Schutz: The Past, Present and Future of an Alternate, Asymmetric and Incommensurable
Approach to Sociology." Theory & Science 5, no. 1 (2004): 1-13.
[29] Mann, Douglass. 2008. “Society as Symbols or Constructs.” Pp. 210-212 in Understanding Society: A Survey of Modern Social Theory.
Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press.
[30] Mann, Douglass. 2008. “Society as Symbols or Constructs.” Pp. 210-212 in Understanding Society: A Survey of Modern Social Theory.
Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press.
[31] Mann, Douglass. 2008. “Society as Symbols or Constructs.” Pp. 210-212 in Understanding Society: A Survey of Modern Social Theory.
Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press.
[32] Garfinkel, Harold. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 32.
[33] Garfinkel, 1967, p. 282, author’s emphasis.
[34] Garfinkel, 1967, p. 33
[35] Sica, Alan. 2005. “Harold Garfinkel: 1917.” Pp. 608-612 in Social Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Present. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education.
[36] Sica, Alan. 2005. “Harold Garfinkel: 1917.” Pp. 608-612 in Social Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Present. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education.
[37] Sica, Alan. 2005. “Harold Garfinkel: 1917.” Pp. 608-612 in Social Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Present. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education.
[38] Garfinkel, 1967, p. 34
[39] Maynard, Douglas W., and Steven E. Clayman. "The Diversity of Ethnomethodology." Annual Review of Sociology 17 (1991): 397-98.
[40] Heritage, John. Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 1984, p. 242.
[41] Wieder, D. Lawrence. Language and Social Reality: The Case of Telling the Convict Code. The Hague: Mouton, 1974.
[42] Garfinkel 2002, 255-258. See also, Livingston, Eric. Making Sense of Ethnomethodology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987, 4-6,
13-15, 82.
[43] Livingston, op cit, 13.
[44] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[45] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[46] Allan, Kenneth. 2006. "Organizing Ordinary Life: Harold Garfinkel (1917-)." Pp. 51-71 in "Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory."
Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
[47] Garfinkel, Harold. 2011. “Harold Garfinkel: Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities.” Pp. 287-295 in Readings in Social
Theory: The Classic Tradition to Post-Modernism. 6th Ed., edited by James Farganis. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[48] Sacks, Harvey. Lectures on Conversation. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 1992.
[49] Sacks, Harvey. "An Initial Investigation of the Usability of Conversational Data for Doing Sociology." In Studies in Social Interaction,
edited by David Sudnow, 31-63. New York: Free Press, 1972.
[50] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[51] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[52] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[53] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[54] Ritzer, George. 2011. “Ethnomethodology.” Pp. 391-415 in Sociological Theory. 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
[55] Garfinkel, Harold. Ethnomethodological Studies of Work. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.
[56] Lynch, Michael. "Scientific Practice and Ordinary Action: Ethnomethodology and Social Studies of Science." New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1993.
Harold Garfinkel 65

[57] Atkinson, J. Maxwell, and Drew, Paul. "Order in court: The organization of verbal interaction in judicial settings." London: Macmillan,
1979.
[58] Travers, M., and Manzo, J. F., eds. Law in Action: Ethnomethodological and Conversation Analytic Approaches to Law. Aldershot, Hants,
England: Ashgate/Dartmouth, 1997.
[59] Bittner, Egon. "Police Discretion in Emergency Apprehension of Mentally Ill Persons." Social Problems 14, no. 3 (1967): 278-92.
[60] Heritage, John, and Douglas Maynard, eds. Communication in Medical Care: Interactions between Primary Care Physicians and Patients.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
[61] Sudnow, David. Ways of the Hand: A Rewritten Account. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
[62] Payne, G. C. F., and Cuff, Ted, eds. Doing Teaching: The Practical Management of Classrooms. London: Batsford Academic and
Educational Ltd., 1982.
[63] Hester, Stephen, and David Francis, eds. Local Educational Order: Ethnomethodological Studies of Knowledge in Action. Philadelphia, PA:
John Benjamins, 2000.
[64] Livingston, Eric. The Ethnomethodological Foundations of Mathematics. London: Routlege & Kegan Paul, 1986.
[65] Liberman, Kenneth. Husserl's Criticism of Reason with Ethnomethodological Specifications. Lanham, MD: Lexington Book, 2007.
[66] Suchman, Lucy. Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
[67] Garfinkel, Harold, Seeing Sociologically: The Routine Grounds of Social Action. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2006.
[68] Garfinkel, Harold, Toward a Sociological Theory of Information. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2008.
[69] First published by Prentice-Hall in 1967 and later reissued in an expanded edition by Paradigm Publishers (Boulder, CO, forthcoming).
[70] Garfinkel, 1986.
[71] Garfinkel, 2002.
[72] Garfinkel, Harold. Lebenswelt origins of the sciences: Working out Durkheim's aphorism. Human Studies 30 (2007): 9-56.

External links
• UCLA Department of Sociology (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty.php?lid=1308&display_one=1)
• Obituary in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/us/04garfinkel.html?_r=1)
• Obituary in the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jul/13/harold-garfinkel-obituary)

Conversation analysis
Conversation analysis (commonly abbreviated as CA) is an approach to the study of social interaction, embracing
both verbal and non-verbal conduct, in situations of everyday life. As its name implies, CA began with a focus on
casual conversation, but its methods were subsequently adapted to embrace more task- and institution-centered
interactions, such as those occurring in doctors' offices, courts, law enforcement, helplines, educational settings, and
the mass media. As a consequence, the term 'conversation analysis' has become something of a misnomer, but it has
continued as a term for a distinctive and successful approach to the analysis of social interaction.
Inspired by Harold Garfinkel's ethnomethodology[1] and Erving Goffman's conception of the interaction order,[2] CA
was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s principally by the sociologist Harvey Sacks and his close associates
Emanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson.[3] Today CA is an established method used in sociology, anthropology,
linguistics, speech-communication and psychology. It is particularly influential in interactional sociolinguistics,
discourse analysis and discursive psychology. It is distinct from discourse analysis in focus and method. (i) Its focus
is squarely on processes involved in social interaction and does not include written texts or larger sociocultural
phenomena (for example, 'discourses' in the Foucauldian sense). (ii) Its method, following Garfinkel and Goffman's
initiatives, is aimed at determining the methods and resources that the interactional participants use and rely on to
produce interactional contributions and make sense of the contributions of others. Thus CA is neither designed for,
nor aimed at, examining the production of interaction from a perspective that is external to the participants' own
reasoning and understanding about their circumstances and communication. Rather the aim is to model the resources
and methods by which those understandings are produced.
Conversation analysis 66

CA analysis
As in all research, conversational analysis begins by setting up a research problem. The data collected for CA is in
the form of video or audio recorded conversations. The data is collected without researchers' involvement, often
simply by adding a video camera to the room where the conversation takes place (e.g. medical doctors consultation
with a patient). From the audio or video recording the researchers construct a detailed transcription (ideally with no
details left out). After transcription, the researchers perform inductive data-driven analysis aiming to find recurring
patterns of interaction. Based on the analysis, the researchers develop a rule or model to explain the occurrence of
the patterns.

Basic structures

Turn-taking organization
In the absence of formal agendas, the set of practices through which turns are allocated in conversation has been the
subject of study in its own right. The turn-taking model for conversation was arrived at inductively through empirical
investigation of field recordings of conversations and fitted to the observationally derived facts as that in
conversation, participants are constrained to issue their utterances in allocated turns, and enlist various mechanisms
to obtain them. Initial interest was in very simple forms that take place in two-party conversations where sentence
completion, or pause, might be enough to allocate the next turn to the co-present party in the manner that has been
discussed under the rubric of 'adjacency pairs'.
In multi-party conversations the mechanisms were found to be more complicated where 'current speaker selects next'
is a possibility, and how frequently individual utterances are tailored for their turn 'sequential implicativeness'. The
possibility of obtaining not only the next turn, but a series of turns (required for example in telling a joke or story) is
documented in analyses of announcements and story prefaces. A certain economy in conversation could be located in
the process whereby turns are allocated. That economy was directed at the 'turn commodity', but also in myriad other
instances for example person identifiers and locators where minimal forms are utilized in an economic fashion.
Other collections of turn allocation mechanisms include use of 'repeats', the elision of lexical forms, the use of
temporal regulators in turns including chuckles, 'uhm', ‘yuh know’, and ‘right’, the use of speech particles like ‘uh’,
and ‘oh’, and other specifically short-syllabic devices that are consonant-prefaced like ‘tih’.
According to CA, the turn-taking system consists of two distinct components: the allocational mechanism which is
responsible for distributing a turn (in any case), and the lexical components that parties utilize in filling that turn
while remaining concurrently sequentially implicative to deal with the contigency in the process that will result in a
subsequent turn allocation.[4]
Conversation analysis 67

Turn constructional component

The turn constructional component describes basic units out of which turns are fashioned. These basic units are
known as turn constructional units or TCUs. Unit types include: lexical, clausal, phrasal, and sentential.

Turn allocational component

The turn allocational component describes how participants organize their interaction by distributing turns to
speakers.

Sequence organization
This focuses on how actions are ordered in conversation.

Adjacency pairs
Talk tends to occur in responsive pairs; however, the pairs may be split over a sequence of turns.

Pre-sequences
A pair of turns may be understood as preliminary to the main course of action. For example, "Guess what!"/"What?"
as preliminary to an announcement of some sort, or "What are you doing?"/"Nothing" as preliminary to an invitation
or a request.

Preference organization
CA may reveal structural (i.e. practice-underwritten) preferences in conversation for some types of actions (within
sequences of action) over other actions. For example, responsive actions which agree with, or accept, positions taken
by a first action tend to be performed more straightforwardly and faster than actions that disagree with, or decline,
those positions (Pomerantz 1984; Davidson 1984). One consequence of this is that agreement and acceptance are
promoted over their alternatives, and are more likely to be the outcome of the sequence. Pre-sequences are also a
component of preference organization and contribute to this outcome (Schegloff 2007).

Repair
Repair organization describes how parties in conversation deal with problems in speaking, hearing, or understanding.
Repair segments are classified by who initiates repair (self or other), by who resolves the problem (self or other), and
by how it unfolds within a turn or a sequence of turns. The organisation of repair is also a self-righting mechanism in
social interaction (Schegloff, Jefferson, and Sacks 1977). Participants in conversation seek to correct the trouble
source by initiating self repair and a preference for self repair, the speaker of the trouble source, over other repair
(Schegloff, Jefferson, and Sacks 1977). Self repair initiations can be placed in three locations in relation to the
trouble source, in a first turn, a transition space or in a third turn (Schegloff, Jefferson, and Sacks 1977). Self
initiators of repair in the same turn use different non-lexical speech perturbations, including: cut-offs, sound stretches
and "uh's" (Schegloff, Jefferson, and Sacks 1977).
Conversation analysis 68

Action formation
This focuses on the description of the practices by which turns at talk are composed and positioned so as to realize
one or another actions.

Contrasts to other theories

In contrast to the research inspired by Noam Chomsky, which is based on a distinction between competence and
performance and dismisses the particulars of actual speech as a degraded form of idealized competence,
Conversation Analysis studies naturally-occurring talk and shows that spoken interaction is systematically orderly in
all its facets (cf. Sacks in Atkinson and Heritage 1984: 21-27). In contrast to the theory developed by John Gumperz,
CA maintains it is possible to analyze talk-in-interaction by examining its recordings alone (audio for telephone,
video for copresent interaction). CA researchers do not believe that the researcher needs to consult with the talk
participants or members of their speech community.

Application in other fields

In recent years, CA has been employed by researchers in other fields, such as feminism and feminist linguistics, or
used in complement with other theories, such as Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA). Elizabeth Stokoe
argues that ethnomethodology's egalitarian creed reflects the egalitarian ethos in feminism. Traditional feminist
concerns can be explored from an ethnomethodological standpoint, since oppression is not a once and for all
phenomenon but the processes involved in defining social reality produces and reproduces oppression daily. Thus,
the gendered properties of social life, routinely taken-for-granted as natural and trans-situational, are best understood
as situated accomplishments of local interactions.[5] MCA was influenced by the work on Harvey Sacks and his work
on Membership Categorization Device (MCD). Sacks argues that 'members’ categories comprise part of the central
machinery of organization and developed the notion of MCD to explain how categories can be hearably linked
together by native speakers of a culture. His example that is taken from a children's storybook (The baby cried. The
mommy picked it up.) shows how "mommy" is interpreted as the mother of the baby by speakers of the same culture.
In light of this, categories are inference rich – a great deal of knowledge members of a society have about the society
is stored in terms of these categories.[6] Stokoe further contends that members’ practical categorizations form part of
ethnomethodology's description of the ongoing production and realization of ‘facts’ about social life and including
members’ gendered reality analysis, thus making CA compatible with feminist studies.[5]

Subject index of conversation analysis literature

The following is a list of important phenomena identified in the conversation analysis literature, followed by a brief
definition and citations to articles that examine the named phenomenon either empirically or theoretically. Articles in
which the term for the phenomenon is coined or which present the canonical treatment of the phenomenon are in
bold, those that are otherwise centrally concerned with the phenomenon are in italics, and the rest are articles that
otherwise aim to make a significant contribution to an understanding of the phenomenon.
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it [7].
TURN-TAKING
A process by which interactants allocate the right or obligation to participate in an interactional activity.
(Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974)
REPAIR
The mechanisms through which certain "troubles" in interaction are dealt with. (Schegloff, Jefferson, &
Sacks 1977)
PREFERENCE ORGANIZATION
Conversation analysis 69

The ways through which different types of social actions ('preferred' vs. 'dispreferred') are carried out
sequentially. (Pomerantz 1978, Pomerantz 1984)

Notes
[1] Garfinkel, Harold (1967). Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall.
[2] Goffman, Erving (1983). The Interaction Order. American Sociological Review 48:1-17.
[3] Schegloff, Emanuel (1992) Introduction. In Harvey Sacks, Lectures on Conversation (Vol.1: Fall 1964-Spring 1968). Oxford, Blackwell:
ix-lxii.
[4] Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., & Jefferson, G. (1974). "A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation." Language,
50, 696-735.
[5] Stokoe, Elizabeth (2006). "On ethnomethodology, feminism, and the analysis of categorial reference to gender in talk-in-interaction",
Sociological Review 54: 467-94.
[6] Sacks, H. (1992). "Lectures on Conversation, Volumes I and II" Edited by G. Jefferson with Introduction by E.A. Schegloff, Blackwell,
Oxford.
[7] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Conversation_analysis& action=edit

References
• Atkinson, J. Maxwell and Heritage, John (eds) (1984). Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation
Analysis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Drew, Paul and Heritage, John. (1993). Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
• Enfield, N. J. and Stivers, Tanya. (2007). Person Reference in Interaction: Linguistic, Cultural and Social
Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Heritage, John (1984). Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Heritage, John and Steven E. Clayman (2010). Talk in Action: Interactions, Identities and Institutions. Boston:
Wiley-Blackwell.
• Hutchby, Ian and Wooffitt, Robin. (1988) Conversation Analysis. Polity Press.
• Lerner, Gene H. (ed.) (2004) Conversation Analysis: studies from the first generation. Philadelphia: John
Benjamins Publishing.
• Levinson, Stephen C. (1983). Pragmatics. pp 284–370. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-29414-2.
• Local, John. (2007). Phonetic Detail and the Organisation of Talk-in-Interaction. Proceedings of the XVIth
International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Saarbruecken, Germany: 16th ICPhS Organizing Committee.
• Kelly, John and Local John (1989). Doing Phonology, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Pain, Jean. (2008). Not Just Talking: Conversational Analysis and Psychotherapy. Karnac. ISBN
978-1-85575-689-2
• Pomerantz, Anita (1984). Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: Some features of preferred/dispreferred
turn shapes. In J. M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Psathas, George (1995): Conversation Analysis, Thousand Oaks: Sage
• Sacks, Harvey. (1995). Lectures on Conversation. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-55786-705-4.
• Sacks, Harvey, Schegloff, Emanuel A., & Jefferson, Gail (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of
turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696-735.
• Schegloff, Emanuel A., Jefferson, G. & Sacks, H. (1977). The Preference for Self-Correction in the Organisation
of Repair in Conversation. Language, 53, 361-382.
• Schegloff, Emanuel A. (2007). Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis,
Volume 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Sidnell, Jack. (2010). Conversation Analysis: An Introduction, London: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Sidnell, Jack and Tanya Stivers (2012) (eds.). Handbook of Conversation Analysis. Boston: Wiley-Blackwell.
Conversation analysis 70

• Stivers, Tanya. (2007). Prescribing Under Pressure: Parent-Physician Conversations and Antibiotics (Oxford
Studies in Sociolinguistics). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Ten Have, Paul (1999): Doing Conversation Analysis. A Practical Guide, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
• Terasaki, Alene Kiku (1976). Pre-announcement Sequences in Conversation, Social Sciences Working Paper #99.
School of Social Sciences, University of California, Irvine.

External links
• An Introduction to Conversation Analysis (http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~ssca1/sitemenu.htm) (by Discourse
and Rhetoric Group, Loughborough University)
• Online bibliography of pre-1990 CA literature (http://www.emca.net/bib-comp.html)
• Online bibliography of post-1989 CA literature (http://www.paultenhave.nl/bib90's.htm)
• Online clearinghouse for the CA community (http://www.paultenhave.nl/EMCA.htm)

Noema
Noema (plural: noemata) derives from the Greek word νόημα meaning thought or what is thought about.[1] Edmund
Husserl used noema as a technical term in phenomenology to stand for the object or content of a thought, judgment,
or perception, but its precise meaning in his work has remained a matter of controversy.

Husserl's Noema
In Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (1913), Husserl introduced the terms "noema" and "noesis"
to designate correlated elements of the structure of any intentional act - for example, an act of perceiving, or judging,
or remembering (see Intentionality):
"Corresponding to all points to the manifold data of the real (reelle) noetic content, there is a variety of data
displayable in really pure (wirklicher reiner) intuition, and in a correlative 'noematic content,' or briefly 'noema' -
terms which we shall henceforth be continually using."[2]
Every intentional act has noetic content (or a noesis - from the Greek nous, "mind"). This noetic content, to which
the noema corresponds, is that which gives meaning or sense to an intentional act.[3] Every act also has a noema,
which is the object of the act - that which is meant by it.[4] In other words, every intentional act has an "I-pole (or
noesis)" and an "object-pole (or noema)."[5] Husserl also refers to the noema as the Sinn or sense (meaning) of the
act, and sometimes appears to use the terms interchangeably. Nevertheless, the Sinn does not represent what Husserl
calls the "full noema": Sinn belongs to the noema, but the full noema is the object of the act as meant in the act, the
perceived object as perceived, the judged object as judged, and so on.[6]
In other words, the noema seems to be whatever is intended by acts of perception or judgement in general, whether it
be "a material object, a picture, a word, a mathematical entity, another person" precisely as being perceived, judged
or otherwise thought about.[7]

Interpreting Husserl
In fact, commentators have been unable to achieve consensus on exactly what a noema is. In a recent survey, David
Woodruff Smith distinguished four different schools of thought. On one view, to say that the noema is the intentional
object of an act of consciousness is to mean that it quite literally is an object. Husserl’s student Roman Ingarden, for
example, held that both ordinary objects, like chairs and trees, and intentional objects, like a chair precisely as it
appears to me, or even a fictional tree, actually exist, but have different "modes" of existence.[8]
Noema 71

An alternative view, developed primarily by Aron Gurwitsch, emphasizes the noema of perceptual experience. Most
ordinary objects can be perceived in different ways and from different perspectives (consider looking at a tree from
several different positions). For Gurwitsch, what is perceived in each such act is a noema, and the object itself – the
tree, say – is to be understood as the collection or system of noemata associated with it. This view has similarities
with phenomenalism.[9]
Sokolowski, alternatively, holds that a noema is just the actual object of perception or judgment itself, considered
phenomenologically. In other words, the noema of the judgment that “this chair is uncomfortable” is neither an entity
(the chair considered as uncomfortable) which exists in addition to the chair itself (but with a different mode of
existence) – the Ingarden view; but nor is the noema of such a judgment identified with a particular tactile
perception of the chair – which along with other perceptions constitutes the chair as such – the Gurwitsch view. For
Sokolowski, the noema is not a separate entity at all, but the chair itself as in this instance perceived or judged. This
seems consistent with Husserl’s emphasis on the noema as the "perceived as such…remembered as such…judged as
such…"[10]
An analytic philosopher, Dagfinn Føllesdal, in an influential 1969 paper,[11] proposed a Fregean interpretation of the
noema, which has been developed extensively by Ronald McIntyre and David Woodruff Smith.[12] This school of
thought agrees that the noema is not a separate entity, but rather than identifying it with the actual object of the act,
phenomenologically understood, this view suggests that it is a mediating component of the act (of perceiving,
judging, etc) itself. It is what gives the act the sense it has.[13] Indeed, Føllesdal and his followers suggest that the
noema is a generalized version of Frege’s account of linguistic meaning, and in particular of his concept of sense
(Sinn). Just as Frege held that a linguistic expression picks out its reference by means of its sense, so Husserl
believed that conscious acts generally – not merely acts of meaning but also acts of perception, judgment, etc. – are
intentionally directed toward objects by means of their noemata. On this view, the noema is not an object, but an
abstract component of certain types of acts.[14]
Sokolowski has continued to reject this approach, arguing that "(t)o equate sense and noema would be to equate
propositional and phenomenological reflection. It would take philosophy simply as the critical reflection on our
meanings or senses; it would equate philosophy with linguistic analysis." [15] Robert C. Solomon attempted to
reconcile the perception-based interpretation of the Gurwitsch school with the Fregean interpretation of noema as
sense, suggesting that while "(i)t has now become virtually axiomatic among phenomenologists that the Sinne
[senses] of experience stand independent of the Bedeutungen [meanings] of linguistic expressions. It has become all
but axiomatic among analytic philosophers that there is no meaning apart from language. It is the concept of the
noema that provides the link between them. The noema embodies both the changing phases of experience and the
organizing sense of our experience. But these two 'components' are not separable, for all experience requires
meaning, not as an after-the-fact luxury in reflective judgements but in order for it to be experience of anything.”[16]

Other uses
Noema is in the OED, which has shown its use for more than three centuries. It first was used in English in the field
of rhetoric to denote "a figure of speech whereby something stated obscurely is nevertheless intended to be
understood or worked out." In other words, a noema in rhetoric is obscure speech or speech that only yields meaning
upon detailed reflection.
Peacham's 1577 Garden of Eloquence [17] used it this way,
"Noema, when we doe signify some thing so privily that the hearers must be fayne to seeke out the
meaning by long consideration."
Noema 72

References
[1] Nicholas Bunnin and Jiyuan Yu (ed.s) The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy, Wiley-Blackwell, 2004, p. 473
[2] Edmund Husserl, Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (also known as Ideas I), trans. W. Boyce Gibson, Collier Books, 1962,
p. 238
[3] Dermot Moran, Edmund Husserl: founder of phenomenology Polity, 2005, p133
[4] Edmund Husserl, Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (also known as Ideas I), trans. W. Boyce Gibson, Collier Books, 1962,
p229
[5] Jean-Francois Lyotard, Phenomenology, trans. Brian Beakley, SUNY Press, 1991, p55
[6] Dermot Moran, Edmund Husserl: founder of phenomenology Polity, 2005, p135; see also Edmund Husserl, Ideas: General Introduction to
Pure Phenomenology (also known as Ideas I), trans. W. Boyce Gibson, Collier Books, 1962, p. 238
[7] Robert Solokowski, Introduction to Phenomenology, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 59
[8] David Woodruff Smith, Husserl, Routledge, 2007, pp. 304-305
[9] David Woodruff Smith, Husserl, Routledge, 2007, pp. 305-306
[10] Edmund Husserl, Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (also known as Ideas I), trans. W. Boyce Gibson, Collier Books,
1962, p. 238
[11] Dagfinn Føllesdal, "Husserl’s Notion of Noema" Journal of Philosophy LXVI:20, 1969, pp. 680-687
[12] David Woodruff Smith and Ronald McIntyre, "Intentionality via Intensions" Journal of Philosophy LXVIII:18, 1971, pp541-561; Ronald
McIntyre and David Woodruff Smith, "Theory of Intentionality" in J.N. Mohanty and William R. McKenna (eds) Husserl’s Phenomenology: a
Textbook, Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology and University Press of America, 1989, pp. 147-179; see also David Woodruff
Smith, Husserl, Routledge, 2007, especially chapter six.
[13] David Woodruff Smith, Husserl, Routledge, 2007, pp. 306-307
[14] David Woodruff Smith and Ronald McIntyre, "Intentionality via Intensions" Journal of Philosophy LXVIII:18, 1971, pp. 541-542
[15] Robert Solokowski, Introduction to Phenomenology, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 194
[16] Robert C. Solomon, "Husserl’s Concept of the Noema" in Frederick Elliston and Peter McCormick (eds) Husserl: Expositions and
Appraisals University of Notre Dame Press, 1977, pp. 168-181; see p. 179
[17] Peacham's 1577 Garden of Eloquence - Publications from Stockholm University (http:/ / www. diva-portal. org/ su/ abstract.
xsql?dbid=6663)

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This article is about the concept of nous or intellect in philosophy. See also Intelligence (disambiguation) and
Intellect (disambiguation).
Nous (British: pron.: /ˈnaʊs/;[1] US: /ˈnuːs/), sometimes equated to intellect or intelligence, is a philosophical term
for the faculty of the human mind which is described in classical philosophy as necessary for understanding what is
true or real, similar in meaning to intuition. It is also often described as a form of perception which works within the
mind ("the mind's eye"), rather than only through the physical senses.[2] The three commonly used philosophical
terms are from Greek, νοῦς or νόος, and Latin intellectus and intelligentia respectively.
In philosophy, common English translations include "understanding" and "mind"; or sometimes "reason" and
"thought".[3][4] To describe the activity of this faculty, apart from verbs based on "understanding", the verb
"intellection" is sometimes used in philosophical contexts, and the Greek words noēsis and noein are sometimes also
used. In colloquial British English, nous denotes "common sense", which is close to the original everyday meaning it
had in Ancient Greece.
Apart from referring to a faculty of the human mind, this philosophical concept has often been extended to describe
the source of order in nature itself.
Nous 74

Introduction: nous in
philosophy
The basic meaning of "nous" or
"intellect" is "understanding", but
several sources or types of
"understandings" are often
distinguished from each other:
• Sense perception is a source of
feelings, impressions, or raw data
about things, but it needs to be
interpreted in order to be converted
into real understanding.
• Reason is a source of new
understandings but it is built by
putting together and distinguishing
other things already understood.
Philosophical discussion of nous has
therefore centred around the origin of
the most basic understandings which
allow people to make sense of what This diagram shows the medieval understanding of spheres of the cosmos, derived from
Aristotle, and as per the standard explanation by Ptolemy. It came to be understood that at
they see, hear, taste or feel, and which
least the outermost sphere (marked "Primũ Mobile") has its own intellect, intelligence or
also allow them to start reasoning. nous - a cosmic equivalent to the human mind.
These basic understandings are often
felt to at least include such things as understandings of geometrical and logical basics, and also an ability to
generalize properly into correct categories or universals, setting definitions. This mental step between perception and
reasoning has sometimes been discussed as an aspect of perception or an aspect of reasoning, as will be seen below.

The question then also arose of whether there can really be any source of such basic understanding other than the
accumulation of perceptions. Somehow the human mind sets definitions in a consistent way, because people perceive
the same things and can discuss them. So the argument goes, as will be shown below, that people must be born with
some innate potential to understand the same things the same ways. And in addition to this it has also been argued
that this possibility must require help of a spiritual and divine type. The question of where understanding comes
from, is therefore related to the question of what knowledge is, and how things can and should be defined or
classified.

Another important philosophical discussion concerning nous stemming from these, involves not only human
thinking, but the nature of the cosmos itself. As mentioned above, some philosophers proposed that the human mind
must have an ability to understand which is divine, and independent of normal sense experience and physics. This
ordering of the individual human mind, it is then argued, must be somehow derived from a cosmic mind which
orders nature just like the human mind orders its understanding of nature. This was claimed from an early time, by
Greek philosophers such as Anaxagoras. By this type of account, it came to be argued that the human understanding
(nous) somehow stems from this cosmic nous, which is however not just a recipient of order, but a creator of it. Such
explanations were influential in the development of medieval accounts of God, the immortality of the soul, and even
the motions of the stars, in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, amongst both eclectic philosophers and
authors representing all the major faiths of their times.
Nous 75

Pre-Socratic usage
In early Greek uses, Homer used nous to signify mental activities of
both mortals and immortals, for example what they really have on their
mind as opposed to what they say aloud. It was one of several words
related to thought, thinking, and perceiving with the mind. Amongst
pre-Socratic philosophers it became increasingly distinguished as a
source of knowledge and reasoning and opposed to mere sense
perception, or thinking influenced by the body such as emotion. For
example Heraclitus complained that "much learning does not teach
nous".[] The first use of the word nous in the Iliad.
Agamemnon says to Achilles: "Do not thus,
Among some Greek authors a faculty of intelligence, a "higher mind",
mighty though you are, godlike Achilles, seek to
came to be considered to be a property of the cosmos as a whole. deceive me with your wit (nous); for you will not
[5]
The work of Parmenides of Elea set the scene for Greek philosophy to get by me nor persuade me."

come and the concept of nous was central to his radical proposals. He
claimed that reality as the senses perceive it is not a world of truth at all, because sense perception is so unreliable,
and what is perceived is so uncertain and changeable. Instead he argued for a dualism wherein nous and related
words (the verb for thinking which describes its mental perceiving activity, noein, and the unchanging and eternal
objects of this perception noēta) describe a form of perception which is not physical, but intellectual only, distinct
from sense perception and the objects of sense perception. These eternal immaterial objects which people perceive in
their mind are the equivalent of the forms or ideas, in the later philosophy of Plato and Aristotle.

Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, born about 500 BC, is the first person who
is definitely known to have explained the concept of a nous (mind),
which arranged all other things in the cosmos in their proper order,
started them in a rotating motion, and continuing to control them to
some extent, having an especially strong connection with living things.
(However Aristotle reports an earlier philosopher from Clezomenae
named of Hermotimus who had taken a similar position.[6]) Amongst
Pre-Socratic philosophers before Anaxagoras, other philosophers had
proposed a similar ordering human-like principle causing life and the
rotation of the heavens. For example Empedocles, like Hesiod much
earlier, described cosmic order and living things as caused by a cosmic
version of love,[7] and Pythagoras and Heraclitus, attributed the cosmos
with "reason" (logos).[8]

According to Anaxagoras the cosmos is made of infinitely divisible

matter, every bit of which can inherently become anything, except
Anaxagoras of Clezomenae
Mind (nous), which is also matter, but which can only be found
separated from this general mixture, or else mixed in to living things,
or in other words in the Greek terminology of the time, things with a soul (psuchē).[9] Anaxagoras wrote:
All other things partake in a portion of everything, while nous is infinite and self-ruled, and is mixed with
nothing, but is alone, itself by itself. For if it were not by itself, but were mixed with anything else, it would
partake in all things if it were mixed with any; for in everything there is a portion of everything, as has been
said by me in what goes before, and the things mixed with it would hinder it, so that it would have power over
nothing in the same way that it has now being alone by itself. For it is the thinnest of all things and the purest,
and it has all knowledge about everything and the greatest strength; and nous has power over all things, both
greater and smaller, that have soul [psuchē].[10]
Nous 76

Concerning cosmology, Anaxagoras, like some Greek philosophers already before him, believed the cosmos was
revolving, and had formed into its visible order as a result of such revolving causing a separating and mixing of
different types of elements. Nous, in his system, originally caused this revolving motion to start, but it does not
necessarily continue to play a role once the mechanical motion has started. His description was in other words
(shockingly for the time) corporeal or mechanical, with the moon made of earth, the sun and stars made of red hot
metal (beliefs Socrates was later accused of holding during his trial) and nous itself being a physical fine type of
matter which also gathered and concentrated with the development of the cosmos. This nous (mind) is not
incorporeal; it is the thinnest of all things. The distinction between nous and other things nevertheless causes his
scheme to sometimes be described as a peculiar kind of dualism.[9]
Anaxagoras' concept of nous was distinct from later platonic and neoplatonic cosmologies in many ways, which
were also influenced by Eleatic, Pythagorean and other pre Socratic ideas, as well as the Socratics themselves.
In ancient Indian Philosophy also, a "higher mind", came to be considered to be a property of the cosmos as a
whole.[11]

Socratic philosophy

Xenophon
Xenophon, the less famous of the two students of Socrates whose written accounts of him have survived, recorded
that he taught his students a kind of teleological justification of piety and respect for divine order in nature. This has
been described as an "intelligent design" argument for the existence of God, in which nature has its own nous. For
example in his Memorabilia 1.4.8 he describes Socrates asking a friend sceptical of religion "Are you, then, of the
opinion that intelligence (nous) alone exists nowhere and that you by some good chance seized hold of it, while - as
you think - those surpassingly large and infinitely numerous things [all the earth and water] are in such orderly
condition through some senselessness?" and later in the same discussion he compares the nous which directs each
person's body, to the good sense (phronēsis) of the god which is in everything, arranging things to its pleasure.
(1.4.17).[12] Plato describes Socrates making the same argument in his Philebus 28d, using the same words nous and
phronēsis.[13]

Plato

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Nous 77

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Plato used the word nous in many ways which were not unusual in the everyday Greek of the time, and often simply
meant "good sense".[14] On the other hand, in some of his dialogues it is described by key characters in a higher
sense, which was apparently already common. In his Philebus 28c he has Socrates say that "all philosophers
agree—whereby they really exalt themselves—that mind (nous) is king of heaven and earth. Perhaps they are right."
and later states that the ensuing discussion "confirms the utterances of those who declared of old that mind (nous)
always rules the universe".[15]
In his Cratylus, Plato gives the etymology of Athena's name, the goddess of wisdom, from Atheonóa (Ἀθεονόα)
from god's (theos) mind (nous). In his Phaedo, Plato's teacher Socrates is made to say just before dying that his
discovery of Anaxagoras' concept of a cosmic nous as the cause of the order of things, was an important turning
point for him. But he also expressed disagreement with Anaxagoras' understanding of the implications of his own
doctrine, because of Anaxagoras' materialist understanding of causation. Socrates said that Anaxagoras would "give
voice and air and hearing and countless other things of the sort as causes for our talking with each other, and should
fail to mention the real causes, which are, that the Athenians decided that it was best to condemn me".[16] On the
other hand Socrates seems to suggest that he also failed to develop a fully satisfactory teleological and dualistic
understanding of a mind of nature, whose aims represent the good things which all parts of nature aim at.
Concerning the nous of individuals, the source of understanding, in opposition to Anaxagoras Plato is also widely
understood to have accepted ideas from Parmenides which affect his explanation of nous. Like Parmenides, Plato
argued that relying on sense perception can never lead to true knowledge, only opinion. Instead, Plato's more
philosophical characters argue that nous must somehow perceive truth directly in the ways gods and daimons
perceive. What our mind sees directly in order to really understand things must not be the constantly changing
material things, but unchanging entities that exist in a different way, the so-called "forms" or "ideas". However he
knew that contemporary philosophers often argued (as in modern science) that nous and perception are just two
aspects of one physical activity, and that perception is the source of knowledge and understanding (not the other way
around).
Just exactly how Plato believed that the nous of people lets them come to understand things in any way which
improves upon sense perception is a subject of long running discussion and debate. On the one hand, in the Republic
Plato's Socrates, in the so-called "metaphor of the sun", and "allegory of the cave" sections describe people as being
able to see more clearly because of something from outside themselves, something like when sun shines, helping
Nous 78

eyesight. This illumination of the intellect shines from the Form of the Good. On the other hand, in the Meno for
example, Plato's Socrates explains the theory of anamnesis whereby people are born with ideas already in their soul,
which they somehow remember from previous lives. Both theories were to be highly influential.
As in Xenophon, and apparently based upon Socrates, Plato frequently describes the soul in a political way, with
ruling parts, and parts which are by nature meant to be ruled. Nous is associated with the rational (logistikon) part of
the individual human soul, which by nature should rule. In his Republic, in the so-called "analogy of the divided
line", it has a special function within this rational part. Plato tended to treat nous as the only immortal part of the
soul.
Concerning the cosmos, in the Timaeus, the title character also tells a likely story in which nous is responsible for the
creative work of the demiurge or maker who brought rational order to our universe. This craftsman imitated what he
perceived in the world of eternal Forms. In the Philebus Socrates argues that nous in individual humans must share
in a cosmic nous, in the same way that human bodies are made up of small parts of the elements found in the rest of
the universe. And this nous must be in the genos of being a cause of all particular things as particular things.[17]

Aristotle

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Corpus Aristotelicum

Logic (Organon):

Categories – Prior Analytics

Posterior Analytics

On Interpretation – Topics

Sophistical Refutations

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Eudemian Ethics – Magna Moralia

On Virtues and Vices

Nous 79

Politics – Economics

Constitution of the Athenians

Rhetoric and Poetics:

Rhetoric – Poetics

Spurious Works:

On the Universe – Mechanics

Like Plato, Aristotle saw the nous or intellect of an individual as an intuitive understanding, distinguished from sense
perception.[18] Like Plato, Aristotle linked nous to logos (reason) as uniquely human, but he also distinguished nous
from logos, thereby distinguishing the faculty for setting definitions from the faculty which uses them to reason
with.[19] In his Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI Aristotle divides the soul (psuchē) into two parts, one which has
reason and one which does not, but then divides the part which has reason into the reasoning (logistikos) part itself
which is lower, and the higher "knowing" (epistēmonikos) part which contemplates general principles (archai).
Nous, he states, is the source of the first principles or sources (archai) of definitions, and it develops naturally as
people get older. This he explains after first comparing the four other truth revealing capacities of soul: technical
know how (technē), logically deduced knowledge (epistēmē, sometimes translated as "scientific knowledge"),
practical wisdom (phronēsis), and lastly theoretical wisdom (sophia), which is defined by Aristotle as the
combination of nous and epistēmē. All of these others apart from nous involve reason (logos).
And intellect [nous] is directed at what is ultimate on both sides, since it is intellect and not reason [logos] that
is directed at both the first terms [horoi] and the ultimate particulars, on the one side at the changeless first
terms in demonstrations, and on the other side, in thinking about action, at the other sort of premise, the
variable particular; for these particulars are the sources [archai] from which one discerns that for the sake of
which an action is, since the universals are derived from the particulars. Hence intellect is both a beginning
and an end, since the demonstrations that are derived from these particulars are also about these. And of these
one must have perception, and this perception is intellect.[20]
Aristotle's philosophical works continue many of the same Socratic themes as his teacher Plato. Amongst the new
proposals he made was a way of explaining causality, and nous is an important part of his explanation. As mentioned
above, Plato criticized Anaxagoras' materialism, or understanding that the intellect of nature only set the cosmos in
motion, but is no longer seen as the cause of physical events. Aristotle explained that the changes of things can be
described in terms of four causes at the same time. Two of these four causes are similar to the materialist
understanding: each thing has a material which causes it to be how it is, and some other thing which set in motion or
initiated some process of change. But at the same time according to Aristotle each thing is also caused by the natural
forms they are tending to become, and the natural ends or aims, which somehow exist in nature as causes, even in
cases where human plans and aims are not involved. These latter two causes, are concepts no longer used in modern
science, encompassing the continuing effect of the ordering principle of nature itself. Aristotle's special description
of causality is especially apparent in the natural development of living things. It leads to a method whereby Aristotle
analyses causation and motion in terms of the potentialities and actualities of all things, whereby all matter possesses
various possibilities or potentialities of form and end, and these possibilities become more fully real as their potential
forms become actual or active reality (something they will do on their own, by nature, unless stopped because of
other natural things happening). For example a stone has in its nature the potentiality of falling to the earth and it will
do so, and actualize this natural tendency, if nothing is in the way.
Aristotle analyzed thinking in the same way. For him, the possibility of understanding rests on the relationship of
intellect and sense perception. Aristotle's remarks on the concept of what came to be called the "active intellect" and
"passive intellect" (along with various other terms) are amongst "the most intensely studied sentences in the history
of philosophy".[] The terms are derived from a single passage in Aristotle's De Anima, Book III. Following is the
translation of one of those passages[21] with some key Greek words shown in square brackets.
Nous 80

...since in nature one thing is the material [hulē] for each kind [genos] (this is what is in potency all the
particular things of that kind) but it is something else that is the causal and productive thing by which all
of them are formed, as is the case with an art in relation to its material, it is necessary in the soul
[psuchē] too that these distinct aspects be present;
the one sort is intellect [nous] by becoming all things, the other sort by forming all things, in the way an
active condition [hexis] like light too makes the colors that are in potency be at work as colors [to phōs
poiei ta dunamei onta chrōmata energeiai chrōmata].
This sort of intellect [which is like light in the way it makes potential things work as what they are] is
separate, as well as being without attributes and unmixed, since it is by its thinghood a being-at-work
[energeia], for what acts is always distinguished in stature above what is acted upon, as a governing
source is above the material it works on.
Knowledge [epistēmē], in its being-at-work, is the same as the thing it knows, and while knowledge in
potency comes first in time in any one knower, in the whole of things it does not take precedence even
in time.
This does not mean that at one time it thinks but at another time it does not think, but when separated it
is just exactly what it is, and this alone is deathless and everlasting (though we have no memory,
because this sort of intellect is not acted upon, while the sort that is acted upon is destructible), and
without this nothing thinks.
The passage tries to explain "how the human intellect passes from its original state, in which it does not think, to a
subsequent state, in which it does" according to his distinction between potentiality and actuality.[] Aristotle says that
the passive intellect receives the intelligible forms of things, but that the active intellect is required to make the
potential knowledge into actual knowledge, in the same way that light makes potential colors into actual colors. As
Davidson remarks:
Just what Aristotle meant by potential intellect and active intellect - terms not even explicit in the De
anima and at best implied - and just how he understood the interaction between them remains moot.
Students of the history of philosophy continue to debate Aristotle's intent, particularly the question
whether he considered the active intellect to be an aspect of the human soul or an entity existing
independently of man.[]
The passage is often read together with Metaphysics, Book XII, ch.7-10, where Aristotle makes nous as an actuality
a central subject within a discussion of the cause of being and the cosmos. In that book, Aristotle equates active
nous, when people think and their nous becomes what they think about, with the "unmoved mover" of the universe,
and God: "For the actuality of thought (nous) is life, and God is that actuality; and the essential actuality of God is
life most good and eternal."[22] Alexander of Aphrodisias, for example, equated this active intellect which is God
with the one explained in De Anima, while Themistius thought they could not be simply equated. (See below.)
Like Plato before him, Aristotle believes Anaxagoras' cosmic nous implies and requires the cosmos to have
intentions or ends: "Anaxagoras makes the Good a principle as causing motion; for Mind (nous) moves things, but
moves them for some end, and therefore there must be some other Good—unless it is as we say; for on our view the
art of medicine is in a sense health."[23]
In the philosophy of Aristotle the soul (psyche) of a body is what makes it alive, and is its actualized form; thus,
every living thing, including plant life, has a soul. The mind or intellect (nous) can be described variously as a
power, faculty, part, or aspect of the human soul. It should be noted that for Aristotle soul and intellect are not the
same. He did not rule out the possibility that intellect might survive without the rest of the soul, as in Plato, but
plants have a 'nutritive' soul without a nous. In his Generation of Animals Aristotle specifically says that while other
parts of the soul come from the parents, physically, the nous, must come from outside, into the body, because it is
divine or godly, and it has nothing in common with the energeia of the body.[24] This was yet another passage which
Nous 81

Alexander of Aphrodisias would link to those mentioned above from De Anima and the Metaphysics in order to
understand Aristotle's intentions.

Post Aristotelian classical theories

Until the early modern era, much of the discussion which has survived today concerning nous or intellect, in Europe,
Africa and the Middle East, concerned how to correctly interpret Aristotle and Plato. However, at least during the
classical period, materialist philosophies, more similar to modern science, such as Epicureanism, were still relatively
common also. The Epicureans believed that the bodily senses themselves were not the cause of error, but the
interpretations can be. The term prolepsis was used by Epicureans to describe the way the mind forms general
concepts from sense perceptions.
To the Stoics, more like Heraclitus than Anaxagoras, order in the cosmos comes from an entity called logos, the
cosmic reason. But as in Anaxagoras this cosmic reason, like human reason but higher, is connected to the reason of
individual humans. The Stoics however, did not invoke incorporeal causation, but attempted to explain physics and
human thinking in terms of matter and forces. As in Aristotelianism, they explained the interpretation of sense data
requiring the mind to be stamped or formed with ideas. However, they did not propose any in-born or acquired
equivalent of the "active intellect" in order to explain how people could know understand things. Nous for them is
soul "somehow disposed" (pôs echon), the soul being somehow disposed pneuma, which is fire or air or a mixture.
As in Plato, they treated nous as the ruling part of the soul.[]
Plutarch criticized the Stoic idea of nous being corporeal, and agreed with Plato that the soul is more divine than the
body while nous (mind) is more divine than the soul.[] The mix of soul and body produces pleasure and pain; the
conjunction of mind and soul produces reason which is the cause or the source of virtue and vice. (From: “On the
Face in the Moon”) [25]
Albinus was one of the earliest authors to equate Aristotle's nous as prime mover of the Universe, with Plato's Form
of the Good.[]

Alexander of Aphrodisias
Alexander of Aphrodisias was a Peripatetic (Aristotelian) and his On the Soul (referred to as De anima in its
traditional Latin title), explained that by his interpretation of Aristotle, potential intellect in man, that which has no
nature but receives on from the active intellect, is material, and also called the "material intellect" (nous hulikos) and
it is inseparable from the body, being "only a disposition" of it.[26] He argued strongly against the doctrine of
immortality. On the other hand, he identified the active intellect (nous poietikos), through whose agency the potential
intellect in man becomes actual, not with anything from within people, but with the divine creator itself. In the early
Renaissance his doctrine of the soul's mortality was adopted by Pietro Pomponazzi against the Thomists and the
Averroists. For him, the only possible human immortality is an immortality of a detached human thought, more
specifically when the nous has as the object of its thought the active intellect itself, or another incorporeal intelligible
form.[27]
Alexander was also responsible for influencing the development of several more technical terms concerning the
intellect, which became very influential amongst the great Islamic philosophers, Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes.
• The intellect in habitu is a stage in which the human intellect has taken possession of a repertoire of thoughts, and
so is potentially able to think those thoughts, but is not yet thinking these thoughts.
• The intellect from outside, which became the "acquired intellect" in Islamic philosophy, describes the incorporeal
active intellect which comes from outside man, and becomes an object thought, making the material intellect
actual and active. This term may have come from a particularly expressive translation of Alexander into Arabic.
Plotinus also used such a term.[28] In any case, in Al-Farabi and Avicenna, the term took on a new meaning,
distinguishing it from the active intellect in any simple sense - an ultimate stage of the human intellect where the a
kind of close relationship (a "conjunction") is made between a person's active intellect and the transcendental
Nous 82

nous itself.

Themistius
Themistius, another influential commentator on this matter, understood Aristotle differently, stating that the passive
or material intellect does "not employ a bodily organ for its activity, is wholly unmixed with the body, impassive,
and separate [from matter]".[29] This means the human potential intellect, and not only the active intellect, is an
incorporeal substance, or a disposition of incorporeal substance. For Themistius, the human soul becomes immortal
"as soon as the active intellect intertwines with it at the outset of human thought".[27]
This understanding of the intellect was also very influential for Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, and "virtually all
Islamic and Jewish philosophers".[30] On the other hand concerning the active intellect, like Alexander and Plotinus,
he saw this as a transcendent being existing above and outside man. Differently from Alexander, he did not equate
this being with the first cause of the Universe itself, but something lower.[31] However he equated it with Plato's Idea
of the Good.[32]

Plotinus and neoplatonism

Of the later Greek and Roman writers Plotinus, the intiator of neoplatonism, is particularly significant. Like
Alexander of Aphrodisias and Themistius, he saw himself as a commentator explaining the doctrines of Plato and
Aristotle. But in his Enneads he went further than those authors, often working from passages which had been
presented more tentatively, possibly inspired partly by earlier authors such as the neopythagorean Numenius of
Apamea. Neoplatonism provided a major inspiration to discussion concerning the intellect in late classical and
medieval philosophy, theology and cosmology.
In neoplatonism there exists several levels or hypostases of being, including the natural and visible world as a lower
part.
• The Monad or "the One" sometimes also described as "the Good", based on the concept as it is found in Plato.
This is the dunamis or possibility of existence. It causes the other levels by emanation.
• The Nous (usually translated as "Intellect", or "Intelligence" in this context, or sometimes "mind" or "reason") is
described as God, or more precisely an image of God, often referred to as the Demiurge. It thinks its own
contents, which are thoughts, equated to the Platonic ideas or forms (eide). The thinking of this Intellect is the
highest activity of life. The actualization (energeia) of this thinking is the being of the forms. This Intellect is the
first principle or foundation of existence. The One is prior to it, but not in the sense that a normal cause is prior to
an effect, but instead Intellect is called an emanation of the One. The One is the possibility of this foundation of
existence.
• Soul (psuchē). The soul is also an energeia: it acts upon or actualizes its own thoughts and creates "a separate,
material cosmos that is the living image of the spiritual or noetic Cosmos contained as a unified thought within
the Intelligence". So it is the soul which perceives things in nature physically, which it understands to be reality.
Soul in Plotinus plays a role similar to the potential intellect in Aristotelian terminology.[]
• Lowest is matter.
This was based largely upon Plotinus' reading of Plato, but also incorporated many Aristotelian concepts, including
the Unmoved Mover as energeia.[33] They also incorporated a theory of anamnesis, or knowledge coming from the
past lives of our immortal souls, like that found in some of Plato's dialogues.
Later Platonists distinguished a hierarchy of three separate manifestations of nous, like Numenius of Apamea had.[34]
Notable later neoplatonists include Porphyry and Proclus.
Nous 83

Medieval nous in religion

Greek philosophy had an influence on the major religions which defined the Middle Ages, and one aspect of this was
the concept of nous.

Gnosticism

Part of a series on

Gnosticism

History
• Early schools
• Syrian-Egyptic
• Medieval schools
• Modern schools
• Mandaeism
• Manichaeism
• Sabians
• Sabians of Harran
Proto-Gnostics

• Philo
• Simon Magus
• Cerinthus
• Valentinus (Gnostic)
• Basilides

Scriptures
• Gnostic Gospels
• Nag Hammadi library
• Codex Tchacos
• Askew Codex
• Pseudo-Abdias
• Bruce Codex
• Berlin Codex
• Clementine literature
• Gnosticism and the New Testament
Related articles
• Gnosis
• Jnana
• Esoteric Christianity
• Theosophy
• Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
• List of Gnostic sects
• List of gnostic terms

Gnosticism was a late classical movement which incorporated ideas inspired by neoplatonism and
neopythagoreanism, but which was more a syncretic religious movement than an accepted philosophical movement.
Nous 84

Valentinus
In the Valentinian system, Nous is the first male Aeon. Together with his conjugate female Aeon, Aletheia (truth), he
emanates from the Propator Bythos and his coeternal Ennoia or Sige; and these four form the primordial Tetrad.
Like the other male Aeons he is sometimes regarded as androgynous, including in himself the female Aeon who is
paired with him. He is the Only Begotten; and is styled the Father, the Beginning of all, inasmuch as from him are
derived immediately or mediately the remaining Aeons who complete the Ogdoad (eight), thence the Decad (ten),
and thence the Dodecad (twenty); in all thirty, Aeons constituting the Pleroma. He alone is capable of knowing the
Propator; but when he desired to impart like knowledge to the other Aeons, was withheld from so doing by Sige.
When Sophia (wisdom), youngest Aeon of the thirty, was brought into peril by her yearning after this knowledge,
Nous was foremost of the Aeons in interceding for her. From him, or through him from the Propator, Horos was sent
to restore her. After her restoration, Nous, according to the providence of the Propator, produced another pair, Christ
and the Holy Spirit, "in order to give fixity and steadfastness (eis pēxin kai stērigmon) to the Pleroma." For this
Christ teaches the Aeons to be content to know that the Propator is in himself incomprehensible, and can be
perceived only through the Only Begotten (Nous).[35]

Basilides
A similar conception of Nous appears in the later teaching of the Basilidean School, according to which he is the first
begotten of the Unbegotten Father, and himself the parent of Logos, from whom emanate successively Phronesis,
Sophia, and Dunamis. But in this teaching Nous is identified with Christ, is named Jesus, is sent to save those that
believe, and returns to Him who sent him, after a passion which is apparent only,—Simon the Cyrenian being
substituted for him on the cross.[36] It is probable, however, that Nous had a place in the original system of Basilides
himself; for his Ogdoad, "the great Archon of the universe, the ineffable"[37] is apparently made up of the five
members named by Irenaeus (as above), together with two whom we find in Clement,[38] Dikaiosyne and
Eirene,—added to the originating Father.

Simon Magus
The antecedent of these systems is that of Simon,[39] of whose six "roots" emanating from the Unbegotten Fire, Nous
is first. The correspondence of these "roots" with the first six Aeons which Valentinus derives from Bythos, is noted
by Hippolytus.[40] Simon says in his Apophasis Megalē,[41]
There are two offshoots of the entire ages, having neither beginning nor end.... Of these the one appears from
above, the great power, the Nous of the universe, administering all things, male; the other from beneath, the
great Epinoia, female, bringing forth all things.
To Nous and Epinoia correspond Heaven and Earth, in the list given by Simon of the six material counterparts of his
six emanations. The identity of this list with the six material objects alleged by Herodotus[42] to be worshipped by
the Persians, together with the supreme place given by Simon to Fire as the primordial power, leads us to look to
Persia for the origin of these systems in one aspect. In another, they connect themselves with the teaching of
Pythagoras and of Plato.
Nous 85

Gospel of Mary
According to the Gospel of Mary, Jesus himself articulates the essence of Nous:
"There where is the nous, lies the treasure." Then I said to him: "Lord, when someone meets you in a Moment
of Vision, is it through the soul [psuchē] that they see, or is it through the spirit [pneuma]?" The Teacher
answered: "It is neither through the soul nor the spirit, but the nous between the two which sees the vision..."
—The Gospel of Mary, p. 10

Medieval Islamic philosophy

During the middle ages, philosophy itself was in many places seen as opposed to the prevailing monotheistic
religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The strongest philosophical tradition for some centuries was amongst
Islamic philosophers, who later came to strongly influence the late medieval philosophers of western Christendom,
and the Jewish diaspora in the Mediterranean area. While there were earlier Muslim philosophers such as Al Kindi,
chronologically the three most influential concerning the intellect were Al Farabi, Avicenna, and finally Averroes, a
westerner who lived in Spain and was highly influential in the late middle ages amongst Jewish and Christian
philosophers.

Al Farabi
The exact precedents of Al Farabi's influential philosophical scheme, in which nous (Arabic 'aql) plays an important
role, are no longer perfectly clear because of the great loss of texts in the middle ages which he would have had
access to. He was apparently innovative in at least some points. He was clearly influenced by the same late classical
world as neoplatonism, neopythagoreanism, but exactly how is less clear. Plotinus, Themistius and Alexander of
Aphrodisias are generally accepted to have been influences. However while these three all placed the active intellect
"at or near the top of the hierarchy of being", Al Farabi was clear in making it the lowest ranking in a series of
distinct transcendental intelligences. He is the first known person to have done this in a clear way.[43] He was also
the first philosopher known to have assumed the existence of a causal hierarchy of celestial spheres, and the
incorporeal intelligences parallel to those spheres.[44] Al Farabi also fitted an explanation of prophecy into this
scheme, in two levels. According to Davidson (p. 59):
The lower of the two levels, labeled specifically as "prophecy" (nubuwwa), is enjoyed by men who have
not yet perfected their intellect, whereas the higher, which Alfarabi sometimes specifically names
"revelation" (w-ḥ-y), comes exclusively to those who stand at the stage of acquired intellect.
This happens in the imagination (Arabic mutakhayyila; Greek phantasia), a faculty of the mind already described by
Aristotle, which Al Farabi described as serving the rational part of the soul (Arabic 'aql; Greek nous). This faculty of
imagination stores sense perceptions (maḥsūsāt), disassembles or recombines them, creates figurative or symbolic
images (muḥākāt) of them which then appear in dreams, visualizes present and predicted events in a way different
from conscious deliberation (rawiyya). This is under the influence, according to Al Farabi, of the active intellect.
Theoretical truth can only be received by this faculty in a figurative or symbolic form, because the imagination is a
physical capability and can not receive theoretical information in a proper abstract form. This rarely comes in a
waking state, but more often in dreams. The lower type of philosophy is the best possible for the imaginative faculty,
but the higher type of prophecy requires not only a receptive imagination, but also the condition of an "acquired
intellect", where the human nous is in "conjunction" with the active intellect in the sense of God. Such a prophet is
also a philosopher. When a philosopher-prophet has the necessary leadership qualities, he becomes
philosopher-king.[45]
Nous 86

Avicenna
In terms of cosmology, according to Davidson (p. 82) "Avicenna's universe has a structure virtually identical with
the structure of Alfarabi's" but there are differences in details. As in Al Farabi, there are several levels of intellect,
intelligence or nous, each of the higher ones being associated with a celestial sphere. Avicenna however details three
different types of effect which each of these higher intellects has, each "thinks" both the necessary existence and the
possible being of the intelligence one level higher. And each "emanates" downwards the body and soul of its own
celestial sphere, and also the intellect at the next lowest level. The active intellect, as in Alfarabi, is the last in the
chain. Avicenna sees active intellect as the cause not only of intelligible thought and the forms in the "sublunar"
world we people live, but also the matter. (In other words, three effects.)[46]
Concerning the workings of the human soul, Avicenna, like Al Farabi, sees the "material intellect" or potential
intellect as something that is not material. He believed the soul was incorporeal, and the potential intellect was a
disposition of it which was in the soul from birth. As in Al Farabi there are two further stages of potential for
thinking, which are not yet actual thinking, first the mind acquires the most basic intelligible thoughts which we can
not think in any other way, such as "the whole is greater than the part", then comes a second level of derivative
intelligible thoughts which could be thought.[46] Concerning the actualization of thought, Avicenna applies the term
"to two different things, to actual human thought, irrespective of the intellectual progress a man has made, and to
actual thought when human intellectual development is complete", as in Al Farabi.[47]
When reasoning in the sense of deriving conclusions from syllogisms, Avicenna says people are using a physical
"cogitative" faculty (mufakkira, fikra) of the soul, which can err. The human cogitative faculty is the same as the
"compositive imaginative faculty (mutakhayyila) in reference to the animal soul".[48] But some people can use
"insight" to avoid this step and derive conclusions directly by conjoining with the active intellect.[49]
Once a thought has been learned in a soul, the physical faculties of sense perception and imagination become
unnecessary, and as a person acquires more thoughts, their soul becomes less connected to their body.[50] For
Avicenna, differently to the normal Aristotelian position, all of the soul is by nature immortal. But the level of
intellectual development does affect the type of afterlife that the soul can have. Only a soul which has reached the
highest type of conjunction with the active intellect can form a perfect conjunction with it after the death of the body,
and this is a supreme eudaimonia. Lesser intellectual achievement means a less happy or even painful afterlife.[51]
Concerning prophecy, Avicenna identifies a broader range of possibilities which fit into this model, which is still
similar to that of Al Farabi.[52]

Averroes
Averroes came to be regarded even in Europe as "the Commentator" to "the Philosopher", Aristotle, and his study of
the questions surrounding the nous were very influential amongst Jewish and Christian philosophers, with some
aspects being quite controversial. According to Herbert Davidson, Averroes' doctrine concerning nous can be
divided into two periods. In the first, neoplatonic emanationism, not found in the original works of Aristotle, was
combined with a naturalistic explanation of the human material intellect. "It also insists on the material intellect's
having an active intellect as a direct object of thought and conjoining with the active intellect, notions never
expressed in the Aristotelian canon." It was this presentation which Jewish philosophers such as Moses Narboni and
Gersonides understood to be Averroes'. In the later model of the universe, which was transmitted to Christian
philosophers, Averroes "dismisses emanationism and explains the generation of living beings in the sublunar world
naturalistically, all in the name of a more genuine Aristotelianism. Yet it abandons the earlier naturalistic conception
of the human material intellect and transforms the material intellect into something wholly un-Aristotelian, a single
transcendent entity serving all mankind. It nominally salvages human conjunction with the active intellect, but in
words that have little content."[53]
This position, that humankind shares one active intellect, was taken up by Parisian philosophers such as Siger of
Brabant, but also widely rejected by philosophers such as Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Ramon Lull, and
Nous 87

Duns Scotus. Despite being widely considered heretical, the position was later defended by many more European
philosophers including John of Jandun, who was the primary link bringing this doctrine from Paris to Bologna. After
him this position continued to be defended and also rejected by various writers in northern Italy. In the 16th century
it finally became a less common position after the renewal of an "Alexandrian" position based on that of Alexander
of Aphrodisias, associated with Pietro Pomponazzi.[54]

Christianity
The Christian New Testament makes mention of the nous or noos in Romans 7:23 [55], 12:2 [56]; 1 Corinthians 14:14
[57]
, 14:19 [58]; Ephesians 4:17 [59], 4:23 [60]; 2 Thessalonians 2:2 [61]; and Revelation 17:9 [62]. In the writings of the
Christian fathers a sound or pure nous is considered essential to the cultivation of wisdom.[63]

Philosophers influencing western Christianity

While philosophical works were not commonly read or taught in the early middle ages in most of Europe, the works
of authors like Boethius and Augustine of Hippo formed an important exception. Both were influenced by
neoplatonism, and were amongst the older works that were still known in the time of the Carolingian Renaissance,
and the beginnings of Scholasticism.
In his early years Augustine was heavily influenced by Manichaeism and afterward by the Neo-Platonism of
Plotinus.[] After his conversion to Christianity and baptism (387), he developed his own approach to philosophy and
theology, accommodating a variety of methods and different perspectives.[64]
Augustine used neoplatonism selectively. He used both the neoplatonic Nous, and the Platonic Form of the Good (or
"The Idea of the Good") as equivalent terms for the Christian God, or at least for one particular aspect of God. For
example, God, nous, can act directly upon matter, and not only through souls, and concerning the souls through
which it works upon the world experienced by humanity, some are treated as angels.[]
Scholasticism becomes more clearly defined much later, as the peculiar native type of philosophy in medieval
catholic Europe. In this period, Aristotle became "the Philosopher", and scholastic philosophers, like their Jewish
and Muslim contemporaries, studied the concept of the intellectus on the basis not only of Aristotle, but also late
classical interpreters like Augustine and Boethius. A European tradition of new and direct interpretations of Aristotle
developed which was eventually strong enough to argue with partial success against some of the interpretations of
Aristotle from the Islamic world, most notably Averroes' doctrine of their being one "active intellect" for all
humanity. Notable "Catholic" (as opposed to Averroist) Aristotelians included Albertus Magnus and Thomas
Aquinas, the founder Thomism, which exists to this day in various forms. Concerning the nous, Thomism agrees
with those Aristotelians who insist that the intellect is immaterial and separate from any bodily organs, but as per
Christian doctrine, the whole of the human soul is immortal, not only the intellect.

Eastern Orthodox
The human nous in Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the "eye of the heart or soul" or the "mind of the
heart".[65][66][67][68] The soul of man, is created by God in His image, man's soul is intelligent and noetic. Saint
Thalassios wrote that God created beings "with a capacity to receive the Spirit and to attain knowledge of Himself;
He has brought into existence the senses and sensory perception to serve such beings". Eastern Orthodox Christians
hold that God did this by creating mankind with intelligence and noetic faculties.[69]
Human reasoning is not enough: there will always remain an "irrational residue" which escapes analysis and which
can not be expressed in concepts: it is this unknowable depth of things, that which constitutes their true, indefinable
essence that also reflects the origin of things in God. In Eastern Christianity it is by faith or intuitive truth that this
component of an objects existence is grasped.[70] Though God through his energies draws us to him, his essence
remains inaccessible.[70] The operation of faith being the means of free will by which mankind faces the future or
unknown, these noetic operations contained in the concept of insight or noesis.[71] Faith (pistis) is therefore
Nous 88

sometimes used interchangeably with noesis in Eastern Christianity.

