Transcendental Phenomenology as Human Possibility: Husserl and Fink on the Phenomenologizing Subject (Phaenomenologica, 237)

This book focuses on Edmund Husserl’s philosophical collaboration with Eugen Fink which took place in the early 1930s, and shows how their disagreement over the nature, origin, and aim of phenomenology led to a crucial divergence on the issue of who was engaging in phenomenology, and with what motivation. It provides a philosophical investigation of a key moment in the development of Husserl’s late phenomenology. The author claims that Husserl’s meta-phenomenological exploration of the theoretical and, importantly, practical underpinnings of the transcendental investigator leads him to affirm their humanity and, ultimately, to adopt an ethically charged ideal of “higher humanity” as telos of phenomenology. Fink argued that phenomenology was essentially an activity beyond the horizon of human possibility and history. In contrast, Džanić illustrates how Husserl was looking for a way to theoretically unite the purity of transcendental insight with the existential reality and practical motives of the phenomenologist. Understanding the complex aspects of this debate is crucial for understanding the Crisis-period of Husserl’s thought. This text appeals to graduate students and researchers in phenomenology and related fields of philosophy. Preface Note on References Contents Chapter 1: Introduction: The Problem of Humanity in Phenomenology Chapter 2: Husserl and Fink: From Philosophical Systematics to a ‘Phenomenology of Phenomenology’ 2.1 Interpreting or Transforming Phenomenology? 2.2 Toward the Idea of a Transcendental Theory of Method 2.3 The Unique Status of Phenomenologizing Activity 2.4 A Deep-Rooted Dualism of Mundane and Transcendental Being? Chapter 3: Appearing in the World: On Radical Beginnings in Phenomenology 3.1 Bringing the World into View 3.1.1 Heideggerian Influences 3.1.2 Ontological and Epistemological Perspectives 3.2 From the World Back, and Back Again 3.2.1 Beginning in the (Pre-given) World 3.2.2 Between Impersonality and Un-humanization Chapter 4: The ‘Who?’ And the ‘Why?’ Of Phenomenology: Theoretical Claims and Claims of Concrete Reason 4.1 The Two Senses of Enworlding 4.2 The Ambiguities of Enworlding 4.3 The Path to Phenomenology via Psychology 4.4 The Enigma of Parallelism Chapter 5: In the Throes of Anthropologism: Theoretical Interest and the Issue of Presuppositions 5.1 Historicism and Generativity 5.2 Instead of Theory, Understanding 5.3 Preamble. Theory and Practice in Phenomenology 5.4 Circularity and Presuppositions 5.5 The Finkian Turn 5.6 Two Notes on Presuppositions Chapter 6: Formulating the Task Anew: Toward a Transcendentally Clarified ‘Higher Humanity’ 6.1 The Turn Away from Fink: Sciences, Knowledge, Localization 6.2 “Here I Sit at My Writing Desk...” 6.3 Paths from, and Paths Toward, Humanity 6.4 The Ambiguity of the ‘Who?’ 6.5 The Axiology of the ‘Why?’ Conclusion Bibliography 1. Husserl’s Works Published in the Husserliana Series Materialien Series: Dokumente Series: 2. Husserl’s Unpublished Manuscripts 3. Fink’s Works not Included in the Husserliana 4. Secondary Literature