Research Plan 2007-10 * A Research Programme in Phenomenology
"Der Weg ist weit für Philosophie als Forschung" (Martin Heidegger, Phänomenologische Interpretationen zu Aristoteles. Einführung in die Phänomenologische Forschung. Was ist Philosophie? Gesamtausgabe 61/24)
"Philosophie ist ein Grundwie des Lebens selbst, so dass sie es eigentlich je wieder-holt, aus dem Abfall zurücknimmt, welche Zurücknahme selbst, als radikales Forschen, Leben ist" (Das faktische Leben, GA 61/80)
"Transcendental-Semantic Perspectivism:
Hermeneutic Transformations of Phenomenology
in Apel, Habermas, and Tugendhat"
Key words:
communicative action, discourse theory, hermeneutics, moral naturalism, phenomenology, perspectivism, transcendental semantics.Related to the ongoing inter-institutional, interdisciplinary research projects at the Universities of Freiburg (UERJ-Freiburg-PUCRS: Heidegger und Hermeneutik) and Kassel (Secularisation and Aufklärung: Soziale Gerechtigkeit zwischen Säkularisierung und Demokratisierung)
Research Paper: World, Subjectivity, and Meaning: Husserl, Heidegger and the Transcendental Problem of Signification (AAP, Armidale, Australia - July 2007)
Statement of the Problem
:The goal of this long-term research project is to investigate how a post-Kantian "semantic turn" in transcendental philosophy may be appropriated in light of the discourse theory, theory of communicative action, and moral naturalism respectively proposed by Karl-Otto Apel (born in Düsseldorf, 1922), Jürgen Habermas (Düsseldorf , 1929) and Ernst Tugendhat (Brno, 1930), within a provisionally named "transcendental-semantic perspectivism" that provides a more reasonable, sustainable defense of phenomenology than previous accounts of static, genetic, and generative models proposed by Husserl, Heidegger, and Gadamer. Research in phenomenology and hermeneutics has been usually exposed to criticisms in analytic philosophy of language, esp. to refuse Kantian-inspired pre-Fregean conceptions of the a priori and logic, and the supposedly psychologist accounts of meaning and subjectivity. Even Heidegger's hermeneutic transformation of phenomenology, together with his fundamental ontology and his analytic of Dasein, have been misunderstood or dismissed as just another subjectivist, obscure attempt to rescue German idealism from its own aporetic labyrinths of antirealism. I am following Z. Loparic's and R. Hanna's contention that Kant's transcendental philosophy and his transcendental logic and conception of the a priori are, however, better realised in light of what has been termed a "transcendental semantics" that accounts for the articulation of meaning ("Sinn und Bedeutung," in Kant's own terms) in the sensification (
Versinnlichung) of concepts and ideas as they either refer us back to intuitions in their givenness (Gegebenheit) of sense or may be said to be "realisable" (realisierbar) as an objective reality (since ideas and ideals refer, of course, to no sensible intuition). Hence, both Husserl's and Heidegger's contributions to transcendental philosophy are also much better understood when regarded in light of their own semantic innovations, akin to Kant's innovative correlation of judgments and concepts. In a previous phase of my research on the philosophy of human rights, I have examined how the philosophy of law must fulfill the moral promises of a political, cosmopolitan project, following the same architectonic of synthetic a priori propositions outlined in Kant's transcendental logic. The juridical semantics was then shown to be in full agreement with Kant's philosophy of history and his moral and political philosophy. As Loparic and Hanna have convincingly argued, Kant's "semantic turn" allows for an articulation of transcendental arguments in theoretical, practical, and reflexive judgments by way of analogy, so as to keep these perspectives distinct in their specificity. If, on the one hand, as shown by W. Kersting and A. Wood, the so-called Unabhängigkeitsthese ("independence thesis") favours an analytical reading of the principle of right (i.e., it cannot be derived from the supreme principle of morality or through the formulations of the categorical imperative), on the other hand, as T. Pogge and B. Ludwig have argued, the Rechtslehre may be interpreted, as a game in a constructivist model, so as to keep its specifically juridical and political sense, allowing for a universalist foundation of human rights and their promotion through international law and a pluralist cosmopolitanism.The research starts from the Kantian correlation beween universalisability and humanity as an end in itself so as to address the communitarian critique by resorting to the positive identification between human rights and fundamental rights, and to correct the universalist assumption through a normative conception of moral persons, irreducible in their human dignity. F. Kaulbach's