Angels have intelligence and nous, whereas men have reason, both logos and dianoia, nous and sensory perception.
This follows the idea that man is a microcosm and an expression of the whole creation or macrocosmos. The human
nous was darkened after the Fall of Man (which was the result of the rebellion of reason against the nous),[72] but
after the purification (healing or correction) of the nous (achieved through ascetic practices like hesychasm), the
human nous (the "eye of the heart") will see God's uncreated Light (and feel God's uncreated love and beauty, at
which point the nous will start the unceasing prayer of the heart) and become illuminated, allowing the person to
become an orthodox theologian.[65][73][74]
In this belief, the soul is created in the image of God. Since God is Trinitarian, Mankind is Nous, reason, both logos
and dianoia, and Spirit. The same is held true of the soul (or heart): it has nous, word and spirit. To understand this
better first an understanding of Saint Gregory Palamas's teaching that man is a representation of the trinitarian
mystery should be addressed. This holds that God is not meant in the sense that the Trinity should be understood
anthropomorphically, but man is to be understood in a triune way. Or, that the Trinitarian God is not to be interpreted
from the point of view of individual man, but man is interpreted on the basis of the Trinitarian God. And this
interpretation is revelatory not merely psychological and human. This means that it is only when a person is within
the revelation, as all the saints lived, that he can grasp this understanding completely (see theoria). The second
presupposition is that mankind has and is composed of nous, word and spirit like the trinitarian mode of being. Man's
nous, word and spirit are not hypostases or individual existences or realities, but activities or energies of the soul -
whereas in the case with God or the Persons of the Holy Trinity, each are indeed hypostases. So these three
components of each individual man are 'inseparable from one another' but they do not have a personal character"
when in speaking of the being or ontology that is mankind. The nous as the eye of the soul, which some Fathers also
call the heart, is the center of man and is where true (spiritual) knowledge is validated. This is seen as true
knowledge which is "implanted in the nous as always co-existing with it".[75]

Early modern philosophy

The so-called "early modern" philosophers of western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries established arguments
which led to the establishment of modern science as a methodical approach to improve the welfare of humanity by
learning to control nature. As such, speculation about metaphysics, which can not be used for anything practical, and
which can never be confirmed against the reality we experience, started to be deliberately avoided, especially
according to the so-called "empiricist" arguments of philosophers such as Bacon, Hobbes, Locke and Hume. The
Latin motto "nihil in intellectu nisi prius fuerit in sensu" (nothing in the intellect without first being in the senses) has
been described as the "guiding principle of empiricism" in the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy.[] (This was in fact
an old Aristotelian doctrine, which they took up, but as discussed above Aristotelians still believed that the senses on
their own were not enough to explain the mind.)
These philosophers explain the intellect as something developed from experience of sensations, being interpreted by
the brain in a physical way, and nothing else, which means that absolute knowledge is impossible. For Bacon,
Hobbes and Locke, who wrote in both English and Latin, "intellectus" was translated as "understanding".[76] Far
from seeing it as secure way to perceive the truth about reality, Bacon, for example, actually named the intellectus in
his Novum Organum, and the proœmium to his Great Instauration, as a major source of wrong conclusions, because
it is biased in many ways, for example towards over-generalizing. For this reason, modern science should be
methodical, in order not to be misled by the weak human intellect. He felt that lesser known Greek philosophers such
as Democritus "who did not suppose a mind or reason in the frame of things", have been arrogantly dismissed
because of Aristotelianism leading to a situation in his time wherein "the search of the physical causes hath been
neglected, and passed in silence".[77] The intellect or understanding was the subject of Locke's Essay Concerning
Human Understanding.[78]
Nous 89

These philosophers also tended not to emphasize the distinction between reason and intellect, describing the peculiar
universal or abstract definitions of human understanding as being man-made and resulting from reason itself.[79]
Hume even questioned the distinctness or peculiarity of human understanding and reason, compared to other types of
associative or imaginative thinking found in some other animals.[80] In modern science during this time, Newton is
sometimes described as more empiricist compared to Leibniz.
On the other hand, into modern times some philosophers have continued to propose that the human mind has an
in-born ("a priori") ability to know the truth conclusively, and these philosophers have needed to argue that the
human mind has direct and intuitive ideas about nature, and this means it can not be limited entirely to what can be
known from sense perception. Amongst the early modern philosophers, some such as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz,
and Kant, tend to be distinguished from the empiricists as rationalists, and to some extent at least some of them are
called idealists, and their writings on the intellect or understanding present various doubts about empiricism, and in
some cases they argued for positions which appear more similar to those of medieval and classical philosophers.
The first in this series of modern rationalists, Descartes, is credited with defining a "mind-body problem" which is a
major subject of discussion for university philosophy courses. According to the presentation his 2nd Meditation, the
human mind and body are different in kind, and while Descartes agrees with Hobbes for example that the human
body works like a clockwork mechanism, and its workings include memory and imagination, the real human is the
thinking being, a soul, which is not part of that mechanism. Descartes explicitly refused to divide this soul into its
traditional parts such as intellect and reason, saying that these things were indivisible aspects of the soul. Descartes
was therefore a dualist, but very much in opposition to traditional Aristotelian dualism. In his 6th Meditation he
deliberately uses traditional terms and states that his active faculty of giving ideas to his thought must be corporeal,
because the things perceived are clearly external to his own thinking and corporeal, while his passive faculty must be
incorporeal (unless God is deliberately deceiving us, and then in this case the active faculty would be from God).
This is the opposite of the traditional explanation found for example in Alexander of Aphrodisias and discussed
above, for whom the passive intellect is material, while the active intellect is not. One result is that in many
Aristotelian conceptions of the nous, for example that of Thomas Aquinas, the senses are still a source of all the
intellect's conceptions. However, with the strict separation of mind and body proposed by Descartes, it becomes
possible to propose that there can be thought about objects never perceived with the body's senses, such as a
thousand sided geometrical figure. Gassendi objected to this distinction between the imagination and the intellect in
Descartes.[81] Hobbes also objected, and according to his own philosophical approach asserted that the "triangle in
the mind comes from the triangle we have seen" and "essence in so far as it is distinguished from existence is
nothing else than a union of names by means of the verb is". Descartes, in his reply to this objection insisted that this
traditional distinction between essence and existence is "known to all".[82]
His contemporary Blaise Pascal, criticised him in similar words to those used by Plato's Socrates concerning
Anaxagoras, discussed above, saying that "I cannot forgive Descartes; in all his philosophy, Descartes did his best to
dispense with God. But Descartes could not avoid prodding God to set the world in motion with a snap of his lordly
fingers; after that, he had no more use for God."[83]
Descartes argued that when the intellect does a job of helping people interpret what they perceive, not with the help
of an intellect which enters from outside, but because each human mind comes into being with innate God-given
ideas, more similar then, to Plato's theory of anamnesis, only not requiring reincarnation. Apart from such examples
as the geometrical definition of a triangle, another example is the idea of God, according to the 3rd Meditation.
Error, according to the 4th Meditation, comes about because people make judgments about things which are not in
the intellect or understanding. This is possible because the human will, being free, is not limited like the human
intellect.
Spinoza, though considered a Cartesian and a rationalist, rejected Cartesian dualism and idealism. In his
"pantheistic" approach, explained for example in his Ethics, God is the same as nature, the human intellect is just the
same as the human will. The divine intellect of nature is quite different from human intellect, because it is finite, but
Nous 90

Spinoza does accept that the human intellect is a part of the infinite divine intellect.
Leibniz, in comparison to the guiding principle of the empiricists described above, added some words ""nihil in
intellectu nisi prius fuerit in sensu, nisi intellectus ipsi" (nothing in the intellect without first being in the senses
except the intellect itself).[] Despite being at the forefront of modern science, and modernist philosophy, in his
writings he still referred to the active and passive intellect, a divine intellect, and the immortality of the active
intellect.
Berkeley, partly in reaction to Locke, also attempted to reintroduce an "immaterialism" into early modern philosophy
(later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). He argued that individuals can only know sensations and ideas
of objects, not abstractions such as "matter", and that ideas depend on perceiving minds for their very existence. This
belief later became immortalized in the dictum, "esse est percipi" ("to be is to be perceived"). As in classical and
medieval philosophy, Berkeley believed understanding had to be explained by divine intervention, and that all our
ideas are put in our mind by God.
Hume accepted some of Berkeley's corrections of Locke, but in answer insisted, as had Bacon and Hobbes, that
absolute knowledge is not possible, and that all attempts to show how it could be possible have logical problems.
Hume's writings remain highly influential on all philosophy afterwards, and are for example considered by Kant to
have shaken him from an intellectual slumber.
Kant, a turning point in modern philosophy, agreed with some classical philosophers and Leibniz that the intellect
itself, although it needed sensory experience for understanding to begin, needs something else in order to make sense
of the incoming sense information. In his formulation the intellect (Verstand) has "a priori" or innate principles
which it has before thinking even starts. Kant represents the starting point of German idealism and a new phase of
modernity, while empiricist philosophy has also continued beyond Hume to the present day.

More recent modern philosophy and science

One of the results of the early modern philosophy has been the increasing creation of specialist fields of science, in
areas that were once considered part of philosophy, and infant cognitive development and perception now tend to be
discussed now more within the sciences of psychology and neuroscience than in philosophy.
Modern mainstream thinking on the mind is not dualist, and sees anything innate in the mind as being a result of
genetic and developmental factors which allow the mind to develop. Overall it accepts far less innate "knowledge"
(or clear pre-dispositions to particular types of knowledge) than most of the classical and medieval theories derived
from philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus and Al Farabi.
Apart from discussions about the history of philosophical discussion on this subject, contemporary philosophical
discussion concerning this point has continued concerning what the ethical implications are of the different
alternatives still considered likely.

References
[2] page 38.
[3] See entry for νόος (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0057:entry=no/ os) in Liddell & Scott, on the
Perseus Project.
[4] See entry for intellectus (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0059:entry=intellectus2) in Lewis &
Short, on the Perseus Project.
[5] This is from I.130 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0134:book=1:card=130), the translation is by
A.T. Murray, 1924.
[6] Metaphysics I.4. 984b (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Aristot. + Met. + 1. 984b).
[7] Chapter X.
[8] . See pages 204 and 235.
[9] Chapter XII.
[10] Anaxagoras, DK B 12 (http:/ / www. ellopos. net/ elpenor/ greek-texts/ ancient-greece/ anaxagoras-nous. asp), trans. by J. Burnet
Nous 91

[11] So, for example, in the Sankhya philosophy, the faculty of higher intellect (buddhi) is equated with the cosmic principle of differentiation of
the world-soul (hiranyagarbha) from the formless and unmanifest Brahman. This outer principle that is equated with buddhi is called mahat
(see Wikipedia entry on Sankhya)
[12] The translation quoted is from Amy Bonnette.
[13] On the Perseus Project: 28d (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0174:text=Phileb. :section=28d)
[15] 28c (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0174:text=Phileb. :page=28) and 30d (http:/ / www. perseus.
tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0174:text=Phileb. :page=30). Translation by Fowler.
[16] Fowler translation of the Phaedo as on the Perseus webpage: 97 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01.
0170:text=Phaedo:page=97)- 98 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0170:text=Phaedo:page=98).
[17] Philebus on the Perseus Project: 23b (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0174:text=Phileb.
:page=23)- 30e (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0174:text=Phileb. :page=30). Translation is by
Fowler.
[18] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Aristotle's Ethics, Glossary of terms (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ aristotle-ethics/ #Glo)
[19] "Intelligence (nous) apprehend each definition (horos meaning "boundary"), which cannot be proved by reasoning". Nicomachean Ethics
1142a (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0053:bekker page=1142a& highlight=nou=s,nw=), Rackham
translation.
[20] Nicomachean Ethics VI.xi. 1143a (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0053:bekker page=1143a&
highlight=nou=s,nou=n)- 1143b (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0053:bekker page=1143b&
highlight=nou=s,nou=n). Translation by Joe Sachs, p. 114, 2002 Focus publishing. The second last sentence is placed in different places by
different modern editors and translators.
[21] De Anima, Bk. III, ch. 5, 430a10-25 translated by Joe Sachs, Aristotle's On the Soul and On Memory and Recollection, Green Lion Books
[22] See Metaphysics 1072b (http:/ / perseus. mpiwg-berlin. mpg. de/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0052& layout=& loc=12.
1072b).
[23] 1075 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0051:book=12:section=1075b)
[24] Generation of Animals II.iii.736b.
[25] Lacus Curtius online text: On the Face in the Moon par. 28 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Plutarch/ Moralia/
The_Face_in_the_Moon*/ D. html#28)
[26] De anima 84, cited in Davidson, page 9, who translated the quoted words.
[27] Davidson p.43
[28] Davidson page 12.
[29] Translation and citation by Davidson again, from Themistius' paraphrase of Aristotle's De Anima.
[30] Davidson page 13.
[31] Davidson page 14.
[32] Davidson p.18
[33] See and . The direct quote above comes from Moore.
[34] Encyclopedia of The Study in Philosophy (1969), Vol. 5, article on subject "Nous", article author: G.B. Kerferd
[35] Iren. Haeres. I. i. 1-5; Hippol. Ref. vi. 29-31; Theod. Haer. Fab. i. 7.
[36] Iren. I. xxiv. 4; Theod. H. E. i. 4.
[37] Hipp. vi. 25.
[38] Clement of Alexandria, Strom. iv. 25.
[39] Hipp. vi. 12 ff.; Theod. I. i.
[40] Hipp. vi. 20.
[41] Ap. Hipp. vi. 18.
[42] Herodotus, i.
[43] Davidson pp.12-14. One possible inspiration mentioned in a commentary of Aristotle's De Anima attributed to John Philoponus is a
philosopher named Marinus, who was probably a student of Proclus. He in any case designated the active intellect to be angelic or daimonic,
rather than the creator itself.
[44] Davidson p.18 and p.45, which states "Within the translunar region, Aristotle recognized no causal relationship in what we may call the
vertical plane; he did not recognize a causality that runs down through the series of incorporeal movers. And in the horizontal plane, that is,
from each intelligence to the corresponding sphere, he recognized causality only in respect to motion, not in respect to existence."
[45] Davidson pp.58-61.
[46] Davidson ch. 4.
[47] Davidson p.86
[48] From Shifā': De Anima 45, translation by Davidson p.96.
[49] Davidson pp.102
[50] Davidson p.104
[51] Davidson pp.111-115.
[52] Davidson p.123.
[53] Davidson p.356
Nous 92

[54] Davidson ch.7

[55] http:/ / bibref. hebtools. com/ ?book=%20Romans& verse=7:23& src=KJV
[56] http:/ / bibref. hebtools. com?book=%20Romans& verse=12:2& src=KJV
[57] http:/ / bibref. hebtools. com/ ?book=1%20Corinthians& verse=14:14& src=KJV
[58] http:/ / bibref. hebtools. com?book=1%20Corinthians& verse=14:19& src=KJV
[59] http:/ / bibref. hebtools. com/ ?book=%20Ephesians& verse=4:17& src=KJV
[60] http:/ / bibref. hebtools. com?book=%20Ephesians& verse=4:23& src=KJV
[61] http:/ / bibref. hebtools. com/ ?book=2%20Thessalonians& verse=2:2& src=KJV
[62] http:/ / bibref. hebtools. com/ ?book=%20Revelation& verse=17:9& src=KJV
[63] See, for example, the many references to nous and the necessity of its purification in the writings of the Philokalia
[64] March 2002 edition: ISBN 1-57910-918-7.
[65] Neptic Monasticism (http:/ / www. greekorthodoxchurch. org/ neptic_monasticism. html)
[66] "What is the Human Nous?" (http:/ / www. orthodoxinfo. com/ phronema/ patristic-theology-romanides-chapter-1-what-is-the-human-nous.
aspx) by John Romanides
[67] "Before embarking on this study, the reader is asked to absorb a few Greek terms for which there is no English word that would not be
imprecise or misleading. Chief among these is NOUS, which refers to the `eye of the heart' and is often translated as mind or intellect. Here
we keep the Greek word NOUS throughout. The adjective related to it is NOETIC (noeros)." Orthodox Psychotherapy Section The
Knowledge of God according to St. Gregory Palamas (http:/ / www. pelagia. org/ htm/ b02. en. orthodox_psychotherapy. 06. htm#2k) by
Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery,Greece (January 1, 2005) ISBN 978-960-7070-27-2
[68] The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, SVS Press, 1997. (ISBN 0-913836-31-1) James Clarke & Co Ltd, 1991. (ISBN
0-227-67919-9) pgs 200-201
[69] G.E.H; Sherrard, Philip; Ware, Kallistos (Timothy). The Philokalia, Vol. 4 Pg432 Nous the highest facility in man, through which - provided
it is purified - he knows God or the inner essences or principles (q.v.) of created things by means of direct apprehension or spiritual
perception. Unlike the dianoia or reason (q.v.), from which it must be carefully distinguished, the intellect does not function by formulating
abstract concepts and then arguing on this basis to a conclusion reached through deductive reasoning, but it understands divine truth by means
of immediate experience, intuition or 'simple cognition' (the term used by St Isaac the Syrian).The intellect dwells in the 'depths of the soul'; it
constitutes the innermost aspect of the heart (St Diadochos, 79, 88: in our translation, vol. i, pp.. 280, 287). The intellect is the organ of
contemplation (q.v.), the 'eye of the heart' (Makarian Homilies).
[70] The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, by Vladimir Lossky SVS Press, 1997, pg 33 (ISBN 0-913836-31-1). James Clarke & Co Ltd,
1991, pg 71 (ISBN 0-227-67919-9).
[71] ANTHROPOLOGICAL TURN IN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY: AN ORTHODOX PERSPECTIVE by Sergey S. Horujy
[synergia-isa.ru/english/download/lib/Eng12-ChicLect.doc] (http:/ / www. hn. psu. edu/ Academics/ past_lectures.
html#Sergei_Horujy_Literary_Scholar)
[72] "THE ILLNESS AND CURE OF THE SOUL" (http:/ / www. pelagia. org/ htm/ b05. en. the_illness_and_cure_of_the_soul. 02. htm#Fall)
Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos
[73] The Relationship between Prayer and Theology (http:/ / www. acrod. org/ sn/ sn4a. shtml)
[74] "JESUS CHRIST - THE LIFE OF THE WORLD", John S. Romanides (http:/ / romanity. org/ htm/ rom. 19. en.
jesus_christ_the_life_of_the_world. 01. htm)
[75] Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos (2005), Orthodox Psychotherapy (http:/ / www. pelagia. org/ htm/ b02. en. orthodox_psychotherapy. 03.
htm#in1), Tr. Esther E. Cunningham Williams (Birth of Theotokos Monastery, Greece), ISBN 978-960-7070-27-2
[77] Bacon Advancement of Learning II.VII.7 (http:/ / www. archive. org/ stream/ advancementlea00bacouoft#page/ 90/ mode/ 2up/ search/
democritus)
[79] and also see De Homine X.
[81] The Philosophical Works of Descartes Vol. II, 1968, translated by Haldane and Ross, p.190
[82] The Philosophical Works of Descartes Vol. II, 1968, translated by Haldane and Ross, p.77
[83] Think Exist on Blaise Pascal (http:/ / thinkexist. com/ quotation/ i_cannot_forgive_descartes-in_all_his_philosophy/ 153298. html).
Retrieved 12 Feb. 2009.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).
Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Nous 93

External links
• Definition of nous (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph.jsp?l=noos&la=greek#lexicon) on Perseus
Project website.
• Aristotle's Psychology (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-psychology/) from the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• What is the Human Nous? (http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/
patristic-theology-romanides-chapter-1-what-is-the-human-nous.aspx) by John Romanides

Intersubjective verifiability
Intersubjective verifiability is the capacity of a concept to be readily and accurately communicated between
different individuals ("intersubjectively"), and to be reproduced under varying circumstances for the purposes of
verification. It is a core principle of empirical, scientific investigation.[1][2][3]
Although there are areas of belief that do not consistently employ intersubjective verifiability (e.g., many religious
claims), intersubjective verifiability is a near-universal way of arbitrating truth claims used by people everywhere. In
its basic form, it can be found in colloquial expressions, e.g., "I'm from Missouri. Show me!" or "Seeing is
believing." The scientific principle of replication of findings by investigators other than those that first reported the
phenomenon is simply a more highly structured form of the universal principle of intersubjective verifiability.

Subjective experience
Each individual is a subject, and must subjectively experience the physical world. Each subject has a different
perspective and point of view on various aspects of the world. However, by sharing their comparable experiences
intersubjectively, individuals may gain an increasingly accurate understanding of the world. In this way, many
different subjective experiences can come together to form intersubjective ones that are less likely to be prone to
individual bias or gaps in knowledge.
While specific internal experiences are not intersubjectively verifiable, the existence of thematic patterns of internal
experience can be intersubjectively verified. For example, whether or not people are telling what they believe to be
the truth when they make claims can only be known by the claimants. However, we can intersubjectively verify that
people almost universally experience discomfort (hunger) when they haven't had enough to eat. We generally have
only a crude ability to compare (measure) internal experiences.

Congruence and incongruence

When an external, public phenomenon is experienced and carefully described (in words or measurements) by one
individual, other individuals can see if their experiences of the phenomenon "fit" the description. If they do, a sense
of congruence between one subject and another occurs. This is the basis for a definition of what is true that is agreed
upon by the involved parties. If the description does not fit the experience of one or more of the parties involved,
incongruence occurs instead.
Incongruent contradictions between the experience and descriptions of different individuals can be caused by a
number of factors. One common source of incongruence is the inconsistent use of language in the descriptions
people use, such as the same words being used differently. Such semantic problems require more careful
development and use of language.
Incongruence also arises from a failure to describe the phenomena well. In these cases, further development of the
description, model, or theory used to refer to the phenomena is required.
Intersubjective verifiability 94

A third form of incongruence arises when the descriptions do not conform to consensual (i.e., intersubjectively
verifiable) experience, such as when the descriptions are faulty, incorrect, wrong, or inaccurate, and need to be
replaced by more accurate descriptions, models, or theories.

Intersubjective verifiability versus belief based on faith

The contradiction between the truths derived from intersubjective verification and beliefs based on faith or authority
(e.g., many religious beliefs) forms the basis for the conflict between religion and science.[4] There have been
attempts to bring the two into congruence, and the modern, cutting edge of science, especially in physics, seems to
many observers to lend itself to a melding of religious experience and intersubjective verification of beliefs. Some
scientists have described religious worldviews---generally of a mystical nature---consistent with their understanding
of science:
There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything
is a miracle . . .
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind . . .
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which is based on experience, which refuses
dogmatism . . .
There remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that
we can comprehend is my religion. (Albert Einstein)
Other scientists, who are committed to basing belief on intersubjective verification, have called for or predicted the
development of a religion consistent with science.
A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science,
might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.
Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge. (Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot)
The evolutionary epic is probably the best myth we will ever have ... The true evolutionary epic, retold
as poetry, is as intrinsically ennobling as any religious epic. (Edward O. Wilson)
Responding to this apparent overlap between cutting edge science and mystical experience, in recent years, there
have been overt efforts to formulate religious belief systems that are built on truth claims based upon intersubjective
verifiability, e.g. Anthroposophy, Yoism [5].

Notes and references

[1] Philosophy of Mind. Jaegwon Kim. 2005. Westview Press, p. 75. (ISBN 0813342694)
[2] Verstehen: The Uses of Understanding in the Social Sciences. Michael Martin. 2000. Transaction Publishers, p. 64 (ISBN 1560004169)
[3] Knowledge in Ferment: Dilemmas in Science, Scholarship and Society. Adriaan in ’t Groen, Henk Jan de Jonge, Eduard Klasen, Hilje Papma,
and Piet van Slooten, Eds. 2007. Leiden University Press, p. 265 (ISBN 9789087280178)
[4] The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion. Ken Wilbur. 1998. Random House (ISBN 0375500545)
[5] http:/ / www. yoism. org

The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion. Ken Wilber. 1998. Random House (ISBN
0375500545)
Intersubjective verifiability 95

See Also
• Objectivity (philosophy)
• Objectivity (science)
• Subjectivity
• Epistemology
• Phenomenology
• Scientific method
• Ineffability

Existential phenomenology
Existential phenomenology is a philosophical current inspired by Martin Heidegger's 1927 work Sein und Zeit
(Being and Time) and influenced by the existential work of Søren Kierkegaard and the phenomenological work of
Edmund Husserl.
In contrast with his former mentor Husserl, Heidegger put ontology before epistemology and thought that
phenomenology would have to be based on an observation and analysis of Dasein ("being-there"), human being,
investigating the fundamental ontology of the Lebenswelt (Lifeworld - Husserl's term) underlying all so-called
regional ontologies of the special sciences. In contrast with the philosopher Kierkegaard, Heidegger wanted to
explore the problem of Dasein existentially (existenzial), rather than existentielly (existenziell) because Heidegger
argued Kierkegaard had already described the latter with "penetrating fashion".[citation needed]

Development of existential phenomenology

Besides Heidegger, other existential phenomenologists were Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas, Gabriel Marcel,
Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Samuel Todes.

Other disciplines
Existential phenomenology extends also to other disciplines. For example, Leo Steinberg's essay "The Philosophical
Brothel" describes Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in a perspective that is existential-phenomenological.
Martin Heidegger 96

Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger

Born September 26, 1889

Meßkirch, Baden,
German Empire

Died 26 May 1976 (aged 86)

Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg,
West Germany

Residence Germany

Nationality German

Era 20th-century philosophy

Region Western philosophy

School Phenomenology
Hermeneutics
Existentialism

Main interests Ontology · Metaphysics

Art · Greek philosophy
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Philosophy portal

Martin Heidegger (German: [ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪdɛɡɐ]; September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976) was a German philosopher
known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being".[1]
His best known book, Being and Time, is considered one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th
century.[2] In it and later works, Heidegger maintained that our way of questioning defines our nature. But
philosophy, Western Civilization's chief way of questioning, had in the process of philosophizing lost sight of the
being it sought. Finding ourselves "always already" fallen in a world of presuppositions, we lose touch with what
being was before its truth became "muddled".[3] As a solution to this condition, Heidegger advocated a return to the
practical being in the world, allowing it to reveal, or "unconceal" itself as concealment.[4]
Writing extensively on Nietzsche in his later career, and offering a "phenomenological critique of Kant" in his Kant
and the Problem of Metaphysics, Heidegger is known for his post-Kantian philosophy. Heidegger's influence has
been far reaching, from philosophy to theology, deconstructionism, literary theory, architecture, and artificial
intelligence.[5]
Heidegger is a controversial figure, largely for his affiliation with Nazism, for which he neither apologized nor
expressed regret,[6] except in private when he called it "the biggest stupidity of his life" (die größte Dummheit seines
Lebens).[7] The so-called Heidegger controversy raises general questions about the relation between Heidegger's
thought and his connection to National Socialism.
Martin Heidegger 98

Overview
Heidegger claimed that Western philosophy since Plato has misunderstood what it means for something "to be",
tending to approach this question in terms of a being, rather than asking about Being itself. In other words,
Heidegger believed all investigations of being have historically focused on particular entities and their properties, or
have treated Being itself as an entity, or substance, with properties. A more authentic analysis of Being would, for
Heidegger, investigate "that on the basis of which beings are already understood," or that which underlies all
particular entities and allows them to show up as entities in the first place (see world disclosure).[8] But since
philosophers and scientists have overlooked the more basic, pre-theoretical ways of being from which their theories
derive, and since they have incorrectly applied those theories universally, they have confused our understanding of
being and human existence. To avoid these deep-rooted misconceptions, Heidegger believed philosophical inquiry
must be conducted in a new way, through a process of retracing the steps of the history of philosophy.
Heidegger argued that this misunderstanding, beginning with Plato, has left its traces in every stage of Western
thought. All that we understand, from the way we speak to our notions of "common sense", is susceptible to error, to
fundamental mistakes about the nature of being. These mistakes filter into the terms through which being is
articulated in the history of philosophy—such as reality, logic, God, consciousness, and presence. In his later
philosophy, Heidegger argues that this profoundly affects the way in which human beings relate to modern
technology.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that his writing is 'notoriously difficult', possibly because his
thinking was 'original' and clearly on obscure and innovative topics.[9] Heidegger accepted this charge, stating
'Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy', and suggesting that intelligibility is what he is critically trying to
examine.[10]
Heidegger's work has strongly influenced philosophy, aesthetics of literature, and the humanities. Within philosophy
it played a crucial role in the development of existentialism, hermeneutics, deconstructionism, postmodernism, and
continental philosophy in general. Well-known philosophers such as Karl Jaspers, Leo Strauss, Ahmad Fardid,
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jean-Paul Sartre, Emmanuel Lévinas, Hannah Arendt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel
Foucault, Richard Rorty, William E. Connolly, and Jacques Derrida have all analyzed Heidegger's work.
Heidegger supported National Socialism in 1933 and was a member of the Nazi Party until May 1945.[11] His
defenders, notably Hannah Arendt, see this support as arguably a personal " 'error' " (a word which Arendt placed in
quotation marks when referring to Heidegger's Nazi-era politics).[12] Defenders think this error was irrelevant to
Heidegger's philosophy. Critics, such as Emmanuel Levinas[13] and Karl Löwith,[14] and Theodor Adorno claim that
Heidegger's support for National Socialism revealed flaws inherent in his thought.[15]

Biography

Early years
Martin Heidegger 99

Heidegger was born in rural Meßkirch, Germany. Raised a Roman

Catholic, he was the son of the sexton of the village church, Friedrich
Heidegger, and his wife Johanna, née Kempf. In their faith, his parents
adhered to the First Vatican Council of 1870, which was observed
mainly by the poorer class of Meßkirch. The religious controversy
between the wealthy Altkatholiken and the working class led to the
temporary use of a converted barn for the Roman Catholics. At the
festive reunion of the congregation in 1895, the Old Catholic sexton
handed the key to six-year-old Martin.[citation needed]
The Mesnerhaus in Meßkirch,
Heidegger's family could not afford to send him to university, so he where Heidegger grew up.
entered a Jesuit seminary, though he was turned away within weeks
because of the health requirement and what the director and doctor of the seminary described as a psychosomatic
heart condition.[16] Heidegger later left Catholicism, describing it as incompatible with his philosophy. After
studying theology at the University of Freiburg from 1909 to 1911, he switched to philosophy, in part again because
of his heart condition.

Heidegger completed his doctoral thesis on psychologism in 1914 influenced by Neo-Thomism and
Neo-Kantianism,[17] and in 1916 finished his venia legendi with a thesis on Duns Scotus influenced by Heinrich
Rickert and Edmund Husserl.[18] In the two years following, he worked first as an unsalaried Privatdozent, then
served as a soldier during the final year of World War I, working behind a desk and never leaving Germany. After
the war, he served as a salaried senior assistant to Edmund Husserl at the University of Freiburg in the Black Forest
from 1919 until 1923.

Marburg
In 1923, Heidegger was elected to an extraordinary Professorship in Philosophy at the University of Marburg. His
colleagues there included Rudolf Bultmann, Nicolai Hartmann, and Paul Natorp. Heidegger's students at Marburg
included Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Gerhard Krüger, Leo Strauss, Jacob Klein, Gunther
(Stern) Anders, and Hans Jonas. Through a confrontation with Aristotle he began to develop in his lectures the main
theme of his philosophy: the question of the sense of being. He extended the concept of subject to the dimension of
history and concrete existence, which he found prefigured in such Christian thinkers as Saint Paul, Augustine of
Hippo, Luther, and Kierkegaard. He also read the works of Dilthey, Husserl, and Max Scheler.[19]

Freiburg
In 1927, Heidegger published his main work Sein und Zeit (Being and Time). When Husserl retired as Professor of
Philosophy in 1928, Heidegger accepted Freiburg's election to be his successor, in spite of a counter-offer by
Marburg. Heidegger remained at Freiburg im Breisgau for the rest of his life, declining a number of later offers,
including one from Humboldt University of Berlin. His students at Freiburg included Hannah Arendt, Günther
Anders, Hans Jonas, Karl Löwith, Charles Malik, Herbert Marcuse, and Ernst Nolte.[20] Emmanuel Levinas attended
his lecture courses during his stay in Freiburg in 1928.[21]
Heidegger was elected rector of the University on April 21, 1933, and joined the National Socialist German Workers'
(Nazi) Party on May 1.[22] In his inaugural address as rector on May 27 he expressed his support to a German
revolution, and in an article and a speech to the students from the same year he even supported Adolf Hitler.[23]
However, he resigned the rectorate in April 1934, but remained a member of the Nazi party until 1945, even though
Julian Young asserts that the Nazis eventually prevented him from publishing.[24]
Martin Heidegger 100

Post-war
In late 1946, as France engaged in épuration légale, the French military authorities determined that Heidegger
should be forbidden from teaching or participating in any university activities because of his association with the
Nazi Party.[25] The denazification procedures against Heidegger continued until March 1949, when he was finally
pronounced a "Mitläufer" (literally, mit=with, Läufer=runner, i.e. "one who runs along with", but the equivalent
meaning in English is closer to "bandwagon effect" or "herd instinct", standing for the notion that people often do
and believe things merely because many other people do and believe the same things) of National Socialism, and no
punitive measures against him were proposed. This opened the way for his readmission to teaching at Freiburg
University in the winter semester of 1950–51.[26] He was granted emeritus status and then taught regularly from
1951 until 1958, and by invitation until 1967.

Personal life
Heidegger married Elfride Petri on March 21, 1917, in a Catholic
ceremony officiated by his friend Engelbert Krebs, and a week later in
a Protestant ceremony in the presence of her parents. Their first son
Jörg was born in 1919. According to published correspondence
between the spouses,[27] Hermann (born 1920) is the son of Elfride and
Friedel Caesar.

Martin Heidegger had extramarital affairs with Hannah Arendt and

Heidegger's stone-and-tile chalet clustered among
others at Todtnauberg.
of them after the war.[28]
Elisabeth Blochmann, both students of his. Arendt was Jewish, and
Blochmann had one Jewish parent, making them subject to severe
persecution by the Nazi authorities. He helped Blochmann emigrate
from Germany prior to World War II, and resumed contact with both

Heidegger spent much time at his vacation home at Todtnauberg, on the edge of the Black Forest. He considered the
seclusion provided by the forest to be the best environment in which to engage in philosophical thought.[29]
A few months before his death, he met with Bernhard Welte, a
Catholic priest. We do not know the exact nature of the conversation,
but we do know it included talk of Heidegger's relationship to the
Catholic Church.[30] Heidegger died on May 26, 1976, and was buried
in the Meßkirch cemetery, beside his parents and brother.

Philosophy

Being, time, and Dasein

Heidegger's philosophy is founded on the attempt to conjoin what he
considers two fundamental insights: the first is his observation that, in
the course of over 2,000 years of history, philosophy has attended to all
the beings that can be found in the world (including the "world" itself),
but has forgotten to ask what "Being" itself is. This is Heidegger's
Heidegger's grave in Meßkirch
"question of Being," and it is Heidegger's fundamental concern
throughout his work. One crucial source of this insight was Heidegger's

reading of Franz Brentano's treatise on Aristotle's manifold uses of the word "being," a work which provoked
Heidegger to ask what kind of unity underlies this multiplicity of uses. Heidegger opens his magnum opus, Being
Martin Heidegger 101

and Time, with a citation from Plato's Sophist[31] indicating that Western philosophy has neglected "Being" because
it was considered obvious, rather than as worthy of question. Heidegger's intuition about the question of Being is
thus a historical argument, which in his later work becomes his concern with the "history of Being," that is, the
history of the forgetting of Being, which according to Heidegger requires that philosophy retrace its footsteps
through a productive "destruction" of the history of philosophy.
The second intuition animating Heidegger's philosophy derives from the influence of Edmund Husserl, a philosopher
largely uninterested in questions of philosophical history. Rather, Husserl argued that all that philosophy could and
should be is a description of experience (hence the phenomenological slogan, "to the things themselves"). But for
Heidegger, this meant understanding that experience is always already situated in a world and in ways of being. Thus
Husserl's understanding that all consciousness is "intentional" (in the sense that it is always intended toward
something, and is always "about" something) is transformed in Heidegger's philosophy, becoming the thought that
all experience is grounded in "care."
This is the basis of Heidegger's "existential analytic", as he develops it in Being and Time. Heidegger argues that to
describe experience properly entails finding the being for whom such a description might matter. Heidegger thus
conducts his description of experience with reference to "Dasein," the being for whom being is a question.[32]
In Being and Time, Heidegger criticized the abstract and metaphysical character of traditional ways of grasping
human existence as rational animal, person, man, soul, spirit, or subject. Dasein, then, is not intended as a way of
conducting a philosophical anthropology, but is rather understood by Heidegger to be the condition of possibility for
anything like a philosophical anthropology.[33] Dasein, according to Heidegger, is care. In the course of his
existential analytic, Heidegger argues that Dasein, who finds itself thrown into the world amidst things and with
others, is thrown into its possibilities, including the possibility and inevitability of one's own mortality. The need for
Dasein to assume these possibilities, that is, the need to be responsible for one's own existence, is the basis of
Heidegger's notions of authenticity and resoluteness—that is, of those specific possibilities for Dasein which depend
on escaping the "vulgar" temporality of calculation and of public life.
The marriage of these two observations depends on the fact that each of them is essentially concerned with time.
That Dasein is thrown into an already existing world and thus into its mortal possibilities does not only mean that
Dasein is an essentially temporal being; it also implies that the description of Dasein can only be carried out in terms
inherited from the Western tradition itself. For Heidegger, unlike for Husserl, philosophical terminology could not be
divorced from the history of the use of that terminology, and thus genuine philosophy could not avoid confronting
questions of language and meaning. The existential analytic of Being and Time was thus always only a first step in
Heidegger's philosophy, to be followed by the "dismantling" (Destruktion) of the history of philosophy, that is, a
transformation of its language and meaning, that would have made of the existential analytic only a kind of "limit
case" (in the sense in which special relativity is a limit case of general relativity).[citation needed]
That Heidegger did not write this second part of Being and Time, and that the existential analytic was left behind in
the course of Heidegger's subsequent writings on the history of being, might be interpreted as a failure to conjugate
his account of individual experience with his account of the vicissitudes of the collective human adventure that he
understands the Western philosophical tradition to be. And this would in turn raise the question of whether this
failure is due to a flaw in Heidegger's account of temporality, that is, of whether Heidegger was correct to oppose
vulgar and authentic time.[34] There are also recent critiques in this regard that were directed at Heidegger's focus on
time instead of primarily thinking about being in relation to place and space.[35]
Martin Heidegger 102

Being and Time

View from Heidegger's vacation chalet in
Todtnauberg. Heidegger wrote most of Being and
Time there.
project.
Being and Time (German title: Sein und Zeit), published in 1927, is
Heidegger's first academic book. He had been under pressure to
publish in order to qualify for Husserl's chair at the University of
Freiburg and the success of this work ensured his appointment to the
post.
It investigates the question of Being by asking about the being for
whom Being is a question. Heidegger names this being Dasein (see
above), and the book pursues its investigation through themes such as
mortality, care, anxiety, temporality, and historicity. It was Heidegger's
original intention to write a second half of the book, consisting of a
"Destruktion" of the history of philosophy—that is, the transformation
of philosophy by re-tracing its history—but he never completed this

Being and Time influenced many thinkers, including such existentialist thinkers as Jean-Paul Sartre (although
Heidegger distanced himself from existentialism—see below).

Later works: The Turn

Heidegger's later works, after the Second World War, seem to many
commentators (e.g. William J. Richardson[36]) to at least reflect a shift
of focus, if not indeed a major change in his philosophical outlook.
One way this has been understood is as a shift from "doing" to
"dwelling". However, others feel that this is to overstate the difference.
For example, in 2011 Mark Wrathall[37] argued that Heidegger pursued
and refined the central notion of unconcealment throughout his life as a
philosopher. Its importance and continuity in his thinking, Wrathall
states, shows that he did not have a 'turn'. A reviewer of Wrathall's
"Am Feldweg" in Meßkirch. Heidegger often
book stated: "An ontology of unconcealment ... means a description
went for a walk on the path in this field. See the
and analysis of the broad contexts in which entities show up as text "Der Feldweg" GA Nr. 13
meaningful to us, as well as the conditions under which such contexts,
or worlds, emerge and fade."[38]

Heidegger focuses less on the way in which the structures of being are revealed in everyday behavior, and more on
the way in which behavior itself depends on a prior "openness to being." The essence of being human is the
maintenance of this openness. Heidegger contrasts this openness to the "will to power" of the modern human subject,
which is one way of forgetting this originary openness.
Heidegger understands the commencement of the history of Western philosophy as a brief period of authentic
openness to being, during the time of the pre-Socratics, especially Anaximander, Heraclitus, and Parmenides. This
was followed, according to Heidegger, by a long period increasingly dominated by the forgetting of this initial
openness, a period which commences with Plato, and which occurs in different ways throughout Western history.
Two recurring themes of Heidegger's later writings are poetry and technology. Heidegger sees poetry and technology
as two contrasting ways of "revealing." Poetry reveals being in the way in which, if it is genuine poetry, it
commences something new. Technology, on the other hand, when it gets going, inaugurates the world of the
dichotomous subject and object, which modern philosophy commencing with Descartes also reveals. But with
modern technology a new stage of revealing is reached, in which the subject-object distinction is overcome even in
the "material" world of technology. The essence of modern technology is the conversion of the whole universe of
Martin Heidegger 103

beings into an undifferentiated "standing reserve" (Bestand) of energy available for any use to which humans choose
to put it. Heidegger described the essence of modern technology as Gestell, or "enframing." Heidegger does not
unequivocally condemn technology: while he acknowledges that modern technology contains grave dangers,
Heidegger nevertheless also argues that it may constitute a chance for human beings to enter a new epoch in their
relation to being. Despite this, some commentators have insisted that an agrarian nostalgia permeates his later work.
In a 1950 lecture he formulated the famous saying Language speaks, later published in the 1959 essays collection
Unterwegs zur Sprache, and collected in the 1971 English book Poetry, Language, Thought.[39][40][41]
Heidegger's later works include Vom Wesen der Wahrheit ("On the Essence of Truth", 1930), Der Ursprung des
Kunstwerkes ("The Origin of the Work of Art", 1935), Einführung in die Metaphysik ("Introduction to Metaphysics",
1935), Bauen Wohnen Denken ("Building Dwelling Thinking", 1951), and Die Frage nach der Technik ("The
Question Concerning Technology", 1954) and Was heisst Denken? ("What Is Called Thinking?" 1954). Also
Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis) (Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning)), composed in the years
1936–38 but not published until 1989, on the centennial of Heidegger's birth.

Heidegger and the ground of History

Heidegger believed the Western world to be on a trajectory headed for total war,[] and on the brink of profound
nihilism[42] (the rejection of all religious and moral principles),[] which would be the purest and highest revelation of
Being itself,[43] offering a horrifying crossroads of either salvation or the end of metaphysics and modernity;[44]
rendering the West: a wasteland populated by tool-using brutes, characterized by an unprecedented ignorance and
barbarism[45] in which everything is permitted.[46] He thought the latter possibility would degenerate mankind
generally into: scientists, workers and brutes;[] living under the last mantel of one of three ideologies: Americanism,
Marxism or Nazism[47] (which he deemed metaphysically identical; as avatars of subjectivity and institutionalized
nihilism)[48] and an unfettered totalitarian world technology.[] Supposedly, this epoch would be ironically celebrated,
as the most enlightened and glorious in human history.[49] He envisaged this abyss, to be the greatest event in the
West's history; because it enables Humanity to comprehend Being more profoundly and primordially than the
Pre-Socratics.[50]

Influences

St. Augustine of Hippo

Recent scholarship has shown that Heidegger was substantially influenced by St. Augustine of Hippo and that Martin
Heidegger's Being and Time would not have been possible without the influence of Augustine's thought. Augustine's
Confessions was particularly influential in shaping Heidegger's thought.[51]

Aristotle and the Greeks

Heidegger was influenced at an early age by Aristotle, mediated through Catholic theology, medieval philosophy,
and Franz Brentano. Aristotle's ethical, logical, and metaphysical works were crucial to the development of his
thought in the crucial period of the 1920s. Although he later worked less on Aristotle, Heidegger recommended
postponing reading Nietzsche, and to "first study Aristotle for ten to fifteen years."[52] In reading Aristotle,
Heidegger increasingly contested the traditional Latin translation and scholastic interpretation of his thought.
Particularly important (not least for its influence upon others, both in their interpretation of Aristotle and in
rehabilitating a neo-Aristotelian "practical philosophy")[53] was his radical reinterpretation of Book Six of Aristotle's
Nicomachean Ethics and several books of the Metaphysics. Both informed the argument of Being and Time.
Heidegger's thought is original in being an authentic retrieval of the past, a repetition of the possibilities handed
down by the tradition.[]
The idea of asking about being may be traced back via Aristotle to Parmenides. Heidegger claimed to have revived
the question of being, the question having been largely forgotten by the metaphysical tradition extending from Plato
Martin Heidegger 104

to Descartes, a forgetfulness extending to the Age of Enlightenment and then to modern science and technology. In
pursuit of the retrieval of this question, Heidegger spent considerable time reflecting on ancient Greek thought, in
particular on Plato, Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Anaximander, as well as on the tragic playwright Sophocles [54].

Dilthey
Heidegger's very early project of developing a "hermeneutics of factical life" and his hermeneutical transformation
of phenomenology was influenced in part by his reading of the works of Wilhelm Dilthey.[citation needed]
Of the influence of Dilthey, Hans-Georg Gadamer writes the following: "As far as Dilthey is concerned, we all know
today what I have known for a long time: namely that it is a mistake to conclude on the basis of the citation in Being
and Time that Dilthey was especially influential in the development of Heidegger's thinking in the mid-1920s. This
dating of the influence is much too late." He adds that by the fall of 1923 it was plain that Heidegger felt "the clear
superiority of Count Yorck over the famous scholar, Dilthey." Gadamer nevertheless makes clear that Dilthey's
influence was important in helping the youthful Heidegger "in distancing himself from the systematic ideal of
Neo-Kantianism, as Heidegger acknowledges in Being and Time."[55] Based on Heidegger's earliest lecture courses,
in which Heidegger already engages Dilthey's thought prior to the period Gadamer mentions as "too late", scholars as
diverse as Theodore Kisiel and David Farrell Krell have argued for the importance of Diltheyan concepts and
strategies in the formation of Heidegger's thought.[56]
Even though Gadamer's interpretation of Heidegger has been questioned, there is little doubt that Heidegger seized
upon Dilthey's concept of hermeneutics. Heidegger's novel ideas about ontology required a gestalt formation, not
merely a series of logical arguments, in order to demonstrate his fundamentally new paradigm of thinking, and the
hermeneutic circle offered a new and powerful tool for the articulation and realization of these ideas.[citation needed]

Husserl
There is disagreement over the degree of influence that Husserl had on Heidegger's philosophical development, just
as there is disagreement about the degree to which Heidegger's philosophy is grounded in phenomenology. These
disagreements centre around how much of Husserlian phenomenology is contested by Heidegger, and how much this
phenomenology in fact informs Heidegger's own understanding.
On the relation between the two figures, Gadamer wrote: "When asked about phenomenology, Husserl was quite
right to answer as he used to in the period directly after World War I: 'Phenomenology, that is me and Heidegger'."
Nevertheless, Gadamer noted that Heidegger was no patient collaborator with Husserl, and that Heidegger's "rash
ascent to the top, the incomparable fascination he aroused, and his stormy temperament surely must have made
Husserl, the patient one, as suspicious of Heidegger as he always had been of Max Scheler's volcanic fire."[57]
Robert J. Dostal understood the importance of Husserl to be profound:
Heidegger himself, who is supposed to have broken with Husserl, bases his hermeneutics on an account
of time that not only parallels Husserl's account in many ways but seems to have been arrived at through
the same phenomenological method as was used by Husserl.... The differences between Husserl and
Heidegger are significant, but if we do not see how much it is the case that Husserlian phenomenology
provides the framework for Heidegger's approach, we will not be able to appreciate the exact nature of
Heidegger's project in Being and Time or why he let it unfinished.[58]
Daniel O. Dahlstrom saw Heidegger's presentation of his work as a departure from Husserl as unfairly
misrepresenting Husserl's own work. Dahlstrom concluded his consideration of the relation between Heidegger and
Husserl as follows:
Heidegger's silence about the stark similarities between his account of temporality and Husserl's
investigation of internal time-consciousness contributes to a misrepresentation of Husserl's account of
intentionality. Contrary to the criticisms Heidegger advances in his lectures, intentionality (and, by
implication, the meaning of 'to be') in the final analysis is not construed by Husserl as sheer presence (be
Martin Heidegger 105

it the presence of a fact or object, act or event). Yet for all its "dangerous closeness" to what Heidegger
understands by temporality, Husserl's account of internal time-consciousness does differ fundamentally.
In Husserl's account the structure of protentions is accorded neither the finitude nor the primacy that
Heidegger claims are central to the original future of ecstatic-horizonal temporality.[59]

Kierkegaard
Heideggerians regarded Søren Kierkegaard as, by far, the greatest philosophical contributor to Heidegger's own
existentialist concepts.[60] Heidegger's concepts of anxiety (Angst) and mortality draw on Kierkegaard and are
indebted to the way in which the latter lays out the importance of our subjective relation to truth, our existence in the
face of death, the temporality of existence, and the importance of passionate affirmation of one's individual
being-in-the-world.

Hölderlin and Nietzsche

Friedrich Hölderlin and Friedrich Nietzsche were both important influences on Heidegger, and many of his lecture
courses were devoted to one or the other, especially in the 1930s and 1940s. The lectures on Nietzsche focused on
fragments posthumously published under the title The Will to Power, rather than on Nietzsche's published works.
Heidegger read The Will to Power as the culminating expression of Western metaphysics, and the lectures are a kind
of dialogue between the two thinkers.
This is also the case for the lecture courses devoted to the poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin, which became an
increasingly central focus of Heidegger's work and thought. Heidegger grants to Hölderlin a singular place within the
history of being and the history of Germany, as a herald whose thought is yet to be "heard" in Germany or the West.
Many of Heidegger's works from the 1930s onwards include meditations on lines from Hölderlin's poetry, and
several of the lecture courses are devoted to the reading of a single poem (see, for example, Hölderlin's Hymn "The
Ister").

Heidegger and Eastern thought

Some writers on Heidegger's work see possibilities within it for dialogue with traditions of thought outside of
Western philosophy, particularly East Asian thinking. Despite perceived differences between Eastern and Western
philosophy, some of Heidegger's later work, particularly "A Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an
Inquirer", does show an interest in initiating such a dialogue.[61] Heidegger himself had contact with a number of
leading Japanese intellectuals, including members of the Kyoto School, notably Hajime Tanabe and Kuki Shūzō. It
has also been claimed that a number of elements within Heidegger's thought bear a close parallel to Eastern
philosophical ideas, particularly Zen Buddhism and Taoism. Paul Hsao records Chang Chung-Yuan saying that
"Heidegger is the only Western Philosopher who not only intellectually understands but has intuitively grasped
Taoist thought."[citation needed] Some authors see great influence of Japanese scholars in Heidegger's work, although
this influence is not acknowledged by the author.[62]

Islam
Research has been done on the relationships between Western philosophy and the history of ideas in Islam. Some of
these scholars interested in Arabic philosophical medieval sources are influenced by Heidegger's work, including
recent studies by Nader El-Bizri.[63] It is claimed the works of counter-enlightenment philosophers such as
Heidegger, along with Friedrich Nietzsche and Joseph de Maistre, influenced Iran's Shia Islamists, notably Ali
Shariati. This included the construction of the ideological foundations of the Iranian Revolution and modern political
Islam.[64][65]
Martin Heidegger 106

The Heidegger controversy

The rectorate
Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany on January 30,
1933. Heidegger was elected rector of the University of Freiburg on
April 21, 1933, and assumed the position the following day. On May 1
he joined the Nazi Party.
Heidegger delivered his inaugural address, the Rektoratsrede, on "Die
Selbstbehauptung der Deutschen Universität" ("The Self-assertion of
the German University") on May 27.
His tenure as rector was fraught with difficulties from the outset. Some
National Socialist education officials viewed him as a rival, while The University of Freiburg, where Heidegger was
others saw his efforts as comical. Some of Heidegger's fellow National Rector from April 21, 1933, to April 23, 1934

Socialists also ridiculed his philosophical writings as gibberish. He

finally offered his resignation on April 23, 1934, and it was accepted on April 27. Heidegger remained a member of
both the academic faculty and of the Nazi Party until the end of the war.[citation needed]

Philosophical historian Hans Sluga wrote:

"Though as rector he prevented students from displaying an anti-Semitic poster at the entrance to the
university and from holding a book burning, he kept in close contact with the Nazi student leaders and
clearly signaled to them his sympathy with their activism."[66]
In 1945 Heidegger wrote of his term as rector, giving the writing to his son Hermann; it was published in 1983:
"The rectorate was an attempt to see something in the movement that had come to power, beyond all its
failings and crudeness, that was much more far-reaching and that could perhaps one day bring a
concentration on the Germans' Western historical essence. It will in no way be denied that at the time I
believed in such possibilities and for that reason renounced the actual vocation of thinking in favor of
being effective in an official capacity. In no way will what was caused by my own inadequacy in office
be played down. But these points of view do not capture what is essential and what moved me to accept
the rectorate.""[67]

Treatment of Husserl
Beginning in 1917, German-Jewish philosopher Edmund Husserl championed Heidegger's work, and helped him
secure the retiring Husserl's chair in Philosophy at the University of Freiburg.[68]
On April 6, 1933, the Reichskommissar of Baden Province, Robert Wagner, suspended all Jewish government
employees, including present and retired faculty at the University of Freiburg. Heidegger's predecessor as Rector
formally notified Husserl of his "enforced leave of absence" on April 14, 1933.
Heidegger became Rector of the University of Freiburg on April 22, 1933. The following week the national Reich
law of April 28, 1933, replaced Reichskommissar Wagner's decree. The Reich law required the firing of Jewish
professors from German universities, including those, such as Husserl, who had converted to Christianity. The
termination of the retired professor Husserl's academic privileges thus did not involve any specific action on
Heidegger's part.[69]
Heidegger had by then broken off contact with Husserl, other than through intermediaries. Heidegger later claimed
that his relationship with Husserl had already become strained after Husserl publicly "settled accounts" with
Heidegger and Max Scheler in the early 1930s.[70]
Martin Heidegger 107

Heidegger did not attend his former mentor's cremation in 1938. In 1941, under pressure from publisher Max
Niemeyer, Heidegger agreed to remove the dedication to Husserl from Being and Time (restored in post-war
editions).[71]
Heidegger's behavior towards Husserl has evoked controversy. Hannah Arendt initially suggested that Heidegger's
behavior precipitated Husserl's death. She called Heidegger a "potential murderer." However, she later recanted her
accusation.[72]

Post-rectorate period
After the failure of Heidegger's rectorship, he withdrew from most political activity, without canceling his
membership in the NSDAP (Nazi Party). Nevertheless, references to National Socialism continued to appear in his
work.
The most controversial such reference occurred during a 1935 lecture which was published in 1953 as part of the
book Introduction to Metaphysics. In the published version, Heidegger refers to the "inner truth and greatness" of the
National Socialist movement (die innere Wahrheit und Größe dieser Bewegung), but he then adds a qualifying
statement in parentheses: "namely, the confrontation of planetary technology and modern humanity" (nämlich die
Begegnung der planetarisch bestimmten Technik und des neuzeitlichen Menschen). However, it subsequently
transpired that this qualification had not been made during the original lecture, although Heidegger claimed that it
had been. This has led scholars to argue that Heidegger still supported the Nazi party in 1935 but that he did not want
to admit this after the war, and so he attempted to silently correct his earlier statement.[73]
In private notes written in 1939, Heidegger took a strongly critical view of Hitler's ideology,[74] however in public
lectures he seems to have continued to make ambiguous comments which, if they expressed criticism of the regime,
did so only in the context of praising its ideals. For instance, in a 1942 lecture, published posthumously, Heidegger
said of recent German classics scholarship: "In the majority of 'research results,' the Greeks appear as pure National
Socialists. This overenthusiasm on the part of academics seems not even to notice that with such "results" it does
National Socialism and its historical uniqueness no service at all, not that it needs this anyhow.[75]
An important witness to Heidegger's continued allegiance to National Socialism during the post-rectorship period is
his former student Karl Löwith, who met Heidegger in 1936 while Heidegger was visiting Rome. In an account set
down in 1940 (though not intended for publication), Löwith recalled that Heidegger wore a swastika pin to their
meeting, though Heidegger knew that Löwith was Jewish. Löwith also recalled that Heidegger "left no doubt about
his faith in Hitler", and stated that his support for National Socialism was in agreement with the essence of his
philosophy.[76]

Post-war period
After the end of World War II, Heidegger was summoned to appear at a denazification hearing. Heidegger's former
lover Hannah Arendt spoke on his behalf at this hearing, while Jaspers spoke against him. The result of the hearings
was that Heidegger was forbidden to teach between 1945 and 1951. One consequence of this teaching ban was that
Heidegger began to engage far more in the French philosophical scene.[77]
In his postwar thinking, Heidegger distanced himself from Nazism, but his critical comments about Nazism seem
"scandalous" to some since they tend to equate the Nazi war atrocities with other inhumane practices related to
rationalisation and industrialisation, including the treatment of animals by factory farming. For instance in a lecture
delivered at Bremen in 1949, Heidegger said: "Agriculture is now a motorized food industry, the same thing in its
essence as the production of corpses in the gas chambers and the extermination camps, the same thing as blockades
and the reduction of countries to famine, the same thing as the manufacture of hydrogen bombs."[78]
In 1967 Heidegger met with the Jewish poet Paul Celan, a concentration camp survivor. Celan visited Heidegger at
his country retreat and wrote an enigmatic poem about the meeting, which some interpret as Celan's wish for
Heidegger to apologize for his behavior during the Nazi era.[79]
Martin Heidegger 108

Der Spiegel interview

On September 23, 1966, Heidegger was interviewed by Rudolf Augstein and Georg Wolff [80] for Der Spiegel
magazine, in which he agreed to discuss his political past provided that the interview be published posthumously (it
was published on May 31, 1976). In the interview, Heidegger defended his entanglement with National Socialism in
two ways: first, he argued that there was no alternative, saying that he was trying to save the university (and science
in general) from being politicized and thus had to compromise with the Nazi administration. Second, he admitted
that he saw an "awakening" ("Aufbruch") which might help to find a "new national and social approach," but said
that he changed his mind about this in 1934, largely prompted by the violence of the Night of the Long Knives.
In his interview Heidegger defended as double-speak his 1935 lecture describing the "inner truth and greatness of
this movement." He affirmed that Nazi informants who observed his lectures would understand that by "movement"
he meant National Socialism. However, Heidegger asserted that his dedicated students would know this statement
was no eulogy for the NSDAP. Rather, he meant it as he expressed it in the parenthetical clarification later added to
Introduction to Metaphysics (1953), namely, "the confrontation of planetary technology and modern humanity."
The Löwith account from 1936 has been cited to contradict the account given in the Der Spiegel interview in two
ways: that there he did not make any decisive break with National Socialism in 1934, and that Heidegger was willing
to entertain more profound relations between his philosophy and political involvement. The Der Spiegel interviewers
did not bring up Heidegger's 1949 quotation comparing the industrialization of agriculture to the extermination
camps. In fact, the interviewers were not in possession of much of the evidence now known for Heidegger's Nazi
sympathies.[81]

Academic Genealogy
Notable teachers

• Edmund Husserl
• Nicolai Hartmann
• Heinrich Rickert

Notable students

• Hannah Arendt
• Hans-Georg Gadamer
• Hans Jonas
• Kuki Shūzō
• Karl Löwith
• Herbert Marcuse
• Leo Strauss
• Jan Patočka
• Xavier Zubiri
• Karl Rahner
• Emmanuel Levinas
Martin Heidegger 109

Influence and reception in France

Heidegger was one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, and his ideas have penetrated into many
areas, but in France there is a very long and particular history of reading and interpreting his work.[citation needed]

Existentialism and pre-war influence

Heidegger's influence on French philosophy began in the 1930s, when Being and Time, "What is Metaphysics?" and
other Heideggerian texts were read by Jean-Paul Sartre and other existentialists, as well as by thinkers such as
Emmanuel Levinas, Alexandre Kojève and Georges Bataille.[82] Because Heidegger's discussion of ontology (the
study of being) is rooted in an analysis of the mode of existence of individual human beings (Da-sein, or
there-being), his work has often been associated with existentialism. The influence of Heidegger on Sartre's Being
and Nothingness is marked, but Heidegger felt that Sartre had misread his work, as he argued in later texts such as
the "Letter on 'Humanism'." In that text, intended for a French audience, Heidegger explained this misreading in the
following terms:
Sartre's key proposition about the priority of existentia over essentia [that is, Sartre's statement that
"existence precedes essence"] does, however, justify using the name "existentialism" as an appropriate
title for a philosophy of this sort. But the basic tenet of "existentialism" has nothing at all in common
with the statement from Being and Time [that "the 'essence' of Dasein lies in its existence"]—apart from
the fact that in Being and Time no statement about the relation of essentia and existentia can yet be
expressed, since there it is still a question of preparing something precursory.[83]
"Letter on 'Humanism'" is often seen as a direct response to Sartre's 1945 lecture "Existentialism is a Humanism."
Aside from merely disputing readings of his own work, however, in "Letter on 'Humanism,'" Heidegger asserts that
"Every humanism is either grounded in a metaphysics or is itself made to be the ground of one." Heidegger's largest
issue with Sartre's existential humanism is that, while it does make a humanistic 'move' in privileging existence over
essence, "the reversal of a metaphysical statement remains a metaphysical statement." From this point onward in his
thought, Heidegger attempted to think beyond metaphysics to a place where the articulation of the fundamental
questions of ontology were fundamentally possible: only from this point can we restore (that is, re-give [redonner])
any possible meaning to the word "humanism".

Post-war forays into France

After the war, Heidegger was banned from university teaching for a period on account of his activities as Rector of
Freiburg University. He developed a number of contacts in France, where his work continued to be taught, and a
number of French students visited him at Todtnauberg (see, for example, Jean-François Lyotard's brief account in
Heidegger and "the Jews", which discusses a Franco-German conference held in Freiburg in 1947, one step toward
bringing together French and German students). Heidegger subsequently made several visits to France, and made
efforts to keep abreast of developments in French philosophy by way of correspondence with Jean Beaufret, an early
French translator of Heidegger, and with Lucien Braun.

Derrida and deconstruction

Deconstruction came to Heidegger's attention in 1967 by way of Lucien Braun's recommendation of Jacques
Derrida's work (Hans-Georg Gadamer was present at an initial discussion and indicated to Heidegger that Derrida's
work came to his attention by way of an assistant). Heidegger expressed interest in meeting Derrida personally after
the latter sent him some of his work. There was discussion of a meeting in 1972, but this failed to take place.[citation
needed]
Heidegger's interest in Derrida is said by Braun to have been considerable (as is evident in two letters, of
September 29, 1967 and May 16, 1972, from Heidegger to Braun). Braun also brought to Heidegger's attention the
work of Michel Foucault. Foucault's relation to Heidegger is a matter of considerable difficulty; Foucault
acknowledged Heidegger as a philosopher whom he read but never wrote about. (For more on this see Penser à
Martin Heidegger 110

Strasbourg, Jacques Derrida, et al., which includes reproductions of both letters and an account by Braun, "À
mi-chemin entre Heidegger et Derrida").
Jacques Derrida made emphatic efforts to displace the understanding of Heidegger's work that had been prevalent in
France from the period of the ban against Heidegger teaching in German universities, which amounted to an almost
wholesale rejection of the influence of Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialist terms. In Derrida's view, deconstruction is
a tradition inherited via Heidegger (the French term "déconstruction" is a term coined to translate Heidegger's use of
the words "Destruktion"—literally "destruction"—and "Abbau"—more literally "de-building"). According to
Derrida, Sartre's interpretation of Dasein and other key Heideggerian concerns is overly psychologistic,
anthropocentric, and misses the historicality central to Dasein in Being and Time. Because of Derrida's vehement
attempts to "rescue" Heidegger from his existentialist interpreters (and also from Heidegger's "orthodox" followers),
Derrida has at times been represented as a "French Heidegger", to the extent that he, his colleagues, and his former
students are made to go proxy for Heidegger's worst (political) mistakes, despite ample evidence that the reception of
Heidegger's work by later practitioners of deconstruction is anything but doctrinaire.

The Farías debate

Derrida, Lacoue-Labarthe, and Jean-François Lyotard, among others, all engaged in debate and disagreement about
the relation between Heidegger's philosophy and his Nazi politics. These debates included the question of whether it
was possible to do without Heidegger's philosophy, a position which Derrida in particular rejected. Forums where
these debates took place include the proceedings of the first conference dedicated to Derrida's work, published as
"Les Fins de l'homme à partir du travail de Jacques Derrida: colloque de Cerisy, 23 juillet-2 août 1980", Derrida's
"Feu la cendre/cio' che resta del fuoco", and the studies on Paul Celan by Lacoue-Labarthe and Derrida which
shortly preceded the detailed studies of Heidegger's politics published in and after 1987.
When in 1987 Víctor Farías published his book Heidegger et le nazisme, this debate was taken up by many others,
some of whom were inclined to disparage so-called "deconstructionists" for their association with Heidegger's
philosophy. Derrida and others not only continued to defend the importance of reading Heidegger, but attacked
Farías on the grounds of poor scholarship and for what they saw as the sensationalism of his approach. Not all
scholars agreed with this negative assessment: Richard Rorty, for example, declared that "[Farías'] book includes
more concrete information relevant to Heidegger's relations with the Nazis than anything else available, and it is an
excellent antidote to the evasive apologetics that are still being published."[84]

Bernard Stiegler
More recently, Heidegger's thought has considerably influenced the work of the French philosopher Bernard
Stiegler. This is evident even from the title of Stiegler's multi-volume magnum opus, La technique et le temps
(volume one translated into English as Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus).[85] Stiegler offers an original
reading of Heidegger, arguing that there can be no access to "originary temporality" other than via material, that is,
technical, supports, and that Heidegger recognised this in the form of his account of world historicality, yet in the
end suppressed that fact. Stiegler understands the existential analytic of Being and Time as an account of psychic
individuation, and his later "history of being" as an account of collective individuation. He understands many of the
problems of Heidegger's philosophy and politics as the consequence of Heidegger's inability to integrate the two.
Martin Heidegger 111

Giorgio Agamben
Heidegger has been very influential on the work of Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. Agamben attended
seminars in France led by Heidegger in the late 1960s.[86]

Criticism
Heidegger's influence upon 20th century continental philosophy is unquestioned and has produced a variety of
critical responses.

Early criticisms
The content of Being and Time, according to Husserl, claimed to deal with ontology, but from Husserl's perspective
only did so in the first few pages of the book. Having nothing further to contribute to an ontology independent of
human existence, Heidegger changed the topic to Dasein. Whereas Heidegger argued that the question of human
existence is central to the pursuit of the question of being, Husserl criticized this as reducing phenomenology to
"philosophical anthropology" and offering an abstract and incorrect portrait of the human being.[87]
The Neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer and Heidegger engaged in an influential debate located in Davos in 1929,
concerning the significance of Kantian notions of freedom and rationality. Whereas Cassirer defended the role of
rationality in Kant, Heidegger argued for the priority of the imagination. Dilthey's student Georg Misch wrote the
first extended critical appropriation of Heidegger in Lebensphilosophie und Phänomenologie. Eine
Auseinandersetzung der Diltheyschen Richtung mit Heidegger und Husserl, Leipzig 1930 (3. ed. Stuttgart 1964).

Left-Hegelianism and critical theory

Hegel-influenced Marxist thinkers, especially György Lukács and the Frankfurt School, associated the style and
content of Heidegger's thought with German irrationalism and criticized its political implications.
Initially members of the Frankfurt School were positively disposed to Heidegger, becoming more critical at the
beginning of the 1930s. Heidegger's student Herbert Marcuse became associated with the Frankfurt School. Initially
striving for a synthesis between Hegelian Marxism and Heidegger's phenomenology, Marcuse later rejected
Heidegger's thought for its "false concreteness" and "revolutionary conservativism." Theodor Adorno wrote an
extended critique of the ideological character of Heidegger's early and later use of language in the Jargon of
Authenticity. Contemporary social theorists associated with the Frankfurt School have remained largely critical of
Heidegger's works and influence. In particular, Jürgen Habermas admonishes the influence of Heidegger on recent
French philosophy in his polemic against "postmodernism" in The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity (1985).
However, recent work by philosopher and critical theorist Nikolas Kompridis tries to show that Heidegger's insights
into world disclosure are badly misunderstood and mishandled by Habermas, and are of vital importance for critical
theory, offering an important way of renewing that tradition.[88][89]
Martin Heidegger 112

Reception by Analytic and Anglo-American philosophy

Criticism of Heidegger's philosophy has also come from analytic philosophy, beginning with logical positivism. In
"The Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language" (1932), Rudolf Carnap accused Heidegger
of offering an "illusory" ontology, criticizing him for committing the fallacy of reification and for wrongly
dismissing the logical treatment of language which, according to Carnap, can only lead to writing "nonsensical
pseudo-propositions."
A strong critic of Heidegger's philosophy was the British logical positivist A. J. Ayer. In Ayer's view, Heidegger
proposed vast, overarching theories regarding existence, which are completely unverifiable through empirical
demonstration and logical analysis. For Ayer, this sort of philosophy was a poisonous strain in modern thought. He
considered Heidegger to be the worst example of such philosophy, which Ayer believed to be entirely useless.
Bertrand Russell commented, expressing the sentiments of many mid-20th-century analytic philosophers, that:
Highly eccentric in its terminology, his philosophy is extremely obscure. One cannot help suspecting
that language is here running riot. An interesting point in his speculations is the insistence that
nothingness is something positive. As with much else in Existentialism, this is a psychological
observation made to pass for logic.[90]
Roger Scruton stated that: "His major work Being and Time is formidably difficult—unless it is utter nonsense, in
which case it is laughably easy. I am not sure how to judge it, and have read no commentator who even begins to
make sense of it".[91]
The analytic tradition values clarity of expression. Heidegger, however, has on occasion appeared to take an
opposing view, stating for example that "those in the crossing must in the end know what is mistaken by all urging
for intelligibility: that every thinking of being, all philosophy, can never be confirmed by 'facts,' i.e., by beings.
Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy. Those who idolize 'facts' never notice that their idols only shine
in a borrowed light. They are also meant not to notice this; for thereupon they would have to be at a loss and
therefore useless. But idolizers and idols are used wherever gods are in flight and so announce their nearness."[10]
Apart from the charge of obscurantism, other analytic philosophers considered the actual content of Heidegger's
work to be either faulty and meaningless, vapid or uninteresting.
Not all analytic philosophers, however, have been as hostile. Gilbert Ryle wrote a critical yet positive review of
Being and Time. Ludwig Wittgenstein made a remark recorded by Friedrich Waismann: "To be sure, I can imagine
what Heidegger means by being and anxiety"[92] which has been construed by some commentators[93] as
sympathetic to Heidegger's philosophical approach. These positive and negative analytic evaluations have been
collected in Michael Murray (ed.), Heidegger and Modern Philosophy: Critical Essays (Yale University Press,
1978). Heidegger's reputation within English-language philosophy has slightly improved in philosophical terms in
some part through the efforts of Hubert Dreyfus, Richard Rorty, and a recent generation of analytically oriented
phenomenology scholars. Pragmatist Rorty claimed that Heidegger's approach to philosophy in the first half of his
career has much in common with that of the latter-day Ludwig Wittgenstein. Nevertheless, Rorty asserted that what
Heidegger had constructed in his writings was a myth of being rather than an account of it.[94]

Contemporary European reception

Even though Heidegger is considered by many observers to be the most influential philosopher of the 20th century in
continental philosophy, aspects of his work have been criticised by those who nevertheless acknowledge this
influence, such as Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jacques Derrida. Some questions raised about Heidegger's philosophy
include the priority of ontology, the status of animals, the nature of the religious, Heidegger's supposed neglect of
ethics (Emmanuel Levinas), the body (Maurice Merleau-Ponty), or sexual difference (Luce Irigaray).
Emmanuel Levinas was deeply influenced by Heidegger yet became one of his fiercest critics, contrasting the
infinity of the good beyond being with the immanence and totality of ontology. Levinas also condemned Heidegger's
Martin Heidegger 113

involvement with National Socialism, stating "One can forgive many Germans, but there are some Germans it is
difficult to forgive. It is difficult to forgive Heidegger."[95]

Cinema
• Being in the World [96] draws on Heidegger's work to explore what it means to be human in a technological age.
A number of Heidegger scholars are interviewed, including Hubert Dreyfus, Mark Wrathall, Albert Borgmann,
John Haugeland, and Taylor Carman.
• The Ister (2004) is a film based on Heidegger's 1942 lecture course on Friedrich Hölderlin, and features Jean-Luc
Nancy, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Bernard Stiegler, and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg.[97]
• The film director Terrence Malick translated Heidegger's 1929 essay "Vom Wesen des Grundes" into English. It
was published under the title The Essence of Reasons (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1969, bilingual
edition). It is also frequently said of Malick that his cinema has Heideggerian sensibilities. See for instance: Marc
Furstenau and Leslie MacAvoy, “Terrence Malick's Heideggerian Cinema: War and the Question of Being in The
Thin Red Line” In The cinema of Terrence Malick: Poetic visions of America, 2nd ed. Edited by Hanna Patterson
(London: Wallflower Press 2007): 179-91. See also: Stanley Cavell, The World Viewed: Reflections on the
Ontology of Film (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1979): XV.
• The 2006 experimental short Die Entnazifizierung des MH by James T. Hong imagines Heidegger's denazification
proceedings.[98]
• In the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre, Heidegger's theory of "experiencing one's being to the fullest is like
experiencing the decay of that being towards one's death, as a part of your experience" is quoted by the actor
Wallace Shawn, who plays himself.

Bibliography

Gesamtausgabe
Heidegger's collected works are published by Vittorio Klostermann. [99] The Gesamtausgabe was begun during
Heidegger's lifetime. He defined the order of publication and dictated that the principle of editing should be "ways
not works." Publication has not yet been completed.
The contents are listed here: Heidegger Gesamtausgabe.

Selected works
A complete list of English translations of Heidegger's work is available here. [100]

Year Original German English Translation

1927 Sein und Zeit, Gesamtausgabe Volume 2 Being and Time, trans. by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson (London: SCM Press,
1962); re-translated by Joan Stambaugh (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996)

1929 Kant und das Problem der Metaphysik, Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics, trans. by Richard Taft (Bloomington: Indiana
Gesamtausgabe Volume 3 University Press, 1990)

1935 Einführung in die Metaphysik (1935, Introduction to Metaphysics, trans. by Gregory Fried and Richard Polt (New Haven: Yale
published 1953), Gesamtausgabe Volume University Press, 2000)
40

1936–8 Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis) Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning), trans. by Parvis Emad and Kenneth Maly
(1936–1938, published 1989), (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999); re-translated as Contributions to Philosophy
Gesamtausgabe Volume 65 (Of the Event), trans. by Richard Rojcewicz and Daniela Vallega-Neu (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 2012)
Martin Heidegger 114

1942 Hölderlins Hymne »Der Ister« (1942, Hölderlin's Hymn "The Ister", trans. by William McNeill and Julia Davis (Bloomington:
published 1984), Gesamtausgabe Volume Indiana University Press, 1996)
53

1949 "Die Frage nach der Technik", in "The Question Concerning Technology", in Heidegger, Martin, Basic Writings: Second
Gesamtausgabe Volume 7 Edition, Revised and Expanded, ed. David Farrell Krell (New York: Harper Collins, 1993)

1950 Holzwege, Gesamtausgabe Volume 5. Off the Beaten Track. This collection includes "The Origin of the Work of Art"
This collection includes "Der Ursprung
des Kunstwerkes" (1935–1936)

1955–56 Der Satz vom Grund, Gesamtausgabe The Principle of Reason, trans. Reginald Lilly (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1991)
Volume 10

1955–57 Identität und Differenz, Gesamtausgabe Identity and Difference, trans. by Joan Stambaugh (New York: Harper & Row, 1969)
Volume 11

1959 Gelassenheit, in Gesamtausgabe Volume Discourse On Thinking

16

1959 Unterwegs zur Sprache, Gesamtausgabe On the Way To Language, published without the essay "Die Sprache" ("Language") by
Volume 12 arrangement with Heidegger

Further reading

On Being and Time

• William Blattner, Heidegger's Temporal Idealism
• Taylor Carman, Heidegger's Analytic: Interpretation, Discourse, and Authenticity in "Being and Time"
• Hubert Dreyfus, Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I
• Michael Gelven, A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Revised Edition
• E.F. Kaelin, "Heidegger's Being & Time: A Reading for Readers"
• Magda King, A Guide to Heidegger's Being and Time
• Theodore Kisiel, The Genesis of Heidegger's Being and Time
• Stephen Mulhall, Heidegger and Being and Time
• James Luchte, Heidegger's Early Philosophy: The Phenomenology of Ecstatic Temporality
• Mark Wrathall, How to Read Heidegger

Biographies
• Víctor Farías, Heidegger and Nazism, ed. by Joseph Margolis and Tom Rockmore
• Hugo Ott, Martin Heidegger: A Political Life
• Otto Pöggeler, Martin Heidegger's Path of Thinking, trans. by D. Magurshak and S. Barber, Humanities Press,
1987.
• Rüdiger Safranski, Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil
• John van Buren, The Young Heidegger: Rumor of the Hidden King
Martin Heidegger 115

Politics and National Socialism

• Pierre Bourdieu, The Political Ontology of Martin Heidegger
• Miguel de Beistegui, Heidegger and the Political: Dystopias
• Jacques Derrida, Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question
• Víctor Farías, Heidegger and Nazism, Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1989.
• Emmanuel Faye, Heidegger, l'introduction du nazisme dans la philosophie : autour des séminaires inédits de
1933–1935, Paris, Albin Michel, 2005. ISBN 2-226-14252-5 in French language
• Emmanuel Faye, Heidegger. The Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy in Light of the Unpublished Seminars of
1933-1935, Translated by Michael B. Smith, Foreword by Tom Rockmore, Yale University Press, 2009, 436 p.
Foreword Award: Book of the year 2009 for Philosophy.
• Annemarie Gethmann-Siefert & Otto Pöggeler (eds.), Heidegger und die praktische Philosophie, Frankfurt a. M.,
Suhrkamp, 1989. in German language
• Dominique Janicaud, The Shadow of That Thought
• Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, "Transcendence Ends in Politics", in Typography: Mimesis, Philosophy, Politics
• Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Heidegger, Art, and Politics: The Fiction of the Political
• George Leaman, Heidegger im Kontext: Gesamtüberblick zum NS-Engagement der Universitätsphilosophen,
Argument Verlag, Hamburg, 1993. ISBN 3-88619-205-9
• Karl Löwith, Martin Heidegger and European Nihilism
• Karl Löwith Heidegger's Existentialism [101]
• Jean-François Lyotard, Heidegger and "the jews"
• Günther Neske & Emil Kettering (eds.), Martin Heidegger and National Socialism: Questions and Answers
• Political Texts – Rectoral Addresses [102]
• Tom Rockmore and Joseph Margolis (ed.), The Heidegger Case
• Daniel Ross, Heidegger and the Question of the Political [103]
• Hans Sluga, Heidegger's Crisis: Philosophy and Politics in Nazi Germany
• Iain Thomson, Heidegger on Ontotheology: Technology and the Politics of Education
• Dana Villa, Arendt and Heidegger: the Fate of the Political
• Richard Wolin (ed.), The Heidegger Controversy ISBN 0-262-23166-2.
• Julian Young, Heidegger philosophy Nazism

Other secondary literature

• Robert Bernasconi, Heidegger in Question: The Art of Existing
• Walter A. Brogan, Heidegger and Aristotle: The Twofoldness of Being
• Richard Capobianco, Engaging Heidegger with a Foreword by William J. Richardson. University of Toronto
Press, 2010.
• Maxence Caron, Heidegger – Pensée de l'être et origine de la subjectivité, 1760 pages, first and only book on
Heidegger awarded by the Académie française.
• Gabriel Cercel / Cristian Ciocan (eds), The Early Heidegger (Studia Phaenomenologica I, 3–4), Bucharest:
Humanitas, 2001, 506 p., including letters by Heidegger and Pöggeler, and articles by Walter Biemel,
Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann, Theodore Kisiel, Marion Heinz, Alfred Denker
• Steven Galt Crowell, Husserl, Heidegger, and the Space of Meaning: Paths toward Transcendental
Phenomenology
• Walter A. Davis. Inwardness and Existence: Subjectivity in/and Hegel, Heidegger, Marx, and Freud. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.
• Jacques Derrida, "Ousia and Gramme: Note on a Note from Being and Time", in Margins of Philosophy
• Hubert L. Dreyfus & Mark A. Wrathall, A Companion to Heidegger (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007)
• Paul Edwards, Heidegger's Confusions
Martin Heidegger 116

• Christopher Fynsk, Heidegger: Thought and Historicity

• Michael Allen Gillespie, Hegel, Heidegger, and the Ground of History (University of Chicago Press, 1984)
• Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Poetry as Experience
• Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Heidegger and the Politics of Poetry
• S. J. McGrath, Heidegger. A (Very) Critical Introduction
• William McNeill, The Glance of the Eye: Heidegger, Aristotle, and the Ends of Theory
• William McNeill, The Time of Life: Heidegger and Ethos
• Jean-Luc Nancy, "The Decision of Existence", in The Birth to Presence
• Herman Philipse, Heidegger's Philosophy of Being: A Critical Interpretation
• Richard Polt, Heidegger: An Introduction
• François Raffoul, Heidegger and the Subject
• Patricia Altenbernd Johnson, On Heidegger (Wadsworth Philosophers Series), Wadsworth Publishing, 1999
• François Raffoul & David Pettigrew (ed), Heidegger and Practical Philosophy
• William J. Richardson, Heidegger: Through Phenomenology to Thought.
• John Sallis, Echoes: After Heidegger
• John Sallis (ed), Reading Heidegger: Commemorations, including articles by Robert Bernasconi, Jacques Derrida,
Rodolphe Gasché, and John Sallis, among others.
• Reiner Schürmann, Heidegger on Being and Acting: From Principles to Anarchy
• Tony See, Community without Identity: The Ontology and Politics of Heidegger
• Adam Sharr, Heidegger's Hut
• Bernard Stiegler, Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus
• Leo Strauss, "An Introduction to Heideggerian Existentialism," in The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism
(University of Chicago: 1989).
• Andrzej Warminski, Readings in Interpretation: Hölderlin, Hegel, Heidegger
• Julian Young, Heidegger's Philosophy of Art
• Julian Young, Heidegger's Later Philosophy
• Bastian Zimmermann, Die Offenbarung des Unverfügbaren und die Würde des Fragens. Ethische Dimensionen
der Philosophie Martin Heideggers (London: 2010) ISBN 978-1-84790-037-1
• Jeffrey Andrew Barash, Martin Heidegger and the Problem of Historical Meaning (New York: Fordham, 2003)

Reception in France
• Jean Beaufret, Dialogue avec Heidegger, 4 vols.
• Dominique Janicaud, Heidegger en France, 2 vols.
• Ethan Kleinberg, Generation Existential: Heidegger's Philosophy in France, 1927–1961
• David Pettigrew and François Raffoul (eds.), French Interpretations of Heidegger : An Exceptional Reception,
Albany : SUNY Press, 2006.
Martin Heidegger 117

Influence on Japanese philosophy

• Mayeda, Graham. 2006. Time, space and ethics in the philosophy of Watsuji Tetsurō, Kuki Shūzō, and Martin
Heidegger (New York: Routledge, 2006). ISBN 0-415-97673-1 (alk. paper).

Influence on Asian philosophy

• Parkes, Graham. 1987. Heidegger and Asian Thought. [104] Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN
0-8248-1064-3.

References
[1] www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/grondinj/textes_html/Being.doc
[2] Lackey, Douglas. 1999. "What Are the Modern Classics? The Baruch Poll of Great Philosophy in the Twentieth Century". Philosophical
Forum. 30 (4): 329-46
[3] Heidegger, Martin. Poetry, Language, Thought. (New York: Harper Modern Perennial Classics, 2001.), 8.
[4] Ibid., 60.
[5] Dreyfus, Hubert. "Why Heideggerian AI Failed and how Fixing it would Require making it more Heideggerian".
[6] For critical readings of the interview (published in 1966 as "Only a God Can Save Us", Der Spiegel), see the "Special Feature on Heidegger
and Nazism" in Critical Inquiry 15:2 (Winter 1989), particularly the contributions by Jürgen Habermas and Blanchot The issue includes
partial translations of Derrida's Of Spirit and Lacoue-Labarthe's Of Spirit and Heidegger, Art, and Politics: the Fiction of the Political.
[7] Quoted by Heinrich Wiegand Petzet, Auf einen Stern zugehen. Begegnungen und Gespräche mit Martin Heidegger 1929-1976, 1983 p.43,
and also by Frederic de Towarnicki, A la rencontre de Heidegger. Souvenirs d'un messager de la Forêt-Noire, Gallimard-Arcades p.125
[8] Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, pp. 25–26.
[9] http:/ / www. iep. utm. edu/ heidegge/ #SH8a
[10] Martin Heidegger, Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning) (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999), p. 307.
[11] Source: Hannah Arendt / Martin Heidegger by Elzbieta Ettinger, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1995, page 10
[12] Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger At 80, New York Review of Books, 17/6, (Oct. 21, 1971), 50–54; repr. in Heidegger and Modern
Philosophy ed. M. Murray (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978), 293–303
[13] "Martin Heidegger, Emmanuel Levinas\, and the Politics of Dwelling" (http:/ / etd. lsu. edu/ docs/ available/ etd-11052004-163310/
unrestricted/ Gauthier_dis. pdf) by David J. Gauthier, Ph.D dissertation, Louisiana State University, 2004, page 156
[14] Karl Löwith, Mein Leben in Deutschland vor und nach 1933: ein Bericht (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1986), p. 57, translated by Paula Wissing as
cited by Maurice Blanchot in "Thinking the Apocalypse: a Letter from Maurice Blanchot to Catherine David", in Critical Inquiry 15:2, pp.
476–477.
[15] "Emmanuel Faye,[in his “Heidegger: The Introduction of Nazism Into Philosophy,”] argues fascist and racist ideas are so woven into the
fabric of Heidegger’s theories that they no longer deserve to be called philosophy. . . . Richard Wolin, the author of several books on
Heidegger and a close reader of the Faye book, said he is not convinced Heidegger’s thought is as thoroughly tainted by Nazism as Mr. Faye
argues. Nonetheless he recognizes how far Heidegger’s ideas have spilled into the larger culture." An Ethical Question: Does a Nazi Deserve a
Place Among Philosophers? by Patricia Cohen. New York Times. Published: November 8, 2009. (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2009/ 11/ 09/
books/ 09philosophy. html?scp=1& sq=Does a Nazi Deserve a Place Among Philosophers? & st=cse)
[16] Hermann Philipse, Heidegger's Philosophy of Being p. 173, Notes to Chapter One, Martin Heidegger, Supplements, trans. John Van Buren p.
183.
[17] Die Lehre vom Urteil im Psychologismus. Ein kritisch-theoretischer Beitrag zur Logik (1914). Source: Annemarie Gethmann-Siefert,
"Martin Heidegger", Theologische Realenzyklopädie, XIV, 1982, p. 562
[18] Note, however, that it was discovered later that one of the two main sources used by Heidegger was not by Scotus, but by Thomas of Erfurt.
Thus Heidegger's 1916 doctoral thesis, Die Kategorien- und Bedeutungslehre des Duns Scotus, should have been entitled, Die
Kategorienlehre des Duns Scotus und die Bedeutungslehre des Thomas von Erfurt. Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http:/ /
plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ erfurt).
[19] Gethmann-Siefert, 1982, p. 563
[20] Richard Wolin, Heidegger’s Children: Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Hans Jonas, and Herbert Marcuse (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2001); Samuel Fleischacker (ed.) Heidegger’s Jewish Followers: Essays on Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, Hans Jonas, and Emmanuel
Levinas (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2008)
[21] http:/ / www. levinas. sdsu. edu
[22] Charles Bambach, Heidegger’s Roots (Cornell University Press, 2003, page 82)
[23] Julian Young, Heidegger, Philosophy, Nazism (Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 3, page 11).
[24] Julian Young, Heidegger, Philosophy, Nazism (Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 3)
[25] Provisional ruling October 5, 1946; final ruling December 28, 1946; Hugo Ott, Martin Heidegger: A Political Life, (Harper Collins, 1993,
page 348)
[26] Rüdiger Safranski, Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil (Harvard University Press, 1998, page 373)
Martin Heidegger 118

[28] Martin Heidegger / Elisabeth Blochmann. Briefwechsel 1918–1969. Joachim W. Storck, ed. Marbach am Neckar: Deutsches
Literatur-Archiv, 1989, 2nd edn. 1990.
[29] Being There (http:/ / cabinetmagazine. org/ issues/ 25/ durantaye. php), a Spring 2007 article on Heidegger's vacation home for Cabinet
magazine.
[30] S.J. McGrath, Heidegger; A (Very) Critical Introduction (Cambridge, U.K.: Erdmans, 2008), p. 10
[31] For a study on Heidegger's reading of the Sophist and his less central interest in Plato's Timaeus and its conception of space qua khôra: see:
Nader El-Bizri, "On Kai khôra: Situating Heidegger between the Sophist and the Timaeus", Studia Phaenomenologica, Vol. IV, Issue 1–2
(2004), pp. 73–98. This study is also closely connected with an investigation of Heidegger's later reflections on 'dwelling' as set in: Nader
El-Bizri, 'Being at Home Among Things: Heidegger’s Reflections on Dwelling', Environment, Space, Place 3 (2011), pp. 47-71. Refer also to
other aspects of this research under the section of 'Heidegger and Eastern Thought' in the main body of the text above
[32] In everyday German, "Dasein" means "existence." It is composed of "Da" (here/there) and "Sein" (being). Dasein is transformed in
Heidegger's usage from its everyday meaning to refer, rather, to that being that is there in its world, that is, the being for whom being matters.
In later publications Heidegger writes the term in hyphenated form as Da-sein, thus emphasizing the distance from the word's ordinary usage.
[33] Jacques Derrida describes this in the following terms: "We can see then that Dasein, though not man, is nevertheless nothing other than
man." Jacques Derrida, "The Ends of Man", Margins of Philosophy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 127.
[34] Cf. Bernard Stiegler, "Technics of Decision: An Interview", Angelaki 8 (2003), pp. 154–67, and cf. the discussion of Stiegler's reading of
Heidegger in the sub-section "Bernard Stiegler" below.
[35] Nader El-Bizri, "On Kai Khora: Situating Heidegger between the Sophist and the Timaeus", Studia Phaenomenologica 4 (2004), pp. 73–98.
[36] William J. RichardsonHeidegger: Through Phenomenology to Thought (1963)
[37] Wrathall, Mark: Heidegger and Unconcealment: Truth, Language, and History, Cambridge University Press, 2011
[38] http:/ / ndpr. nd. edu/ review. cfm?id=24212
[39] Lyon, James K. Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger: an unresolved conversation, 1951-1970 (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=vB_Tv7A9oI8C), pp.128-9
[40] Philipse, Herman (1998) Heidegger's philosophy of being: a critical interpretation, p.205
[41] Heidegger (1971) Poetry, Language, Thought, translation and introduction by Albert Hofstadter, pp.xxv and 187-ff
[51] See The Influence of Augustine on Heidegger: The Emergence of an Augustinian Phenomenology, ed. Craig J. N. de Paulo (Lewiston: The
Edwin Mellen Press, 2006.) and also Martin Heidegger's Interpretations of Augustine: Sein und Zeit und Ewigkeit, ed. Frederick Van Fleteren
(Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2005.)
[52] Heidegger, What is Called Thinking? (New York: Harper & Row, 1968), p. 73.
[53] Kelvin Knight, Aristotelian Philosophy: Ethics and Politics from Aristotle to MacIntyre (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007).
[54] http:/ / web. alfredstate. edu/ library/ Antigone/ Antigone. The%20Ode%20on%20Man. pdf
[55] Hans-Georg Gadamer, "Martin Heidegger's One Path", in Theodore Kisiel & John van Buren (eds.), Reading Heidegger from the Start:
Essays in His Earliest Thought (Albany: SUNY Press, 1994), pp. 22–4.
[56] In The Genesis of Heidegger's Being and Time (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), Theodor Kisiel designates the first version
of the project that culminates in Being and Time, "the Dilthey draft" (p. 313). David Farrell Krell comments in Daimon Life: Heidegger and
Life-Philosophy (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992) that "Heidegger's project sprouts (in part, but in good part)
from the soil of Dilthey's philosophy of factical-historical life" (p. 35).
[57] Hans-Georg Gadamer, "Martin Heidegger—75 Years", Heidegger's Ways (Albany: SUNY Press, 1994), p. 18.
[58] Robert J. Dostal, "Time and Phenomenology in Husserl and Heidegger", in Charles Guignon (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger
(Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 142.
[59] Daniel O. Dahlstrom, "Heidegger's Critique of Husserl", in Theodore Kisiel & John van Buren (eds.), Reading Heidegger from the Start:
Essays in His Earliest Thought (Albany: SUNY Press, 1994), p. 244.
[60] Dreyfus, Hubert. Being-in-the-world: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991), Sec.
Appendix.
[61] Heidegger, "A Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an Inquirer", in On the Way to Language (New York: Harper & Row, 1971).
[62] Heidegger's hidden sources: East Asian influences on his work By Reinhard May, Graham Parkes
[63] See for instance: Nader El-Bizri, The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger (Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications
SUNY, 2000); Nader El-Bizri, 'Avicenna and Essentialism', Review of Metaphysics 54 (2001), 753-778; Nader El-Bizri, 'Being and
Necessity: A Phenomenological Investigation of Avicenna's Metaphysics and Cosmology', in Islamic Philosophy and Occidental
Phenomenology on the Perennial Issue of Microcosm and Macrocosm, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publishers, 2006), 243-261; Nader El-Bizri, 'The Labyrinth of Philosophy in Islam', Comparative Philosophy 1.2 (2010), 3-23; Nader El-Bizri,
'Al-Sīnawiyya wa-naqd Hāydighir li-tārīkh al-mītāfīzīqā', al-Maĥajja 21 (2010), 119-140
[64] "Political Islam, Iran, and the Enlightenment: Philosophies of Hope and Despair" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=S95R7trHf9oC&
dq), Ali Mirsepassi. Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 0-521-74590-X, 9780521745901. p. 90
[65] "Iran's Islamists Influenced By Western Philosophers, NYU's Mirsepassi Concludes in New Book" (http:/ / www. nyu. edu/ about/
news-publications/ news/ 2011/ 01/ 11/ irans-islamists-influenced-by-western-philosophers-nyus-mirsepassi-concludes-in-new-book. html),
New York University. January 11, 2011. Accessed February 15, 2011
[66] Hans Sluga, Heidegger's Crisis: Philosophy and Politics in Nazi Germany (Cambridge, Massachusetts, & London: Harvard University
Press, 1993), p. 149.
Martin Heidegger 119

[67] Heidegger, "The Rectorate 1933/34: Facts and Thoughts", in Günther Neske & Emil Kettering (eds.), Martin Heidegger and National
Socialism: Questions and Answers (New York: Paragon House, 1990), p. 29.
[68] Seyla Benhabib, The Reluctant Modernism Of Hannah Arendt (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=f3l7S-ZTK4YC& pg=PA120&
lpg=PA120& dq="April+ 28,+ 1933"+ Reich+ Law+ Jews& source=web& ots=QmAE0vPynq& sig=OEzV5jVxvhQ6DpSqIDfSWnscqrM&
hl=en& sa=X& oi=book_result& resnum=1& ct=result) (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003, p. 120.)
[69] Seyla Benhabib, The Personal is not the Political (http:/ / www. bostonreview. net/ BR24. 5/ benhabib. html#5) (October/November 1999
issue of Boston Review.)
[70] Martin Heidegger, "Der Spiegel Interview", in Günther Neske & Emil Kettering (eds.), Martin Heidegger and National Socialism:
Questions and Answers (New York: Paragon House, 1990), p. 48.
[71] Rüdiger Safranski, Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil (Cambridge, Mass., & London: Harvard University Press, 1998), pp. 253–8.
[72] Elzbieta Ettinger,Hannah Arendt – Martin Heidegger, (New Haven, Conn., & London: Yale University Press, 1995), p. 37.
[73] Jurgen Habermas, "Work and Weltanschauung: the Heidegger Controversy from a German Perspective", Critical Inquiry 15 (1989), pp.
452–54. See also J. Habermas, "Martin Heidegger: on the publication of the lectures of 1935", in R. Wolin, ed., The Heidegger Controversy
(MIT Press, 1993). The controversial page of the 1935 manuscript is missing from the Heidegger Archives in Marbach; however, Habermas's
scholarship leaves little doubt about the original wording.
[74] Martin Heidegger, Mindfulness (Continuum, 2006), section 47.
[75] Heidegger, Hölderlin's Hymn "The Ister" (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996), pp. 79–80.
[76] Karl Löwith, "My last meeting with Heidegger in Rome", in R. Wolin, The Heidegger Controversy (MIT Press, 1993).
[77] Dominique Janicaud, Heidegger en France vol. 1 (Paris: Albin Michel, 2001).
[78] Thomas Sheehan, "Heidegger and the Nazis" (http:/ / www. stanford. edu/ dept/ relstud/ faculty/ sheehan/ pdf/ 88-nazi. PDF), a review of
Víctor Farías' Heidegger et le nazisme, in The New York Review of Books, Vol. XXXV, n°10, June 16, 1988, pp.38-47
[80] http:/ / lacan. com/ heidespie. html
[81] For critical readings of the interview (published in 1966 as "Only a God Can Save Us," Der Spiegel), see the "Special Feature on Heidegger
and Nazism" in Critical Inquiry 15:2 (Winter 1989), particularly the contributions by Jürgen Habermas and Blanchot. The issue includes
partial translations of Derrida's Of Spirit and Lacoue-Labarthe's Of Spirit and Heidegger, Art, and Politics: the Fiction of the Political.
[82] On the history of the French translation of Heidegger's "What is Metaphysics?", and on its importance to the French intellectual scene, cf.
Denis Hollier, "Plenty of Nothing", in Hollier (ed.), A New History of French Literature (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University
Press, 1989), pp. 894–900.
[83] Heidegger, "Letter on 'Humanism'", Pathmarks (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 250–1.
[84] Richard Rorty, review of Heidegger and Nazism in the New Republic, quoted on the Temple University Press promotional page for
Heidegger and Nazism (http:/ / www. temple. edu/ tempress/ titles/ 618_reg_print. html)
[85] Bernard Stiegler, Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), part 2.
[86] Durantaye, Leland de la. (2009). Giorgio Agamben. A Critical Introduction. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
[87] See Edmund Husserl, Psychological and transcendental phenomenology and the confrontation with Heidegger (1927–1931) (Dordrecht:
Kluwer, 1997).
[88] Nikolas Kompridis, Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory between Past and Future MIT Press, 2006.
[89] Nikolas Kompridis, "Disclosing Possibility: The Past and Future of Critical Theory", International Journal of Philosophical Studies, Volume
13, Issue September 3, 2005 , pages 325 – 351. (http:/ / www. informaworld. com/ smpp/ content~db=all~content=a723657914)
[90] Bertrand Russell, Wisdom of the West (New York: Crescent Books, 1989), p. 303.
[91] Jeff Collins, Introducing Heidegger (Thriplow, Cambridge: Icon Books, 1998), p. 7.
[92] Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle: Conversations Recorded by Friedrich Waismann, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1979, p.68
[93] James Luchte, ‘Under the Aspect of Time (“sub specie temporis”): Heidegger, Wittgenstein, and the Place of the Nothing,’ Philosophy
Today, Volume 53, Number 2, 2009.
[94] Jeff Collins, Introducing Heidegger (Thriplow, Cambridge: Icon Books, 1998), p. 170.
[95] Emmanuel Levinas, Nine Talmudic Readings (Indiana University Press, 1990), p. xxv, translated by Annette Aronowicz
[96] http:/ / www. beingintheworldmovie. com
[97] http:/ / www. theister. com/
[98] http:/ / www. zukunftsmusik. com/ zm/ mh. html
[99] http:/ / www. klostermann. de/ philo/ phi_hei. htm
[100] http:/ / think. hyperjeff. net/ Heidegger
[101] http:/ / www. lacan. com/ symptom/ ?p=55
[102] http:/ / www. lacan. com/ symptom/ ?p=63
[103] http:/ / arrow. monash. edu. au/ vital/ access/ manager/ Repository/ monash:6201?start=61& expert=title%3a%22Heidegger+ and+ the+
question+ of+ the+ political%22
[104] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=bUa8ctgqeC8C& pg=PP1& dq=Heidegger+ and+ Asian+ Thought& client=firefox-a
Martin Heidegger 120

External links

General information
• German Heidegger Society (http://www.heidegger-gesellschaft.de/) (German)
• Der Spiegel Interview (http://lacan.com/heidespie.html)
• Timeline of German Philosophers (http://www.weple.org/timeline.
html#ids=14631,12007,12598,700,10671,9518,37304,95184,&title=8 German Philosophers)
• Human, all too human: a BBC film of his early life, with a focus on his political involvement (http://www.
filmsdocumentary.com/design-for-living-martin-heidegger)

Works by Heidegger
• English translations of Heidegger's works (http://think.hyperjeff.net/Heidegger)
• Heidegger works on archive.org (http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator:"Martin Heidegger")
• Some volumes of Gesamtausgabe (Klostermann) in German (http://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.
php?t=2947365)
Being and Time 121

Being and Time

Being and Time

Author(s) Martin Heidegger

Original title Sein und Zeit

Translator 1962: John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson

1996: Joan Stambaugh

Country Germany

Language German

Subject(s) deconstructionism, existentialism, hermeneutics, phenomenology

Publisher 1962: SCM Press

1996: State University of New York Press
2008: Harper Perennial Modern Thought

Publication date 1927

Published in English 1962, 2008 (Macquarrie & Robinson)

1996 (Stambaugh)

Being and Time (German: Sein und Zeit, 1927) is a book by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Although
written quickly, and despite the fact that Heidegger never completed the project outlined in the introduction, it
remains his most important work and has profoundly influenced 20th-century philosophy, particularly existentialism,
hermeneutics and deconstruction.

Heidegger's original project

Being and Time was originally intended to consist of two major parts, each part consisting of three divisions.[1]
Heidegger was forced to prepare the book for publication when he had completed only the first two divisions of part
one. The remaining divisions planned for Being and Time (particularly the divisions on time and being, Kant, and
Aristotle) were never published, although in many respects they are addressed in one form or another in Heidegger's
other works. In terms of structure, Being and Time remains as it was when it first appeared in print; it consists of the
lengthy two-part introduction, followed by Division One, the "Preparatory Fundamental Analysis of Dasein," and
Division Two, "Dasein and Temporality."
Being and Time 122

Introductory summary

Being
On the first page of Being and Time, Heidegger describes the project in the following way: "our aim in the following
treatise is to work out the question of the sense of being and to do so concretely."[2] Heidegger claims that traditional
ontology has prejudicially overlooked this question, dismissing it as overly general, undefinable, or obvious.[3]
Instead Heidegger proposes to understand being itself, as distinguished from any specific entities (beings).[4] "'Being'
is not something like a being."[5] Being, Heidegger claims, is "what determines beings as beings, that in terms of
which beings are already understood."[6] Heidegger is seeking to identify the criteria or conditions by which any
specific entity can show up at all (see world disclosure).[7]
If we grasp Being, we will clarify the meaning of being, or "sense" of being ("Sinn des Seins"), where by "sense"
Heidegger means that "in terms of which something becomes intelligible as something."[8] According to Heidegger,
as this sense of being precedes any notions of how or in what manner any particular being or beings exist, it is
pre-conceptual, non-propositional, and hence pre-scientific.[9] Thus, in Heidegger's view, fundamental ontology
would be an explanation of the understanding preceding any other way of knowing, such as the use of logic, theory,
specific ontology[10] or act of reflective thought. At the same time, there is no access to being other than via beings
themselves—hence pursuing the question of being inevitably means asking about a being with regard to its being.[11]
Heidegger argues that a true understanding of being (Seinsverständnis) can only proceed by referring to particular
beings, and that the best method of pursuing being must inevitably, he says, involve a kind of hermeneutic circle,
that is (as he explains in his critique of prior work in the field of hermeneutics), it must rely upon repetitive yet
progressive acts of interpretation. "The methodological sense of phenomenological description is interpretation."[12]

Dasein
Thus the question Heidegger asks in the introduction to Being and Time is: what is the being that will give access to
the question of the meaning of Being? Heidegger's answer is that it can only be that being for whom the question of
Being is important, the being for whom Being matters.[10] As this answer already indicates, the being for whom
Being is a question is not a what, but a who. Heidegger calls this being Dasein (an ordinary German word literally
meaning "being-there"), and the method pursued in Being and Time consists in the attempt to delimit the
characteristics of Dasein, in order thereby to approach the meaning of Being itself through an interpretation of the
temporality of Dasein. Dasein is not "man," but is nothing other than "man"—it is this distinction that enables
Heidegger to claim that Being and Time is something other than philosophical anthropology.
Heidegger's account of Dasein passes through a dissection of the experiences of Angst and mortality, and then
through an analysis of the structure of "care" as such. From there he raises the problem of "authenticity," that is, the
potentiality or otherwise for mortal Dasein to exist fully enough that it might actually understand being. Heidegger is
clear throughout the book that nothing makes certain that Dasein is capable of this understanding.

Time
Finally, this question of the authenticity of individual Dasein cannot be separated from the "historicality" of Dasein.
On the one hand, Dasein, as mortal, is "stretched along" between birth and death, and thrown into its world, that is,
thrown into its possibilities, possibilities which Dasein is charged with the task of assuming. On the other hand,
Dasein's access to this world and these possibilities is always via a history and a tradition—this is the question of
"world historicality," and among its consequences is Heidegger's argument that Dasein's potential for authenticity
lies in the possibility of choosing a "hero."
Thus, more generally, the outcome of the progression of Heidegger's argument is the thought that the being of
Dasein is time. Nevertheless, Heidegger concludes his work with a set of enigmatic questions foreshadowing the
necessity of a destruction (that is, a transformation) of the history of philosophy in relation to temporality—these
Being and Time 123

were the questions to be taken up in the never completed continuation of his project:
The existential and ontological constitution of the totality of Dasein is grounded in temporality.
Accordingly, a primordial mode of temporalizing of ecstatic temporality itself must make the ecstatic
project of being in general possible. How is this mode of temporalizing of temporality to be interpreted?
Is there a way leading from primordial time to the meaning of being? Does time itself reveal itself as the
horizon of being?[13]

Phenomenology in Heidegger and Husserl

Although Heidegger describes his method in Being and Time as phenomenological, the question of its relation to the
phenomenology of Edmund Husserl is complex. The fact that Heidegger believes that ontology includes an
irreducible hermeneutic (interpretative) aspect, for example, might be thought to run counter to Husserl's claim that
phenomenological description is capable of a form of scientific positivity. On the other hand, however, several
aspects of the approach and method of Being and Time seem to relate more directly to Husserl's work.
The central Husserlian concept of the directedness of all thought—intentionality—for example, while scarcely
mentioned in Being and Time, has been identified by some with Heidegger's central notion of "Sorge" (Cura, care or
concern). However, for Heidegger, theoretical knowledge represents only one kind of intentional behaviour, and he
asserts that it is grounded in more fundamental modes of behaviour and forms of practical engagement with the
surrounding world. Whereas a theoretical understanding of things grasps them according to "presence," for example,
this may conceal that our first experience of a being may be in terms of its being "ready-to-hand." Thus, for instance,
when someone reaches for a tool such as a hammer, their understanding of what a hammer is is not determined by a
theoretical understanding of its presence, but by the fact that it is something we need at the moment we wish to do
hammering. Only a later understanding might come to contemplate a hammer as an object.

Hermeneutics
The total understanding of being results from an explication of the implicit knowledge of being that inheres in
Dasein. Philosophy thus becomes a form of interpretation, but since there is no external reference point outside being
from which to begin this interpretation, the question becomes to know in which way to proceed with this
interpretation. This is the problem of the "hermeneutic circle," and the necessity for the interpretation of the meaning
of being to proceed in stages: this is why Heidegger's technique in Being and Time is sometimes referred to as
hermeneutical phenomenology.
This interpretative aspect of Heidegger's project had a profound influence on the hermeneutic approach of his student
Hans-Georg Gadamer.

Destruction of metaphysics
As part of his ontological project, Heidegger undertakes a reinterpretation of previous Western philosophy. He wants
to explain why and how theoretical knowledge came to seem like the most fundamental relation to being. This
explanation takes the form of a destructuring (Destruktion) of the philosophical tradition, an interpretative strategy
that reveals the fundamental experience of being at the base of previous philosophies that had become entrenched
and hidden within the theoretical attitude of the metaphysics of presence. This Destruktion is not simply a negative
operation but rather a positive transformation, or recovery.
In Being and Time Heidegger briefly undertakes a destructuring of the philosophy of Descartes, but the second
volume, which was intended to be a Destruktion of Western philosophy in all its stages, was never written. In later
works Heidegger uses this approach to interpret the philosophies of Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, and Plato, among others.
This aspect of Heidegger's work exerted a profound influence on Jacques Derrida, although there are also important
differences between Heidegger's Destruktion and Derrida's deconstruction.
Being and Time 124

Translations
So far, there are complete translations of Sein und Zeit in 23 languages: Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Gaelic[citation needed], Georgian, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese,
Korean, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, and
Turkish. An Arabic translation is in preparation.

Related work
Being and Time is the towering achievement of Heidegger's early career, but there are other important works from
this period:
• The publication in 1992 of the early lecture course, Platon: Sophistes (Plato's Sophist, 1924), made clear the way
in which Heidegger's reading of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics was crucial to the formulation of the thought
expressed in Being and Time.
• The lecture course, Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Zeitbegriffs (History of the Concept of Time: Prolegomena,
1925), was something like an early version of Being and Time.
• The lecture courses immediately following the publication of Being and Time, such as Die Grundprobleme der
Phänomenologie (The Basic Problems of Phenomenology, 1927), and Kant und das Problem der Metaphysik
(Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics, 1929), elaborated some elements of the destruction of metaphysics which
Heidegger intended to pursue in the unwritten second part of Being and Time.
Although Heidegger never completed the project outlined in Being and Time, later works explicitly addressed the
themes and concepts of Being and Time. Most important among the works which do so are the following:
• Heidegger's inaugural lecture upon his return to Freiburg, "Was ist Metaphysik?" ("What Is Metaphysics?", 1929),
was an important and influential clarification of what Heidegger meant by being, non-being, and nothingness.
• Einführung in die Metaphysik (An Introduction to Metaphysics), a lecture course delivered in 1935, is identified
by Heidegger, in his preface to the seventh German edition of Being and Time, as relevant to the concerns which
the second half of the book would have addressed.
• Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis) (Contributions to Philosophy [From Enowning], composed 1936–38,
published 1989), perhaps Heidegger's most sustained attempt at reckoning with the legacy of Being and Time.
• "Zeit und Sein" ("Time and Being"), a lecture delivered at the University of Freiburg on January 31, 1962. This
was Heidegger's most direct confrontation with Being and Time. It was followed by a seminar on the lecture,
which took place at Todtnauberg on September 11–13, 1962, a summary of which was written by Alfred
Guzzoni. Both the lecture and the summary of the seminar are included in Zur Sache des Denkens (1969;
translated as On Time and Being [New York: Harper & Row, 1972]).

Influence
Being and Time influenced many philosophers and writers, among them Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, Alexandre
Kojeve, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Giorgio Agamben, Jean-Paul Sartre, Emmanuel Lévinas, Maurice Merleau-Ponty,
Alain Badiou, Herbert Marcuse, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Bernard Stiegler. More specifically, several
important philosophical works were directly influenced by Being and Time, although in very different ways in each
case. Most notable among the works influenced by Being and Time are the following:
• Being and Nothingness (1943), by Jean-Paul Sartre
• Truth and Method (1960), by Hans-Georg Gadamer
• Totality and Infinity (1961), by Emmanuel Levinas
• Being and Event (1988), by Alain Badiou
• Technics and Time, 1 (1994), by Bernard Stiegler.
Being and Time 125

References
[1] Sein und Zeit, pp. 39-40.
[2] "Die konkrete Ausarbeitung der Frage nach dem Sinn von “Sein” ist die Absicht der folgenden Abhandlung." Sein und Zeit, p. 1.
[3] Ibid., pp. 2-4.
[4] In other words, being is distinguished from beings such as physical objects or even, as Heidegger explains in his discussion of the "worldhood
of the World," that entire collection of things that constitutes the physical universe. To preserve Heidegger's distinction, translators usually
render "Sein" as "being", the gerund of "to be", and "Seiend" (singlular) and "Seiendes" (plural) as the verb-derived noun "a being" and
"beings," and occasionally, perhaps preferably, as "an entity" and "entities"."
[5] "'Sein' ist nicht so etwas wie Seiendes." Sein und Zeit, p. 4.
[6] "...das Sein, das, was Seiendes als Seiendes bestimmt, das, woraufhin Seiendes, mag es wie immer erörtert werden, je schon verstanden ist,"
ibid., p. 6.
[7] In English, using the word "existence" instead of "being" might seem more natural and less confusing, but Heidegger, who stresses the
importance of the origins of words, uses his understanding of grammar to assist in his investigation of "being," and he reserves the word
"existence" to describe that defining type of being that Dasein (human consciousness) has.
[8] "aus dem her etwas als etwas verständlich wird," Sein und Zeit, p. 151.
[9] Ibid., pp. 8–9.
[10] Ibid., p. 12.
[11] Ibid., p. 7.
[12] "der methodische Sinn der Phänomenologischen Deskription ist Auslegung," ibid., p. 37.
[13] Ibid., p. 437.

Bibliography

Primary literature
• Martin Heidegger, Sein und Zeit, in Heidegger's Gesamtausgabe, volume 2, ed. F.-W. von Herrmann, 1977, XIV,
586p.
• Martin Heidegger, Being and Time (http://www.google.com.au/books?id=S57m5gW0L-MC&pg=PA291&
dq=isbn:0631197702&as_brr=0&sig=-zDGY5mhA3JQfLlVUt70c9EELwc), trans. by John Macquarrie &
Edward Robinson (London: SCM Press, 1962).
• Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. by Joan Stambaugh (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1996).
• Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. by Joan Stambaugh, revised by Dennis J. Schmidt (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2010).

Secondary literature
• Robert Bernasconi, "'The Double Concept of Philosophy' and the Place of Ethics in Being and Time," Heidegger
in Question: The Art of Existing (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1993).
• William D. Blattner, Heidegger's Temporal Idealism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
• Lee Braver. A Thing of This World: a History of Continental Anti-Realism. Northwestern University Press: 2007.
• Richard Capobianco, Engaging Heidegger with a Foreword by William J. Richardson. University of Toronto
Press, 2010.
• Taylor Carman, Heidegger's Analytic: Interpretation, Discourse, and Authenticity in "Being and Time"
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
• Jacques Derrida, "Ousia and Gramme: Note on a Note from Being and Time," Margins of Philosophy (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1982).
• Hubert Dreyfus, Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I (Cambridge,
Massachusetts, & London: MIT Press, 1990).
• Hubert Dreyfus, podcast of Philosophy 185 Fall 2007 Heidegger, UC Berkeley (http://itunes.apple.com/us/
podcast/philosophy-185-fall-2007-heidegger/id279547028)
Being and Time 126

• Hubert Dreyfus, podcast of Philosophy 189 Spring 2008 Heidegger, UC Berkeley (http://itunes.apple.com/us/
podcast/philosophy-189-spring-2008/id286628167)
• Christopher Fynsk, Heidegger: Thought and Historicity (Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 1993,
expanded edn.), ch. 1.
• Michael Gelven, A Commentary on Heidegger's "Being and Time" (Northern Illinois University Press; Revised
edition, 1989).
• Magda King, A Guide to Heidegger’s Being and Time, edited by John Llewelyn (Albany: State University of New
York Press, 2001).
• Theodore Kisiel, The Genesis of Heidegger's Being and Time (Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1993).
• William McNeill, The Glance of the Eye: Heidegger, Aristotle, and the Ends of Theory (Albany: State University
of New York Press, 1999), ch. 3–4.
• Jean-Luc Nancy, "The Decision of Existence," The Birth to Presence (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993).
• Cristian Ciocan (ed.), Translating Heidegger's Sein und Zeit, Studia Phaenomenologica V (2005) (http://www.
studia-phaenomenologica.com/?page=issue&id=5)
• William J. Richardson, Heidegger: Through Phenomenology to Thought. Martinus Nijhoff, 1963.

External links
• Being and time (http://books.google.com/books?id=S57m5gW0L-MC) preview at Google books
Adolf Reinach 127

Adolf Reinach
Adolf Reinach
Born 23 December 1883
Mainz, German Empire

Died 16 November 1917 (aged

33)
Diksmuide, Belgium

Nationality German

Fields philosophy
phenomenology
legal theory

Alma mater University of Munich

University of Göttingen

Influences Edmund Husserl

Adolf Bernhard Philipp Reinach (23 December 1883 – 16 November 1917) was a German philosopher,
phenomenologist (from the Munich phenomenology school) and law theorist.

Life and works

Adolf Reinach was born into a prominent Jewish family in Mainz,[] Germany, on 23 December 1883.[1] Adolf
Reinach studied at the Ostergymnasium in Mainz (where he became at first interested in Plato) and later entered the
University of Munich in 1901 where he studied mainly psychology and philosophy under Theodor Lipps. In the
circle of Lipps' students he came in contact with Moritz Geiger, Otto Selz, Aloys Fischer and above all Johannes
Daubert. From onward 1903/4 he was increasingly busy with the works of Edmund Husserl, especially his Logische
Untersuchungen (Logical Investigations).
In 1904, Reinach obtained his doctorate in philosophy under Lipps with his work Über den Ursachenbegriff im
geltenden Strafrecht (On the concept of cause in penal law). In 1905, he still intended to continue his studies in
Munich (where in the meanwhile he had also befriended Alexander Pfänder), to obtain a degree in law, but then
decided to go to study with Husserl in Göttingen. In that period more students of Lipps (captained by Daubert) had
decided to abandon Munich and to head for Göttingen, inspired by Husserl's works (which is referred to as the
Munich invasion of Göttingen).
Later in 1905 Reinach returned to Munich to complete his studies in law and then continued in 1906-1907 in
Tübingen. He attended several lectures and seminars on penal law by the legal theorist Ernst Beling, by which he
was quite impressed and to which he owes a great deal of inspiration of his later works. In the summer of 1907 he
took the First State Examination in Law, but also went later to Göttingen to attend discussion circles with Husserl.
With the support of Husserl, Reinach was able to obtain habilitation for university teaching at Göttingen in 1909.
From his lectures and research, we can see that at the time he was influenced also by Anton Marty and Johannes
Daubert, besides obviously and greatly by Husserl. On his turn Reinach appears to have inspired several young
phenomenologists (like Wilhelm Schapp, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Alexandre Koyré and Edith Stein) with his
lectures. Besides giving an introduction to phenomenology, he lectured i.a. on Plato and Immanuel Kant.
In this period, Husserl embarked on a thorough revision of his main work, the Logical Investigations, and asked
Reinach’s assistance in this endeavour. Moreover, in 1912 Reinach, together with Moritz Geiger and Alexander
Pfänder founded the famous Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung, with Husserl as main
editor.
Adolf Reinach 128

Besides his work in the area of phenomenology and philosophy in general, Reinach is credited for the development
of a forerunner to the theory of speech acts by Austin and Searle: Die apriorischen Grundlagen des bürgerlichen
Rechtes (The A Priori Foundations of Civil Law) is a systematic treatment of social acts as performative utterances
and a priori foundations of civil law. Reinach's work was based mostly on Husserl's analysis of meaning in the
Logical Investigations, but also on Daubert's criticism of it. Alexander Pfänder (1870–1941) had also been doing
research on commands, promises and the like in the same period.
After Husserl's publication of the Ideen (Ideas) in 1913, many phenomenologists took a critical stance towards his
new theories and the current of Munich phenomenology came effectively into being, as Reinach, Daubert and others
chose to remain closer to Husserl's earlier work, the Logical investigations. Instead of following Husserl into
idealism and transcendental phenomenology, the Munich group remained a realist current.
Reinach was converted to Lutheranism along with his wife[2][3]
At the outbreak of World War I Reinach volunteered to join the army. After many battles and having received the
Iron Cross, Reinach fell outside Diksmuide in Flanders on 16 November 1917.

List of main works

• Über den Ursachenbegriff im geltenden Strafrecht Leipzig: J. A. Barth 1905.
• "William James und der Pragmatismus," in Welt und Wissen. Hannoversche Blätter für Kunst, Literatur und
Leben (198): 45-65 1910.
• "Kants Auffassung des Humeschen Problems" in Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik 141:
176-209 1911.
• "Die obersten Regeln der Vernunftschlüsse bei Kant" in Kant Studien 16: 214-233 1911.
• Zur Theorie des negativen Urteils. in Münchener Philosophische Abhandlungen. Festschrift für Theodor Lipps.
Ed. A. Pfänder. Leipzig: J. A. Barth 1911. pp. 196–254
• "Die Überlegung: ihre ethische und rechtliche Bedeutung I" in Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische
Kritik 148: 181-196 1912.
• "Die Überlegung: ihre ethische und rechtliche Bedeutung II" in Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische
Kritik 149: 30-58 1913.
• "Die apriorischen Grundlagen des bürgerlichen Rechtes" in Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische
Forschung 1: 685-847 1913.
• Also as a special edition (Sonderdruck), Verlag von Max Niemeyer, Halle a. d. S. (pp. 1–163), 1913.
• Re-edited as: "Zur Phänomenologie des Rechts. Die apriorischen Grundlagen des bürgerlichen Rechts" (with
a preface by Anna Reinach) Munich, Kösel, 1953.
• "Paul Natorps 'Allgemeine Psychologie nach kritischer Methode'" in Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen 4: 193-214
1914.
His collected works: Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Ausgabe mit Kommentar (in two volumes) München: Philosophia
Verlag 1989. Eds. K. Schuhmann & B. Smith. Some on-line texts and translations of works by Reinach are available
here [4].
Adolf Reinach 129

References
[1] Adolf Reinach (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ reinach/ )
[2] A 1952 book review by Evelyn Waugh of a biography of Edith Stein by Sister Teresia de Spiritu Sancto, ODC (http:/ / www.
baltimorecarmel. org/ saints/ Stein/ evelyn_waugh's book review. htm)
[3] Teresa Benedict of the Cross Edith Stein (1891-1942) (http:/ / www. vatican. va/ news_services/ liturgy/ saints/
ns_lit_doc_19981011_edith_stein_en. html)
[4] http:/ / ontology. buffalo. edu/ smith/ book/ Reinach/

Bibliography
• Armin Burkhardt: Soziale Akte, Sprechakte und Textillokutionen. A. Reinachs Rechtsphilosophie und die
moderne Linguistik (Germanistische Linguistik; Bd. 69). Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 1986, ISBN
3-484-31069-3.
• Karl Schumann and Barry Smith, "Adolf Reinach: An Intellectual Biography" in K. Mulligan, ed., Speech Act and
Sachverhalt: Reinach and the Foundations of Realist Phenomenology, Dordrecht/Boston/Lancaster: Nijhoff,
1987, 1–27. PDF (http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/articles/reinach_biography.pdf)
• Kevin Mulligan (ed.), Speech Act and Sachverhalt. Reinach and the Foundations of Realist Phenomenology.
Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff, 1987.
• Barry Smith, Towards a History of Speech Act Theory in A. Burkhardt (ed.), Speech Acts, Meanings and
Intentions. Critical Approaches to the Philosophy of John R. Searle, Berlin/New York: de Gruyter (1990),
p. 29-61 HTML (http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00000301/00/speech_20act.html).

External links
• Reinach, Concerning Phenomenology (http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=21).
• Smith, Barry (2008), Adolf Reinach (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/reinach/), in Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy.
• Adolf Reinach on State of Affairs and the Theory of Negative Judgement (http://www.ontology.co/reinacha.
htm)
Alexander Pfänder 130

Alexander Pfänder
Alexander Pfänder (7 February 1870, in Iserlohn – 18 March 1941, in Munich) was a German philosopher and
phenomenologist. He was born in Iserlohn and spent his entire academic career in Munich, where he was a student of
Theodor Lipps and one of the founding members of the Munich circle of phenomenologists. As a professor Pfänder
was also influential in conveying and promoting a version of phenomenology that differed from Edmund Husserl's
"transcendental" orientation. His early phenomenological analysis of willing (1900) in fact predated Husserl's
breakthrough in phenomenology (Logical Investigations, vol. II (1901)). In spite of his talents as a writer and a
teacher, Pfänder did not come into prominence as did Heidegger with Being and Time (1927) and has consequently
been overshadowed by subsequent developments out of Heideggerian and Husserlian orientations. Nevertheless, his
detailed analyses of various phenomena, such as willing and attitudes (Gesinnungen), have been undeservedly
ignored. Moreover, his development of the concept of an "understanding psychology" also merits attention, which
has not received its due to its treatment in a work with an unfashionable title (The Soul of Man (1933)).

Works
• Phänomenologie des Wollens: Eine psychologische Analyse (1900)
• Logik (1921) English translation: Logic Frankfurt, Ontos Verlag, 2009.
• Die Seele des Menschen (1933).

External links
• 'Pfänder, Alexander (1871–1941)' [1], Encyclopedia of Philosophy

References
[1] http:/ / www. bookrags. com/ research/ pfnder-alexander-18711941-eoph/
Max Scheler 131

Max Scheler
Max Scheler

Born Max Ferdinand Scheler

August 22, 1874
Munich

Died May 19, 1928 (aged 53)

Frankfurt am Main

Era 20th-century philosophy

Region Continental Philosophy

School Phenomenology

Main interests History of ideas, Value theory, Ethics, Philosophical anthropology, Consciousness studies, Cultural criticism, Sociology, Religion

Notable ideas Value rankings, emotional intuition, value-based ethics, ressentiment

Philosophy
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Max Scheler 132

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Max Ferdinand Scheler[1] (August 22, 1874 – May 19, 1928) was a German philosopher known for his work in
phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. Scheler developed further the philosophical method of the
founder of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl, and was called by José Ortega y Gasset "the first man of the
philosophical paradise." After his death in 1928, Heidegger affirmed, with Ortega y Gasset, that all philosophers of
the century were indebted to Scheler and praised him as "the strongest philosophical force in modern Germany, nay,
in contemporary Europe and in contemporary philosophy as such."[2] In 1954, Karol Wojtyła, later Pope John Paul
II, defended his doctoral thesis on "An Evaluation of the Possibility of Constructing a Christian Ethics on the Basis
of the System of Max Scheler."
Max Scheler 133

Life and career

From Munich to Cologne (1874-1919)

Max Scheler was born in Munich, Germany, August 22, 1874, to a Lutheran father and an Orthodox Jewish mother.
As an adolescent, he turned to Catholicism, likely because of its conception of love, although he became increasingly
non-committal around 1921. After 1921 he disassociated himself in public from Catholicism and the Judeo-Christian
God,[3][4] committing himself with philosophical anthropology.
Scheler studied medicine in Munich and Berlin, both philosophy and sociology under Wilhelm Dilthey and Georg
Simmel in 1895. He received his doctorate in 1897 and his associate professorship (habilitation thesis) in 1899 at the
University of Jena, where his advisor was Rudolf Eucken, and where he became Privatdozent in 1901. Throughout
his life, Scheler entertained a strong interest in the philosophy of American pragmatism (Eucken corresponded with
William James).
He taught at Jena from 1900 to 1906. From 1907 to 1910, he taught at the University of Munich, where his study of
Edmund Husserl's phenomenology deepened. Scheler had first met Husserl at the Halle in 1902. At Munich,
Husserl's own teacher Franz Brentano was still lecturing, and Scheler joined the Phenomenological Circle in Munich,
centred around M. Beck, Th. Conrad, J. Daubert, M. Geiger, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Theodor Lipps, and
Alexander Pfänder. Scheler was never a student of Husserl's and overall, their relationship remained strained.
Scheler, in later years, was rather critical of the "master's" Logical Investigations (1900/01) and Ideas I (1913), and
he also was to harbour reservations about Being and Time by Martin Heidegger. Due to personal matters he was
caught up in the conflict between the predominantly Catholic university and the local socialist media, which led to
the loss of his Munich teaching position in 1910. From 1910 to 1911, Scheler briefly lectured at the Philosophical
Society of Göttingen, where he made and renewed acquaintances with Theodore Conrad, Hedwig Conrad-Martius
(an ontologist and Conrad's wife), Moritz Geiger, Jean Hering, Roman Ingarden, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Husserl,
Alexandre Koyré, and Adolf Reinach. Edith Stein was one of his students, impressed by him "way beyond
philosophy".[citation needed]. Thereafter, he moved to Berlin as an unattached writer and grew close to Walther
Rathenau and Werner Sombart.
Scheler has exercised a notable influence on Catholic circles to this day, including his student Stein and Pope John
Paul II who wrote his Habilitation and many articles on Scheler's philosophy. Along with other Munich
phenomenologists such as Reinach, Pfänder and Geiger, he co-founded in 1912 the famous Jahrbuch für Philosophie
und phänomenologische Forschung, with Husserl as main editor.
While his first marriage, to Amalie von Dewitz,[5][6] had ended in divorce, Scheler married Märit Furtwängler in
1912, who was the sister of the noted conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. During World War I (1914–1918), Scheler
was initially drafted but later discharged because of astigmia of the eyes. He was passionately devoted to the defence
of both war and Germany's cause during the conflict. His conversion to Catholicism dates to this period.[citation
needed]

In 1919 he became professor of philosophy and sociology at the University of Cologne. He stayed there until 1928.
Early that year, he accepted a new position at the University of Frankfurt. He looked forward to meeting here Ernst
Cassirer, Karl Mannheim, Rudolph Otto and Richard Wilhelm, sometimes referred to in his writings. In 1927 at a
conference in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt, arranged by Hermann Keyserling, Scheler delivered a lengthy lecture,
entitled 'Man's Particular Place' (Die Sonderstellung des Menschen), published later in much abbreviated form as Die
Stellung des Menschen im Kosmos [literally: 'Man's Position in the Cosmos']. His well known oratorical style and
delivery captivated his audience for about four hours.
Max Scheler 134

Later life (1920-1928)

Toward the end of his life, many invitations were extended to him, among them those from China, India, Japan,
Russia, and the United States. However, on the advice of his physician, he had to cancel reservations already made
with Star Line.
At the time Scheler increasingly focused on political development. He met the Russian emigrant-philosopher Nikolai
Berdyaev in Berlin in 1923. Scheler was the only scholar of rank of the then German intelligentsia who gave
warning in public speeches delivered as early as 1927 of the dangers of the growing National Socialist movement
and Marxism. 'Politics and Morals', 'The Idea of Eternal Peace and Pacifism' were subjects of talks he delivered in
Berlin in 1927. His analyses of capitalism revealed it to be a calculating, globally growing 'mind-set', rather than an
economic system. While economic capitalism may have had some roots in ascetic Calvinism (cf. Max Weber), its
very mind-set, however, is argued by Scheler to have had its origin in modern, subconscious angst as expressed in
increasing needs for financial and other securities, for protection and personal safeguards as well as for rational
manageability of all entities. However, the subordination of the value of the individual person to this mind-set was
sufficient reason for Max Scheler to denounce it and to outline and predict a whole new era of culture and values,
which he called 'The World-Era of Adjustment'.
Scheler also advocated an international university to be set up in Switzerland and was at that time supportive of
programs such as 'continuing education' and of what he seems to have been the first to call a 'United States of
Europe'. He deplored the gap existing in Germany between power and mind, a gap which he regarded as the very
source of an impending dictatorship and the greatest obstacle to the establishment of German democracy. Five years
after his death, the Nazi dictatorship (1933–1945) suppressed Scheler's work.

Philosophical Contributions

Love and the "Phenomenological Attitude"

When the editors of Geisteswissenschaften invited Scheler (about 1913/14) to write on the then developing
philosophical method of phenomenology, Scheler indicated a reservation concerning the task because he could only
report his own viewpoint on phenomenology and there was no "phenomenological school" defined by universally
accepted theses. There was only a circle of philosophers bound by a "common bearing and attitude toward
philosophical problems."[7] Scheler never agreed with Husserl that phenomenology is a method in the strict sense,
but rather "an attitude of spiritual seeing...something which otherwise remains hidden...."[7] Calling phenomenology
a method fails to take seriously the phenomenological domain of original experience: the givenness of
phenomenological facts (essences or values as a priori) "before they have been fixed by logic,"[7] and prior to
assuming a set of criteria or symbols, as is the case in the empirical and human sciences as well as other (modern)
philosophies which tailor their methods to those of the sciences.
Rather, that which is given in phenomenology "is given only in the seeing and experiencing act itself." The essences
are never given to an 'outside' observer with no direct contact with the thing itself. Phenomenology is an engagement
of phenomena, while simultaneously a waiting for its self-givenness; it is not a methodical procedure of observation
as if its object is stationary. Thus, the particular attitude (Geisteshaltung, lit. "disposition of the spirit" or "spiritual
posture") of the philosopher is crucial for the disclosure, or seeing, of phenomenological facts. This attitude is
fundamentally a moral one, where the strength of philosophical inquiry rests upon the basis of love. Scheler
describes the essence of philosophical thinking as "a love-determined movement of the inmost personal self of a finite
being toward participation in the essential reality of all possibles." [8]
The movement and act of love is important for philosophy for two reasons: (1) If philosophy, as Scheler describes it,
hearkening back to the Platonic tradition, is a participation in a "primal essence of all essences" (Urwesen), it follows
that for this participation to be achieved one must incorporate within oneself the content or essential characteristic of
the primal essence.[9] For Scheler, such a primal essence is most characterized according to love, thus the way to
Max Scheler 135

achieve the most direct and intimate participation is precisely to share in the movement of love. It is important to
mention, however, that this primal essence is not an objectifiable entity whose possible correlate is knowledge; thus,
even if philosophy is always concerned with knowing, as Scheler would concur, nevertheless, reason itself is not the
proper participative faculty by which the greatest level of knowing is achieved. Only when reason and logic have
behind them the movement of love and the proper moral preconditions can one achieve philosophical knowledge.[10]
(2) Love is likewise important insofar as its essence is the condition for the possibility of the givenness of
value-objects and especially the givenness of an object in terms of its highest possible value. Love is the movement
which "brings about the continuous emergence of ever-higher value in the object--just as if it was streaming out from
the object of its own accord, without any sort of exertion...on the part of the lover. ...true love open our spiritual eyes
to ever-higher values in the object loved." [11] Hatred, on the other hand, is the closing off of oneself or closing ones
eyes to the world of values. It is in the latter context that value-inversions or devaluations become prevalent, and are
sometimes solidified as proper in societies. Furthermore, by calling love a movement, Scheler hopes to dispel the
interpretation that love and hate are only reactions to felt values rather than the very ground for the possibility of
value-givenness (or value-concealment). Scheler writes, "Love and hate are acts in which the value-realm accessible
to the feelings of a being...is either extended or narrowed."[12] Love and hate are to be distinguished from sensible
and even psychical feelings; they are, instead, characterized by an intentional function (one always loves or hates
something) and therefore must belong to the same anthropological sphere as theoretical consciousness and the acts of
willing and thinking. Scheler, therefore calls love and hate, "spiritual feelings," and are the basis for an "emotive a
priori" insofar as values, through love, are given in the same manner as are essences, through cognition. In short,
love is a value-cognition, and insofar as it is determinative of the way in which a philosopher approaches the world,
it is also indicative of a phenomenological attitude.

Material Value-Ethics
A fundamental aspect of Scheler's phenomenology is the extension of the realm of the a priori to include not only
formal propositions, but material ones as well. Kant's identification of the a priori with the formal was a
"fundamental error" which is the basis of his ethical formalism. Furthermore, Kant erroneously identified the realm
of the non-formal (material) with sensible or empirical content. The heart of Scheler's criticism of Kant is within his
theory of values. Values are given a priori, and are "feelable" phenomena. The intentional feeling of love discloses
values insofar as love opens a person evermore to beings-of-value (Wertsein).
Additionally, values are not formal realities; they do not exist somewhere apart from the world and their bearers, and
they only exist with a value-bearer, as a value-being. They are, therefore, part of the realm of a material a priori.
Nevertheless, values can vary with respect to their bearers without there ever occurring an alteration in the object as
bearer. E.g., the value of a specific work of art or specific religious articles may vary according to differences of
culture and religion. However, this variation of values with respect to their bearers by no means amounts to the
relativity of values as such, but only with respect to the particular value-bearer. As such, the values of culture are
always spiritual irrespective of the objects that may bear this value, and values of the holy still remain the highest
values regardless of their bearers. According to Scheler, the disclosure of the value-being of an object precedes
representation. The axiological reality of values is given prior to knowing, but, upon being felt through value-feeling,
can be known (as to their essential interconnections). Values and their corresponding disvalues are ranked according
to their essential interconnections as follows:
1. Values of the holy vs. disvalues of the unholy
2. Values of the spirit (truth, beauty, vs. disvalues of their opposites)
3. Values of life and the noble vs. disvalues of the vulgar
4. Values of pleasure vs. disvalues of pain
5. Values of utility vs. disvalues of the useless.[13]
Further essential interconnections apply with respect to a value's (disvalue's) existence or non-existence:
Max Scheler 136

• The existence of a positive value is itself a positive value.

• The existence of a negative value (disvalue) is itself a negative value.
• The non-existence of a positive value is itself a negative value.
• The non-existence of a negative value is itself a positive value.[14]
And with respect to values of good and evil:
• Good is the value that is attached to the realization of a positive value in the sphere of willing.
• Evil is the value that is attached to the realization of a negative value in the sphere of willing.
• Good is the value that is attached to the realization of a higher value in the sphere of willing.
• Evil is the value that is attached to the realization of a lower value [at the expense of a higher one] in the sphere of
willing.[14]
Goodness, however, is not simply "attached" to an act of willing, but originates ultimately within the disposition
(Gesinnung) or "basic moral tenor" of the acting person. Accordingly:
• The criterion of 'good' consists in the agreement of a value intended, in the realization, with the value preferred, or
in its disagreement with the value rejected.
• The criterion of 'evil' consists in the disagreement of a value intended, in the realization, with the value preferred,
or in its agreement with the value rejected.[14]
One may note that most of the older ethical systems (Kantian formalism, theonomic ethics, nietzscheanism,
hedonism, consequentialism, and platonism, for example) fall into axiological error by emphasizing one value-rank
to the exclusion of the others. A novel aspect of Scheler's ethics is the importance of the "kairos" or call of the hour.
Moral rules cannot guide the person to make ethical choices in difficult, existential life-choices. For Scheler, the very
capacity to obey rules is rooted in the basic moral tenor of the person.
A disorder "of the heart" occurs whenever a person prefers a value of a lower rank to a higher rank, or a disvalue to a
value.
The term Wertsein or value-being is used by Scheler in many contexts, but his untimely death prevented him from
working out an axiological ontology. Another unique and controversial element of Scheler's axiology is the notion of
the emotive a priori: values can only be felt, just as color can only be seen. Reason cannot think values; the mind can
only order categories of value after lived experience has happened. For Scheler, the person is the locus of
value-experience, a timeless act-being that acts into time. Scheler's appropriation of a value-based metaphysics
renders his phenomenology quite different from the phenomenology of consciousness (Husserl, Sartre) or the
existential analysis of the being-in-the-world of Dasein (Heidegger). Scheler's concept of the "lived body" was
appropriated in the early work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
Max Scheler extended the phenomenological method to include a reduction of the scientific method too, thus
questioning the idea of Husserl that phenomenological philosophy should be pursued as a rigorous science. Natural
and scientific attitudes (Einstellung) are both phenomenologically counterpositive and hence must be sublated in the
advancement of the real phenomenological reduction which, in the eyes of Scheler, has more the shapes of an
allround ascesis (Askese) rather than a mere logical procedure of suspending the existential judgments. The
Wesenschau, according to Scheler, is an act of blowing up the Sosein limits of Sein A into the essential-ontological
domain of Sein B, in short, an ontological participation of Sosenheiten, seeing the things as such (cf. the Buddhist
concept of tathata, and the Christian theological quidditas).
Max Scheler 137

Man and History (1924)

Scheler planned to publish his major work in Anthropology in 1929, but the completion of such project was
interrupted by Scheler's premature death in 1928. Some fragments of such work have been published in Nachlass.[15]
In 1924, Man and History (Mensch und Geschichte), Scheler gave some preliminary statements on the range and
goal of philosophical anthropology.[16]
In this book, Scheler argues for a tabula rasa of all the inherited prejudices from the three main traditions that have
formulated an idea of man: religion, philosophy and science.[17][18] Scheler argues that is not enough to just reject
such traditions, as did Nietzsche with the Judeo-Christian religion by saying that "God is dead"; these traditions have
impregnated all parts of our culture, and therefore still determine a great deal of the way of thinking even of those
that don't believe in the Christian God.[19] To really get freedom from such traditions is necessary to study and
deconstruct (Husserl's term Abbau) them.
Scheler says that philosophical anthropology must address the totality of man, while it must be informed by the
specialized sciences like biology, psychology, sociology.

Works
• Zur Phänomenologie und Theorie der Sympathiegefühle und von Liebe und Hass, 1913
• Der Genius des Kriegs und der Deutsche Krieg, 1915
• Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik, 1913 - 1916
• Krieg und Aufbau, 1916
• Die Ursachen des Deutschenhasses, 1917
• Vom Umsturz der Werte, 1919
• Neuer Versuch der Grundlegung eines ethischen Personalismus, 1921
• Vom Ewigen im Menschen, 1921
• Probleme der Religion. Zur religiösen Erneuerung, 1921
• Wesen und Formen der Sympathie, 1923 (neu aufgelegt als Titel von 1913: Zur Phänomenologie ...)
• Schriften zur Soziologie und Weltanschauungslehre, 3 Bände, 1923/1924
• Die Wissensformen und die Gesellschaft, 1926
• Der Mensch im Zeitalter des Ausgleichs, 1927
• Die Stellung des Menschen im Kosmos, 1928
• Philosophische Weltanschauung, 1929
• Logik I. (Fragment, Korrekturbögen). Amsterdam 1975

Major works (English translations)

• Philosophical Perspectives. translated by Oscar Haac. Boston: Beacon Press. 1958. 144 pages. (German title:
Philosophische Weltanschauung.)
• On the Eternal in Man. translated by Bernard Noble. London: SCM Press. 1960. 480 pages.
• The Nature of Sympathy. translated by Peter Heath. New York: Archon Books. 1970. 274 pages. ISBN
0-208-01401-2.
• Ressentiment. edited by Lewis A. Coser, translated by William W. Holdheim. New York: Schocken. 1972. 201
pages. ISBN 0-8052-0370-2.
• Selected Philosophical Essays. translated by David R. Lachterman. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University
Press. 1973. 359 pages. ISBN 0-8101-0379-6.
• Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values: A new attempt toward the foundation of an ethical
personalism. translated by Manfred S. Frings and Roger L. Funk. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University
Max Scheler 138

Press. 1973. 620 pages. ISBN 0-8101-0415-6. (Original German edition: Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die
materiale Wertethik, 1913-16.)
• Problems of a Sociology of Knowledge. translated by Manfred S. Frings. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1980.
239 pages. ISBN 0-7100-0302-1.
• Person and Self-value: three essays. edited and partially translated by Manfred S. Frings. Boston: Nijhoff. 1987.
201 pages. ISBN 90-247-3380-4.
• On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing. Selected Writings. edited and partially translated by Harold J. Bershady.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1992. 267 pages. ISBN 0-226-73671-7.
• The Human Place in the Cosmos. translated by Manfred Frings. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. 2009.
79 pages. ISBN 978-0-8101-2529-2.

Secondary references
• Barber, Michael (1993). Guardian of Dialogue: Max Scheler's Phenomenology, Sociology of Knowledge, and
Philosophy of Love. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press. 205 pages. ISBN 0-8387-5228-4.
• Blosser, Philip (1995). Scheler's Critique of Kant's Ethics. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. 221 pages. ISBN
0-8214-1108-X.
• Deeken, Alfons (1974). Process and Permanence in Ethics: Max Scheler's Moral Philosophy. New York: Paulist
Press. 282 pages. ISBN 0-8091-1800-9.
• Frings, Manfred S. (1965). Max Scheler: A concise introduction to the world of a great thinker. Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania: Duquesne University Press. 223 pages.
• Frings, Manfred S. (1969). Person und Dasein: Zur Frage der Ontologie des Wertseins. Den Haag: Martinus
Nijhoff. 118 pages.
• Frings, Manfred S., editor (1974). Max Scheler (1874-1928): centennial essays. The Hague: Nijhoff. 176 pages.
• Frings, Manfred (1997). The Mind of Max Scheler: The first comprehensive guide based on the complete works.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Marquette University Press. 324 pages. ISBN 0-87462-613-7. 2nd ed., 2001.
• Frings, Manfred (2003). Life-Time. Springer. 260 pages. ISBN 1-4020-1333-7. 2nd ed., 2001.
• Kelly, Eugene (1977). Max Scheler. Chicago: Twayne Publishers. 203 pages. ISBN 0-8057-7707-5.
• Kelly, Eugene (1997). Structure and Diversity: Studies in the Phenomenological Philosophy of Max Scheler.
Boston: Kluwer. 247 pages. ISBN 0-7923-4492-8.
• Nota, John H., S.J. (1983). Max Scheler: The Man and His Work. translated by Theodore Plantinga and John H.
Nota. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press. 213 pages. ISBN 0-8199-0852-5. (Original Dutch title: Max Scheler: De
man en zijn werk)
• Ranly, Ernest W. (1966). Scheler's Phenomenology of Community. The Hague: Marinus Nijhoff. 130 pages.
• Schneck, Stephen (1987). Person and Polis: Max Scheler's Personalism and Political Theory. Albany: State
University of New York Press. 188 pages. ISBN 0-88706-340-3.
• Spader, Peter (2002). Scheler's Ethical Personalism: Its logic, Development, and Promise. New York: Fordham
University Press. 327 pages. ISBN 0-8232-2178-4.
Max Scheler 139

References
[1] (http:/ / books. google. ca/ books?id=oBrmZwEACAAJ& dq=Max+ Ferdinand+ Scheler& hl=en)
[2] Heidegger, The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic, “In memoriam Max Scheler,” trans. Michael Heim (Indiana University Press, 1984), pp.
50-52.
[3] Schneck, Stephen Frederick (2002) Max Scheler's acting persons: new perspectives (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=EdhjFeWEh3kC&
pg=PA6) p.6
[4] Frings, Manfred S. (1997) The mind of Max Scheler: the first comprehensive guide based on the complete works (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=OAbXAAAAMAAJ) p.9
[5] http:/ / www. enotes. com/ max-scheler-salem/ max-scheler
[6] http:/ / www. docstoc. com/ docs/ 13727504/ MAX-SCHELERS-VALUE-ETHICS
[7] Max Scheler, Selected Philosophical Essays, "Phenomenology and the Theory of Cognition," trans. David Lachterman (Evanston:
Northwestern University Press, 1973), 137.
[8] Max Scheler, On the Eternal in Man, "The Essence of Philosophy and the Moral Preconditions of Philosophical Knowledge" trans. Bernard
Noble (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960), 74.
[9] Max Scheler, On the Eternal in Man, "The Essence of Philosophy and the Moral Preconditions of Philosophical Knowledge" trans. Bernard
Noble (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960), 75.
[10] Max Scheler, On the Eternal in Man, "The Essence of Philosophy and the Moral Preconditions of Philosophical Knowledge" trans. Bernard
Noble (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960), 77. Scheler criticizes Plato and Aristotle on precisely this point. He writes, "Since...their
philosophy defined the primal essence as an objectifiable entity and therefore a possible correlate of knowledge, they had also to regard
knowledge as the definitive, ultimate participation in reality which man might attain.... Accordingly they could not but see the highest and
most perfect form of human being in the philosophos, the 'wise one'." On the Eternal in Man, 77.
[11] Max Scheler, The Nature of Sympathy, trans. Peter Heath (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954), 57.
[12] Max Scheler, Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values, trans. Manfred Frings and Robert Funk (Evanston: Northwestern
University Press, 1973), 261.
[13] Max Scheler, Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values, trans. M. Frings and R. Funk (Evanston: Northwestern University
Press, 1973), 104-110. There has been confusion concerning whether Scheler ranks pleasure (the agreeable) as higher than utility or vice
versa. The confusion started with Manfred Frings' interpretation that lists utility as a higher value than "sensible values" such as comfort and
discomfort. (Cf. Frings, The Mind of Max Scheler, 29-30.) It seems Frings derives this interpretation from Scheler's stratification of feelings
which has sensible feelings as the "lowest" type. However, Scheler's list of the rank of values in the Formalism is consistent with his
stratification of feeling insofar as there Scheler does not even list utility values as their own place in the rank, that is utility is not a
"self-value," but a "consecutive value" founded upon the self-value, agreeable. "...the 'useful' is a consecutive value with regard to the
self-value of the agreeable" (104). Scheler's book, Ressentiment, however provides an even clearer statement that Frings is mistaken in his
interpretation of Scheler's value-rank. Here, again, he notes that what is called useful is only derived from pleasure as the "basic value." But of
course, "basic" does not mean "lowest." Scheler's meaning is clear: "It is true that enjoyment can and should be subordinated to higher values,
such as vital values, spiritual values of culture, 'sacredness.' But subordinating it to utility is an absurdity, for this is a subordination of the end
to the means. Nevertheless it has become a rule of modern morality that useful work is better than the enjoyment of pleasure. ... Here again,
the propelling motive of the hard-working modern utilitarian is ressentiment against a superior capacity and art of enjoyment." Cf. Scheler,
Ressentiment, trans. Lewis Coser et al. (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2003), 108. In short, to state that values of utility are higher
than values of pleasure is a value-inversion consequent of the capitalistic mind-set which is precisely what Scheler is combating.
[14] Max Scheler, Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values, trans. M. Frings and R. Funk (Evanston: Northwestern University
Press, 1973), 26.
[15] Six volumes of his posthumous works (Nachlass), so far not translated from German, make up volumes 10-15 of the 15 volume Collected
Works (Gesammelte Werke) edited by Maria Scheler and Manfred S. Frings as listed in http:/ / www. maxscheler. com/ scheler4.
shtml#4-CollectedWorks
[16] Cook, Sybol (2003) Race and racism in continental philosophy (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=INnmk1rg_qsC& pg=PA107)
[17] Martin Buber (1945) The Philosophical Anthropology of Max Scheler (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ stable/ 2102887) Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Dec., 1945), pp. 307-321
[18] Martin Buber Between man and man (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=6fPU5xfv4SMC& pg=PA216) p.216
[19] chapter 1
Max Scheler 140

External links
• Nature, Vol. 63. March 7, 1901, Book review of: Die Transcendentale Und Die Psychologische Methode, Method
in Philosophy, Dr. Max F. Scheler, 1900 (http://archive.org/stream/naturelond63londuoft#page/438/mode/
1up)
• The Monist, Vol 12, 1902 Book review of: Die Transcendentale Und Die Psychologische Methode, by Dr. Max F.
Scheler 1900 (http://archive.org/stream/monistquart12hegeuoft#page/632/mode/2up) in English
• Prof. Frings' Max Scheler Website (www.maxscheler.com) (http://www.maxscheler.com)
• Photos of Max Scheler at web site of Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology (http://www.
phenomenologycenter.org/gallery2.htm)
• Max-Scheler-Gesellschaft (Max Scheler Society) - German-language website (http://www.max-scheler.de)
• A Filosofia de Max Scheler (Portuguese-language website) (http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://
www.geocities.com/MaxSchelerBrasil&date=2009-10-25+09:11:47)
• A Visit to Max Scheler's Grave in Köln (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-QrnEBzxaA) on YouTube
• Deutsches Leben der Gegenwart at Project Gutenberg (German)
Roman Ingarden 141

Roman Ingarden
Roman Ingarden

Portrait of Roman Ingarden by Witkacy

Born February 5, 1893

Kraków, Poland

Died June 4, 1970 (Aged 77)

Kraków, Poland

Era 20th-century philosophy

Region Western Philosophy

School Phenomenology

Main interests Aesthetics, Epistemology, Humanity, Ontology

Roman Witold Ingarden (February 5, 1893 – June 14, 1970) was a Polish philosopher who worked in
phenomenology, ontology and aesthetics.
Before World War II, Ingarden published his works mainly in the German language. During the war, he switched to
Polish, and as a result his major works in ontology went largely unnoticed by the wider world philosophical
community.

Biography
Ingarden was born in Kraków, Austria-Hungary, on February 5, 1893. He first studied mathematics and philosophy
in Lwów under Kazimierz Twardowski, then moved to Göttingen to study philosophy under Edmund Husserl. He
was considered by Husserl to be one of his best students and accompanied Husserl to Freiburg, where in 1918
Ingarden submitted his doctoral dissertation with Husserl as director.[]
Ingarden then returned to Poland, where he spent his academic career after obtaining his doctorate. For a long period
he had to support himself by secondary-school teaching. In 1925 he submitted his Habilitationschrift, Essentiale
Fragen, to Kazimierz Twardowski at Lwów University (now Lviv in Ukraine). This thesis was noticed by the
English-speaking philosophical community. In 1933 the University promoted him to professor. He became well
known for his work on The Literary Work of Art.[]
Roman Ingarden 142

World War II closed Lwów University and halted his academic career in 1941-1944. Ingarden secretly taught
orphaned children mathematics and philosophy. After his house was bombed, he continued work on his book, The
Controversy over the Existence of the World.[]
Ingarden became a professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń in 1945 shortly after the war, but was
banned in 1946 because of the Communist government. He then moved to the Jagiellonian University in Kraków,
where he was offered a position. In 1949, however, he was banned from teaching due to his alleged idealism,
supposedly being an "enemy of materialism". In 1957 he was reappointed at the Jagiellonian University after the ban
was lifted, and so he went on to teach, write and publish. Ingarden died on June 14, 1970 as a result of a cerebral
hemorrhage.[]

Works
Ingarden was a realist phenomenologist, and thus did not accept Husserl's transcendental idealism. His training was
phenomenological, nonetheless his work as a whole was directed rather towards ontology. That is why[citation needed]
Ingarden is one of the most renowned phenomenological ontologists, as he strove to describe the ontological
structure and state of being of various objects based on the essential features of any experience that could provide
such knowledge.
The best known works of Ingarden, and the only ones known to most English-speaking readers, concern aesthetics
and literature. The exclusive focus on Ingarden's work in aesthetics is to some extent unfortunate and misleading
about his overall philosophical standpoint.

Main works in German

• Intuition und Intellekt bei Henri Bergson, Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1921
• Essentiale Fragen. Ein Beitrag zum Problem des Wesens, Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1925
• Das literarische Kunstwerk. Eine Untersuchung aus dem Grenzgebiet der Ontologie, Logik und
Literaturwissenschaft, Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1931
• Untersuchungen zur Ontologie der Kunst: Musikwerk. Bild. Architektur. Film, Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1962
• Der Streit um die Existenz der Welt, Bd. I, II/I, II/2. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1964
• Vom Erkennen des literarischen Kunstwerks, Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1968
• Erlebnis, Kunstwerk und Wert. Vorträge zur Ästhetik 1937-1967, Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1969
• Über die Verantwortung. Ihre ontischen Fundamente, Stuttgart: Reclam, 1970
• Über die kausale Struktur der realen Welt. Der Streit um die Existenz der Welt, Band III, Tübingen: Max
Niemeyer, 1974

Main works in Polish

• Niektóre założenia idealizmu Berkeley'a [Some of the Tenets of Berkeley’s Idealism]. Lwów. 1931
• O poznawaniu dzieła literackiego (The Cognition of the Literary Work of Art), Ossolineum, Lwów: 1937
• O budowie obrazu. Szkic z teorii sztuki (On the Structure of Paintings: A Sketch of the Theory of Art), Rozprawy
Wydziału Filozoficznego PAU Vol. LXVII, No.2, Kraków, 1946
• O dziele architektury (On Architectural Works), Nauka i Sztuka, Vol. II, 1946, No. 1, pp. 3-26 and No. 2,
pp. 26-51
• Spór o istnienie Świata (Controversy over the Existence of the World), PAU, Vol. I, Kraków: 1947, Vol. II,
Kraków, 1948
• Szkice z filozofii literatury (Sketches on the Philosophy of Literature), Vol. 1, Spółdzielnia wydawnicza
"Polonista," Łódz, 1947
• Elementy dzieła muzycznego (The Elements of Musical Works), Sprawozdania Towarzystwa Naukowego w
Toruniu, Vol. IX, 1955, Nos. 1-4, pp. 82-84
Roman Ingarden 143

• Studia z estetyki (Studies in Aesthetics), PWN, Vol. I Warszawa, 1957, Vol. II, Warszawa, 1958
• O dziele literackim (On Literary Works). PWN, Warszawa, 1960
• Przeżycie - dzieło - wartość (Experience - Work of Art - Value). WL, Kraków, 1966
• Studia z estetyki Tom III (Studies in Aesthetics, Vol. III), PWN, Warszawa, 1970
• U podstaw teorii poznania (At the Foundations of the Theory of Knowledge), PWN, Warszawa, 1971
• Książeczka o człowieku (Little Book About Man), Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 1972.
• Utwór muzyczny i sprawa jego tożsamości (The Work of Music and the Problem of Its Identity), Wydawnictwo,
Warszawa, 1966.

Main works translated into English

• The Cognition of the Literary Work of Art, Translated by Ruth Ann Crowley and Kenneth R. Olson. Evanston,
Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1973
• The Literary Work of Art, Translated by George G. Grabowicz. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press,
1973
• Letter to Husserl about the VI [Logical] Investigation and ‘Idealism’ In Tymieniecka, 1976
• Man and Value, Translated by Arthur Szylewicz. München: Philosophia Verlag, 1983
• On the Motives which led Edmund Husserl to Transcendental Idealism, Translated by Arnor Hannibalsson. The
Hague: 1976
• The Ontology of the Work of Art, Translated by Raymond Meyer with John T. Goldthwait. Athens, Ohio: Ohio
University Press, 1989
• Selected Papers in Aesthetics, Ed. by Peter J. McCormick, München: Philosophia Verlag,1985
• Time and Modes of Being, translated (from parts of Der Streit) by Helen R. Michejda. Springfield, Illinois:
Charles C. Thomas, 1964.

Suggested readings
• A new and complete biography of Roman Ingarden written by prof. Adam Węgrzecki (Cracow University of
Economics) and M.A. Raphael Kur (Jagiellonian University) will be launched in 2013.
• J. Mitscherling Roman Ingarden's Ontology and Aesthetics, Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1997
• Robert Magliola, "Part II, Chapter 2: Roman Ingarden," in Robert Magliola, Phenomenology and Literature: An
Introduction (Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 1977; 1978), pp. 107-141 [see review by W. Wolfgang
Holdheim in Diacritics, Vol. 9, No. 2 (summer 1979), via JSTOR, here http://www.jstor.org/pss/464782].

References

External links
• The Roman Ingarden Philosophical Research Centre (http://www.roman-ingarden.phils.uj.edu.pl/ang/index.
php)
• Roman Ingarden (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ingarden/), by Amie Thomasson, at the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Polish Philosophy Page: Roman Ingarden (http://segr-did2.fmag.unict.it/~polphil/PolPhil/Ingard/Ingard.
html)
• Theory and History of Ontology: Roman Ingarden: Ontology as a Science on the Possible Ways of Existence
(http://www.ontology.co/ingardenr.htm)
• Annotated bibliography of and about Ingarden (http://www.ontology.co/biblio/ingarden-biblio.htm)
• "Roman Ingarden’s Objectivity vs. Subjectivity as a problem of Translatability" (https://helda.helsinki.fi/
bitstream/handle/10138/24790/Roman_Ingarden.pdf?sequence=2), by Gabriel Pareyon
Nicolai Hartmann 144

Nicolai Hartmann
Nicolai Hartmann
Born February 20, 1882
Riga, Livonia Governorate, Russian Empire

Died October 9, 1950 (aged 68)

Göttingen, West Germany

Era Modern philosophy

Region German philosophy

School Neo-Kantianism, Phenomenology, Neue Ontologie

Main interests Ontology, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics

Notable ideas Strata of Being (Seinsschichten)

Nicolai Hartmann (Latvian: Nikolajs Hartmanis; 20 February 1882 – 9 October 1950) was a Baltic German
philosopher.

Biography
Hartmann was born of German descent in Riga, which was then the capital of the Russian province of Livonia, and
which is now in Latvia. He studied Medicine at the University of Tartu (then Jurjev), then Philosophy in St.
Petersburg and at the University of Marburg in Germany, where he took his Ph.D. and Habilitation. He was
professor of philosophy in Marburg (1922–25), Cologne (1925–31), Berlin (1931–45) and Göttingen (1945–50),
where he died. Originally a Marburg neo-Kantian, studying under Hermann Cohen and Paul Natorp, Hartmann
developed his own philosophy which has been described as a variety of existentialism or critical realism. Among
Hartmann's many students were Boris Pasternak, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Émil Cioran, Jakob Klein, Delfim Santos
and Max Wehrli. He is the modern discoverer of emergence — originally called by him categorial novum. His
encyclopedic work is basically forgotten today, although famous during his lifetime. His early work in the
philosophy of biology has been cited in modern discussions of genomics and cloning, and his views on
consciousness and free will are currently in vogue among contributors to the Journal of Consciousness Studies.

Levels of reality
Hartmann's levels of reality are: (1) the inorganic level (German: anorganische Schicht), (2) the organic level
(organische Schicht), (3) the psychical/emotional level (seelische Schicht) and (4) the intellectual/cultural level
(geistige Schicht). In the Structure of the Real World (Der Aufbau der realen Welt), Hartmann postulates four laws
that apply to the levels of reality.
1. The law of recurrence: Lower categories recur in the higher levels as a subaspect of higher categories, but never
vice versa.
2. The law of modification: The categorial elements modify in their recurrence in the higher levels (they are shaped
by the characteristics of the higher levels).
3. The law of the novum: The higher category is composed of a diversity of lower elements, but it is a specific
novum that is not included in the lower levels.
4. The law of distance between levels: Since the different levels do not develop continuously but in leaps, they can
be clearly distinguished.
Nicolai Hartmann 145

Quotation
The tragedy of man is that of somebody who is starving and sitting at a richly laden table but does not reach out with
his hand, because he cannot see what is right in front of him. For the real world has inexhaustible splendour, the real
life is full of meaning and abundance, where we grasp it, it is full of miracles and glory.[1]

Works in German
Books:
• 1912, Philosophische Grundfragen der Biologie, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen.
• 1921, Grundzüge einer Metaphysik der Erkenntnis, Vereinigung wissenschaftlichen. Verleger, Berlin.
• 1923, Die Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus 1: Fichte, Schelling und die Romantik, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1926, Ethik, de Gruyter, Berlin-Leipzig.
• 1929, Die Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus 2: Hegel, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1931, Zum Problem der Realitätsgegebenheit, Pan-Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin.
• 1933, Das Problem des geistigen Seins. Untersuchungen zur Grundlegung der Geschichtsphilosophie und der
Geisteswissenschaften, de Gruyter, Berlin-Leipzig.
• 1935, Ontologie, (4 Volumes) I: Zur Grundlegung der Ontologie, de Gruyter, Berlin-Leipzig.
• 1938, II: Möglichkeit und Wirklichkeit, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1940, III: Der Aufbau der realen Welt: Grundriß d. allg. Kategorienlehre , de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1949, Einführung in die Philosophie, Luise Hanckel Verlag, Hannover.
• 1950, IV: Philosophie der Natur : Abriss der speziellen Kategorienlehre, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1942, Systematische Philosophie, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart & Berlin.
• 1943, Neue Wege der Ontologie, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart.
• 1951, Teleologisches Denken, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1953, Asthetik, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1954, Philosophische Gespräche, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen.
• 1955, Der philosophische Gedanke und seine Geschichte, Zeitlichkeit und Substantialität, Sinngebung und
Sinnerfüllung, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1955, Kleinere Schriften ; *Bd. 1* Abhandlungen zur systematischen Philosophie, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1957, Kleinere Schriften ; *Bd. 2* Abhandlungen zur Philosophie-Geschichte, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1958, Kleinere Schriften ; *Bd. 3* Vom Neukantianismus zur Ontologie, de Gruyter, Berlin.
Articles:
• 1924, Diesseits von Idealismus und Realismus : Ein Beitrag zur Scheidg d. Geschichtl. u. Übergeschichtl. in d.
Kantischen Philosophie in: Sonderdrucke der Kantischen Studien, Pan Verlag R. Heise Berlin, pp. 160–206.
• 1926, Aristoteles und Hegel, Beitrage zur Philosophie des Deutschen Idealismus, 3 (1923), pp. 1–36.
• 1927, "Über die Stellung der ästhetischen Werte im Reich der Werte überhaupt", in Proceedings of the Sixth
International Congress of Philosophy, Edgar Sheffield Brightman (ed.), New York: Longmans, Green, and Co,
pp. 428–436.
• 1933, Systematische Selbstdarstellung in: Deutsche systematische Philosophie nach ihren Gestaltern, Ebda, Berlin
: Junker & Dünnhaupt, pp. 283–340.
• 1935, Das Problem des Apriorismus in der Platonischen Philosophie in: Sitzungsberichte d. Preuss. Akad. d.
Wiss. Phil.-hist. Kl. 1935, 15, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1936, Der philosophische Gedanke und seine Geschichte, in: Abhandlungen d. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften.
Phil.-hist. Kl. 1936, Nr 5, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1937, Der megarische und der Aristotelische Möglichkeitsbegriff : Ein Beitr. zur Geschichte d. ontolog.
Modalitätsproblems, in; Sitzungsberichte d. Preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Kl. 1937, 10, de Gruyter, Berlin.
Nicolai Hartmann 146

• 1938, Heinrich Maiers Beitrag zum Problem der Kategorien, in: Sitzungsberichte d. Preuss. Akad. d. Wiss.
Phil.-hist. Kl. 1938, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1939, Aristoteles und das Problem des Begriffs, in: Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften : Philosophisch-historische Klasse ; Jg. 1939, Nr 5, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1941, “Zur Lehre vom Eidos bei Platon und Aristoteles”, in: Abhandlungen d. Preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist.
Kl. Jg. 1941, Nr 8, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1942, Neue Wege der Ontologie, in: Systematische Philosophie, N. Hartmann, editor, Stuttgart.
• 1943, Die Anfänge des Schichtungsgedankens in der alten Philosophie, in: Abhandlungen der Preußischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften : Philosophisch-historische Klasse ; Jg. 1943, Nr 3, de Gruyter, Berlin.
• 1946, Leibniz als Metaphysiker, de Gruyter, Berlin.

Translations in English
• Nicolai Hartmann, Ethics, London: George Allen & Unwin 1932. Reprinted with a new introduction by Andreas
A.M. Kinneging - New Brunswick, Transaction Publishers, 2002-2004 in three volumes: I. Moral phenomena
(2002); II. Moral values (2004); III. Moral freedom (2004).
• Nicolai Hartmann, "German Philosophy in the Last Ten Years", translated by John Ladd, Mind: A Quarterly
Review of Psychology and Philosophy, vol. 58, no. 232, 1949, pp. 413–433.
• Nicolai Hartmann, New Ways of Ontology, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1952 (Reprinted with a new introduction
by P.Cicovacki, Transaction Publishers, 2012).

Works about N. Hartmann

Books:
• 1952, H. Heimsoeth and others, N. Hartmann, der Denker und seine Werk.
• 1957, Jitendra Nath Mohanty, Nicolai Hartmann and Alfred North Whitehead: A Study in Recent Platonism,
Calcutta: Progressive Publishers.
• 1959, H. Hulsmann, Die Methode in der Philosophie N. Hartmanns.
• 1962, K. Kanthack, N. Hartmann und das Ende der Ontologie.
• 1965, I. Wirth, Realismus und Apriorismus in N. Hartmanns Erkenntnistheorie.
• 1965, J. B. Forsche, Zur Philosohie Nicolai Hartmann".
• 1971, E. Hammer-Kraft, Freiheit und Dependenz im Schichtdenken Nicolai Hartmanns.
• 1973, R. Gamp, Die interkategoriale Relation und die dialektische Methode in der Philosophie N. Hartmanns.
• 1974, S. U. Kang, Nächstenliebe und Fernstenliebe Eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit Nicolai Hartmann.
• 1982, Herbert Spiegelberg, The Phenomenological Movement: A Historical Introduction, The Hague: Martinus
Nijhoff. (Chapter VI: Phenomenology in the Critical Ontology of Nicolai Hartmann).
• 1984, Eva Hauel Cadwallader, Searchlight on Values: Nicolai Hartmann's Twentieth-Century Value Platonism,
Washington: University press of America.
• 1987, Dong-Hyun Son, Die Seinsweise des objektivierten Geistes: Eine Untersuchung im Anschluss an Nicolai
Hartmanns Problematik des "geistigen Seins", Peter Lang
• 1989, Arnd. Grötz, Nicolai Hartmanns Lehre vom Menschen, Frankfurt am Main, Lang.
• 1990, William H. Werkmeister, Nicolai Hartmann's New Ontology, Tallahassee, Florida State University Press.
• 1992, Roland H. Feucht, Die Neoontologie Nicolai Hartmanns im Licht der evolutionären Erkenntnistheorie,
Regensburg, Roderer.
• 1994, Abolghassem Sakersadeh, Immanenz und Transzendenz als ungelöste Problematik in der Philosophie
Nicolai Hartmanns, Münster, Lit.
• 1996, João Maurício Adeodato, Filosofia do direito: uma crítica à verdade na ética e na ciência (através de um
exame da ontologia de Nicolai Hartmann), São Paulo, Saraiva.
Nicolai Hartmann 147

• 1997, Martin Morgenstern,Nicolai Hartmann zur Einführung, Hamburg, Junius.

• 2000, Wolfgang, Harich, Nicolai Hartmann - Größe und Grenzen, edited by Martin Morgenstern, Wurzburg:
Königshausen und Neumann.
• 2001, Axiomathes (Springer), 12:3-4, special issue on N. Hartmann (Includes papers by Albertazzi, Cicovacki, Da
Re, Johansson, Peruzzi, Poli, Tegtmeier, van der Schaar, Wildgen)
• 2001, Nebil Reyhani, Hermann Weins Auseinandersetzung mit Nicolai Hartmann als sein Weg von der Ontologie
zu einer philosophischen Kosmologie, PhD dissertation, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz.
• 2003, Gerhard Ehrl, Nicolai Hartmanns philosophische Anthropologie in systematischer Perspektive, Cuxhave,
Junghans.
• 2004, Alessandro Gamba, In principio era il fine. Ontologia e teleologia in Nicolai Hartmann, Milano, Vita e
Pensiero.
• 2007, Leszek Kopciuch, "Człowiek i historia u Nicolaia Hartmanna", Lublin, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii
Curie-Skłodowskiej.
• 2010, Leszek Kopciuch, "Wolnośc a wartości. Max Scheler - Nicolai Hartmann - Dietrich von Hildebrand - Hans
Reiner", Lublin, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej.
• 2011, Roberto Poli, Carlo Scognamiglio and Frederic Tremblay (eds.), The Philosophy of Nicolai Hartmann,
Berlin, Walter de Gruyter.
• 2011, Eugene Kelly, Material Ethics of Value: Max Scheler and Nicolai Hartmann, Dordrecht: Springer.
Articles:
• 1935, Hilda Oakeley, "Professor Nicolai Hartmann's Concept of Objective Spirit," Mind, vol. 44, pp. 39-57.
• 1942, Lewis White Beck, "Nicolai Hartmann's Criticism of Kant's Theory of Knowledge," Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research, vol. 2, pp. 472-500.
• 1943, Michael Landmann, "Nicolai Hartmann and Phenomenology," Philosophy and Phenomenological
Research, vol. 3 pp. 393-423.
• 1951, Helmut Kuhn, "Nicolai Hartmann's Ontology," Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 1, pp. 289-318.
• 1953, Jacob Taubes, "The Development of the Ontological Question in Recent German Philosophy," Review of
Metaphysics, vol. 6, pp. 651-664.
• 1954, John E. Smith, "Hartmann's New Ontology," Review of Metaphysics, vol. 7, pp. 583-601.
• 1956, Eva Schaper, "The Aesthetics of Hartmann and Bense," Review of Metaphysics, vol. 10, pp. 289-307.
• 1960, Helen James, "Nicolai Hartmann's Study of Human Personality," New Scholasticism, vol. 34, pp. 204-233.
• 1961, Robert Hein, "Nicolai Hartmann: A Personal Sketch," Personalist, vol 42, pp. 469-486.
• 1963, Stanislas Breton, "Ontology and Ontologies: The Contemporary Situation," International Philosophical
Quarterly, vol. 3, pp. 339-369.
• 1963, Paul K. Feyerabend, "Professor Hartmann's Philosophy of Nature," Ratio, vol. 5, pp. 91-106.
• 1963, Jitendra Nath Mohanty, "Remarks on Nicolai Hartmann's Modal Doctrine," Kant Studien, vol. 54, pp.
181-187.
• 1966, Caroline Schuetzinger, "The Gnoseological Transcendence in Nicolai Hartmann's Metaphysics of
Cognition (First Part)," Thomist, vol. 30, pp. 1-37.
• 1966, Caroline Schuetzinger, "The Gnoseological Transcendence in Nicolai Hartmann's Metaphysics of
Cognition (Second Part)," Thomist, vol. 30, pp. 136-196.
• 1984, Richard Bodeus, "The Problem of Freedom According to Nicolai Hartmann," International Philosophical
Quarterly, vol. 24, pp. 55-60.
• 1984, Eva Hauel Cadwallader, "The Continuing Relevance of Nicolai Hartmann's Theory of Value", Journal of
Value Inquiry, vol. 18, pp. 113-121.
• 1984, Frederick Kraenzel, "Nicolai Hartmann's Doctrine of Ideal Values: An Examination," Journal of Value
Inquiry, vol. 18, pp. 299-306.
Nicolai Hartmann 148

• 1986, Janina Makota, "Nicolai Hartmann's and Roman Ingarden's Philosophy of Man," Reports on Philosophy,
vol. 10, pp. 69-79.
• 1994, Wolfgang Drechsler and Rainer Kattel, "Nicolai Hartmann", Akademia, vol. 6, pp. 1579–1592.
• 1998, Roberto Poli, "Levels," Axiomathes: An International Journal in Ontology and Cognitive Systems, vol. 9,
pp. 197-211.
• 2001, Predrag Cicovacki, "New Ways of Ontology - The Ways of Interaction", Axiomathes: An International
Journal in Ontology and Cognitive Systems, vol. 12, pp. 159-170.
• 2001, Gabor Csepregi, "The Relevance of Nicolai Hartmann's Musical Aesthetics," Axiomathes: An International
Journal in Ontology and Cognitive Systems, vol. 12, pp. 339-354.
• 2001, Antonio Da Re, "Objective Spirit and Personal Spirit in Hartmann's Philosophy," Axiomathes, vol. 12, pp.
317-326.
• 2001, Ingvar Johansson, "Hartmann's Nondeductive Materalism, Superimposition, and Supervenience,"
Axiomathes, vol. 12, pp. 195-215.
• 2001, Leszek Kopciuch, "Metafizyka historii u Nicolaia Hartmanna. Granice rozumu historycznego", in: Z. J.
Czarnecji (ed.), "Dylematy racjonalności. Między rozumem teoretycznym a praktycznym, Lublin: Wydawnictwo
Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowoskiej, pp. 133-152.
• 2001, Erwin Tegtmeier, "Hartmann's General Ontology," Axiomathes: An International Journal in Ontology and
Cognitive Systems, vol. 12, pp. 217-225.
• 2001, Maria Van der Schaar, "Hartmann's Rejection of the Notion of Evidence," Axiomathes: An International
Journal in Ontology and Cognitive Systems, vol. 12, pp. 285-297.
• 2001, Jordan Robert Welsh, "Hartmann, Schutz, and the Hermeneutics of Action," Axiomathes: An International
Journal in Ontology and Cognitive Systems, vol. 12, pp. 327-338.
• 2001, Roberto Poli, "The Basic Problem of the Theory of Levels of Reality," Axiomathes: An International
Journal in Ontology and Cognitive Systems, vol. 12, pp. 261-283.
• 2001, Alberto Peruzzi, "Hartmann's Stratified Reality," Axiomathes: An International Journal in Ontology and
Cognitive Systems, vol. 12, pp. 227-260.
• 2005, Leszek Kopciuch, "Aprioryzm w czuciu wartości u N. Hartmanna", in: H. Jakuszko (ed.), "Racjonalność
teoretyczna i praktyczna", „Annales UMCS”, vol. XXX, Sect. I, pp. 153-173.
• 2006, Leszek Kopciuch, "Krytyka relatywizmu aksjologicznego u N. Hartmanna", „Edukacja Filozoficzna” vol.
41, pp. 157-170.
• 2007, Leszek Kopciuch, "O sile i bezsile wartości u Nicolaia Hartmanna", in: K. łojek (red.), "Człowiek w
kulturze", Warszawa: Wydawnictwo WSFiZ, pp. 233-244.
• 2007, Leszek Kopciuch, "Przedmiot czucia wartości w etyce N. Hartmanna", „Etyka”, No.40, pp. 49-61.
• 2007, Leszek Kopciuch, "O trudnościach w poznawaniu wartości etycznych u N. Hartmanna", in: M. Hetmański
(ed.), "Epistemologia współcześnie", Kraków: Universitas, pp. 445-453.
• 2008, Leszek Kopciuch, "O różnicy w budowie dzieła sztuki u R. Ingardena i N. Hartmanna (w sprawie zarzutów
Ingardena względem N. Hartmanna)", „Kwartalnik Filozoficzny”, vol. XXXVI, issue 2, pp. 101-114.
• 2008, Leszek Kopciuch, "Zum Problem der Geschichtsphilosophie bei N. Hartmann", in: D. Pater (ed.)"Eine
Philosophie – eine Welt – ein Mensch", Hannover: Europäische Akademie der Naturwissenschaften, pp. 13-28.
• 2009, Leszek Kopciuch, "Wolna wola – G. W. Leibniz i N. Hartmann", in: H. Jakuszko, L. Kopciuch (ed.), "W
kręgu zagadnień filozofii XVII wieku", Lublin: Lubelskie Towarzystwo Naukowe, Wydawnictwo Olech, pp.
213-222.
• 2009, Leszek Kopciuch, "Nicolaia Hartmanna prawa bytu realnego", „Acta Universitatis Lodziensis”, Folia
Philosophica, vol. 22, pp. 105-115
• 2010, Leszek Kopciuch, "Kilka uwag o stosunku Hartmanna do etyki Kanta, „Studia Philosophica
Wratislaviensia”, vol. V, fasc. 2, pp. 167-170.
Nicolai Hartmann 149

• 2010, Leszek Kopciuch, "O stosunku N. Hartmanna do A. Schopenhauera, „Idea. Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem
pojęć filozoficznych”, vol. XXII, pp. 51-61.
• 2011, Frederic Tremblay, "Nicolai Hartmann's Definition of Biological Species," in R. Poli, C. Scognamiglio, F.
Tremblay (eds.), The Philosophy of Nicolai Hartmann, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 125–139.
• 2011, Leszek Kopciuch, "Nicolaia Hartmanna krytyka podmiotu transcendentalnego w etyce", in: P.
Parszutowicz, M. Soin (ed.), "Idea transcendentalizmu. Od Kanta do Wittgensteina", Warszawa: Wydawnictwo
IFiS PAN, pp. 279–294.
• 2013, Frederic Tremblay, "Nicolai Hartmann and the Metaphysical Foundation of Phylogenetic Systematics,"
Biological Theory, vol. 7, n. 1, pp. 56-68.

References
[1] Nicolai Hartmann: Ethik. 4. Aufl., de Gruyter, Berlin 1962, 11

External links
• Nicolai Hartmann (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nicolai-hartmann) entry by Roberto Poli in the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Nicolai Hartmann Society (http://nicolaihartmannsociety.org/)
• Levels of Reality in the Ontology of Nicolai Hartmann (http://www.ontology.co/hartmannn.htm)

Dietrich von Hildebrand

Dietrich von Hildebrand (October 12, 1889 - January 26, 1977) was a German Catholic philosopher and theologian
who was called (informally) by Pope Pius XII "the 20th Century Doctor of the Church." [1] Pope John Paul II greatly
admired the work of von Hildebrand, remarking once to von Hildebrand's widow, Alice von Hildebrand, "Your
husband is one of the great ethicists of the twentieth century." Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has a particular
admiration and regard for Dietrich von Hildebrand, whom he already knew as a young priest in Munich. In fact, as
young Fr. Ratzinger, he even served as an assistant pastor in the church of St. Georg in Munich, which von
Hildebrand frequented in the 1950s and 1960s. It was also in St. Georg that Dietrich and Alice von Hildebrand were
married. The degree of Pope Benedict's esteem is expressed in one of his statements about von Hildebrand, "When
the intellectual history of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century is written, the name of Dietrich von
Hildebrand will be most prominent among the figures of our time." Von Hildebrand was a vocal critic of the changes
in the church brought by the Second Vatican Council. He especially resented the new liturgy. Of it he said "Truly, if
one of the devils in C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters had been entrusted with the ruin of the liturgy, he could not
have done it better."[2]

Biography
Born and raised in Florence, in the Kingdom of Italy, he grew up in a German household, the son of the noted
sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand and Irene Schäuffelen, who lived in a former Minim friary. He received all his early
education from private tutors. Although raised in a home without any religion, von Hildebrand developed a deep
belief in Jesus at a very young age.<ref name=CA /[3]
von Hildebrand was sent to Munich at the age of 15 to do his Abitur, enrolling at the University of Munich two years
later. There he entered a circle of students who first followed the philosopher Theodor Lipps, but they soon were
swayed by the teachings of Edmund Husserl. Through this circle, he came to know Max Scheler. Through his
writings, von Hildebrand would later convert to Catholicism in 1914. In 1909, he attended the University of
Göttingen, where he completed his doctorate in philosophy under Husserl and Adolf Reinach, whom he later
Dietrich von Hildebrand 150

credited with shaping his own philosophical system.[]

In 1913, von Hildebrand went to Rome, to attend the First Communion of one of his sisters, in a ceremony held in
the Catacombs of Callixtus. The following year, he and his wife, Margaret Denck, were received into the Catholic
Church. Upon the outbreak of World War I, he was drafted into service as a physician's assistant in Munich, serving
as a kind of surgical nurse.[]
The publication of von Hildebrand's first book, Die Idee der Sittlichen Handlung, happened in 1916, and two years
later, after the war had ended, he was given a teaching position at the University of Munich, eventually gaining an
assistant professorship in 1924. By that time, he had published another work, in 1921, Sittiichkeit und Ethische
Werterkenntniss.[]
von Hildebrand was a vocal opponent of Adolf Hitler and Nazism, fleeing from Germany, first to Italy, and then to
Vienna, Austria, in 1933 upon Hitler's rise to power. There with the support of Austrian Chancellor Engelbert
Dollfuss he founded and edited an anti-Nazi weekly paper, Der Christliche Ständestaat (The Christian Corporative
State). For this, he was sentenced to death in absentia by the Nazis.
When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, von Hildebrand was once again forced to flee. He spent eleven months in
Switzerland, near Fribourg. He then moved to Fiac in France, near Toulouse, where he taught at the Catholic
University of Toulouse. When the Nazis invaded France in 1940, he went into hiding, until after many hardships,
and the heroic assistance of Frenchmen, including Edmond Michelet, he was able to escape with his wife, son (Franz
von Hildebrand), and daughter-in-law to Portugal. From there, they traveled by ship to Brazil and then to New York
in 1940. There he taught philosophy at the Jesuit Fordham University on Rose Hill, the Bronx, New York.
Von Hildebrand retired from teaching in 1960 and spent the remaining years of his life writing. He was the author of
dozens of books, both in German and English. He was a founder of Una Voce America. He died on January 26, 1977
after a long struggle with a heart condition. He had married Margaret Denck (died 1957) in 1912, and then, in 1959,
Alice von Hildebrand (born 1923), also a philosopher and theologian.
Von Hildebrand died in New Rochelle, New York, in 1977.

References
[1] citation needed

External sources
• The Soul of A Lion, a biography by Alice von Hildebrand, Ignatius Press, 2000, ISBN 0-89870-801-X

Partial bibliography
• Marriage: The Mystery of Faithful Love (1929)
• Metaphysics of Community (1930)
• In Defense of Purity; an Analysis of the Catholic Ideals of Purity and Virginity (Longmans, Green and Co., 1931)
• Transformation in Christ (Longmans, 1948)
• Liturgy and Personality (Longmans, 1943)
• Actual Questions in the Light of Eternity (1931)
• The Essence of Philosophical Research and Knowledge (1934)
• Fundamental Moral Attitudes (Longmans, 1950)
• Christian Ethics (McKay, 1952)
• The New Tower of Babel (P. J. Kenedy, 1953)
• Ethics (Franciscan Herald Press, 1953)
• True Morality and Its Counterfeits, with Alice M. Jourdain (McKay, 1955)
• Graven Images: Substitutes for True Morality, with Alice M. Jourdain (McKay, 1957)
Dietrich von Hildebrand 151

• Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert (J. Habbel, 1961)

• Not as the World Gives; St. Francis' Message to Laymen Today" (Franciscan Herald Press, 1963)
• The art of living, with Alice von Hildebrand (Franciscan Herald Press, 1965)
• Man and Woman: Love & the Meaning of Intimacy, (Franciscan Herald Press, 1966)
• Morality and Situation Ethics, (Franciscan Herald Press, 1966)
• The encyclical Humanae vitae, a sign of contradiction; an essay on birth control and Catholic conscience,
(Franciscan Herald Press, 1969)
• Love, Marriage, and the Catholic Conscience: Understanding the Church's Teachings on Birth Control
• The Trojan Horse in the City of God: The Catholic Crisis Explained (Franciscan Herald Press, 1967)
• Celibacy and the crisis of faith, (Franciscan Herald Press, 1971)
• What is Philosophy? (Franciscan Herald Press, 1973)
• The Devastated Vineyard (1973)
• Jaws of Death: Gate of Heaven (1976)
• The Heart: an Analysis of Human and Divine Affectivity, (Franciscan Herald Press, 1977)
• Making Christ's Peace a Part of Your Life
• Humility: Wellspring of Virtue
• The Nature of Love (St. Augustine´s Press. 2010)

External links
• Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project (http://www.hildebrandlegacy.org/)
• Dietrich von Hildebrand Institute (http://www.romanforum.org/)
• The International Academy of Philosophy (http://www.iap.li/)
• Autobiography on CatholicAuthors.com (http://catholicauthors.com/vonhildebrand.html)
Munich phenomenology 152

Munich phenomenology
Munich Phenomenology, refers to the group of philosophers, psychologists and phenomenologists that studied and
worked in Munich at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Edmund Husserl published his masterwork, the
Logical Investigations and began the phenomenological movement. Their views are grouped under the name
"Phenomenology of essences".
At that time some of the students of Theodor Lipps, who were organised in the Psychologische Verein
("Psychological Association"), notably Adolf Reinach, Johannes Daubert and Alexander Pfänder, were inspired by
Husserl's work and took it as a guideline for doing philosophy. Around 1905 many students of Lipps (captained by
Daubert) decided to abandon Munich and to head for Göttingen, to study with Husserl (this is also referred to as the
Munich invasion of Göttingen).
Notably, in 1912 the Munich phenomenologists Reinach, Pfänder, Max Scheler and Moritz Geiger founded the
famous Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung, with Husserl as main editor.
After Husserl's publication of the Ideen (Ideas) in 1913, many phenomenologists took a critical stance towards his
new theories. Many members of the Munich group distanced itself from his transcendental phenomenology and
preferred the earlier realist phenomenology of the first edition of the Logical Investigations.

The Munich Phenomenologists

• Adolf Reinach
• Johannes Daubert
• Alexander Pfänder
• Moritz Geiger

Other members of the Munich Circle

• August Gallinger
• Aloys Fisher
• Theodor Conrad (husband of Hedwig Conrad-Martius)
• Dietrich von Hildebrand
• Wilhelm Schapp

Sources
• Herbert Spiegelberg, The Phenomenological Movement [1] (The Hague/Boston/London 1982)
• H. Kuhn, E. Avé-Lallemant, R. Gladiator (Eds.), Die Münchener Phänomenologie Phaenomenologica 65, 1976

External links
• Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology [2]

References
[1] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=C8G1HfOJz3AC& dq=munich+ circle+ aloys+ Fischer& hl=el& source=gbs_navlinks_s
[2] http:/ / www. phenomenologycenter. org/
Phenomenology of essences 153

Phenomenology of essences
In disagreement with Theodor Lipps's psychologism, some of his students in Munich joined with some of Husserl's
from Göttingen to form a new branch called Phenomenology of essences, or Munich phenomenology. Taking new
directions from Logische Untersuchungen and supported by Edmund Husserl, they proposed a return to intuition.
Article Sources and Contributors 154

Article Sources and Contributors

Phenomenology (philosophy)  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=547491171  Contributors: 13alexander, APH, Acady1, Ace ETP, Adicarlo, Aldaron, Aleksd, Alienus, Allyne,
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Edmund Husserl  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=542663012  Contributors: 2002:62F6:A0C4:1234:226:8FF:FEE2:BADD, 271828182, Adicarlo, Albedo, AllyD, AlterBerg,
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Article Sources and Contributors 155

account, Slicing, Spondoolicks, Ste4k, Stephenb, Stinkygr, Tassedethe, Tfll, The Gnome, Tom.Reding, Tomisti, Wareh, Woohookitty, Yamara, 74 anonymous edits

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Max Scheler  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=548291230  Contributors: 11614soup, 703Frank, A2Kafir, Adrian.benko, Alcmaeonid, Alex43223, All Hallow's Wraith, Alma
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Poor Yorick, Sebesta, Solus ipse Inc., Sunderland06, SurlyBurleigh, Szczebrzeszynski, Tomisti, Waacstats, 35 anonymous edits

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File:Edmund Husserl 1900.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Edmund_Husserl_1900.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Park4223, Psychiatrick, Vegetator, 1
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