conception of a Kantian "transcendental perspectivism" is used thus to make a rapprochement of the Kantian legacy with the metaphenomenological, hermeneutical contributions of Habermas, Tugendhat, and Apel. According to the German journal Information Philosophie (Nr. 3/03 August 2003, p. 80), Habermas, Tugendhat and Apel were, in that order, the most read and cited German-speaking philosophers of our days ("Die meist-zitierten deutschsprachigen Gegenwarts-Philosophen"-- Otfried Höffe and Odo Marquard have recently moved up to occupy the 2nd and 3rd positions, and Volker Gerhardt the 5th). Their lasting contributions to the ongoing discussions in moral and social philosophy are well known. They are also respected by both analytic and continental philosophers worldwide for their seminal studies in the philosophy of language and for their commitment to bridging both sides through the public forum of philosophical discussions. Above all, they have succeeded in rehabilitating the properly philosophical thrust of ongoing debates in applied ethics and practical philosophy, by pointing to the linguistic and semantic turns as important reminders that the correlation of metaethics and substantive ethics shows that problems of normativity belong to the intersection of theoretical and practical philosophy. In this project I should like to investigate Apel's, Habermas's and Tugendhat's critical appropriations of Kantian transcendental philosophy and its post-Kantian transformations, especially those effected by the decisive contributions by Husserl, Heidegger and Wittgenstein in the first half of the 20th century. I have already published some partial results of this phase of my research and I am completing a book on the articulation of theory and praxis, so as to define "transcendental-semantic perspectivism" as an alternative to paradigmatic oppositions of ontology, subjectivity, and language in the current debates on methods for philosophical research. I maintain that contributions from opposing traditions in phenomenology and analytic philosophy can be fairly combined in a critical appropriation of what has been termed (by Hans Ineichen among others) "analytic hermeneutics," of which Loparic's "transcendental semantics" is a defensible version. Apel's and Habermas's postmetaphysical transformations of Kantian moral philosophy, in particular, their discourse ethics in their respective attempts to linguistify and detranscendentalise Kant's universalism, and Tugendhat's naturalist conception of a moral contractarianism provide us with a robust theoretical device to recast the normative foundations of human rights in a globalising, democratising multicultural world. It seems (that has been somehow my working hypothesis) that Habermas's grand theory may accomodate both Apel's and Tugendhat's contributions and their criticisms of the former's "quasi-transcendental " approach, as Husserl's and Heidegger's conceptions of world and worldhood account for much of the fabric of our lifeworlds. Moreover, I believe that whatever is taken for "pragmatics" inevitably refers us back to what I call here a "transcendental semantics."
My recent research as a Humboldt Fellow (2004-05) focused on the German reception of John Rawls's political liberalism, which is also decisive for understanding Habermas's and Tugendhat's own contributions to social philosophy. That is why I have decided to maintain Kant, Husserl, Heidegger, Apel, Habermas, and Tugendhat as the main figures to be thematised as representatives of what I take to be an original, hermeneutical transformation of transcendental phenomenology. It must be kept in mind that, even before Nietzsche and Husserl, Kant was the first thinker to use the term Perspektivismus in a sense that fits our programmatic intent. The research seeks also to identify, thus, the perspectival thrust of a post-Husserlian, post-Habermasian "transcendental semantics" insofar as it may contribute to a defensible reformulation of a phenomenology of democratic, pluralist lifeworlds that overcomes the hermeneutics of suspicion raised by postmodernists and the radical critiques of liberal juridification.
Research Background:
Over the past decade, I have been committed to studying and conducting research in moral philosophy and political theory in both cognitivist and noncognitivist models of ethics and political philosophy, in constant dialogue with the philosophy of language and possible explorations in the philosophy of religion. Upon the completion of a Master's thesis on the philosophical presuppositions (esp. German Idealism, Marx, and the Frankfurter Schule) of liberation theology in Aix-en-Provence, in 1987 ("Imago Dei et utopie sociale: Essai d'anthropologie postcritique"), my M.A. and Ph.D. studies in philosophy led me to the writing of a doctoral dissertation on Michel Foucault's reading of Kant and Nietzsche, as two paradigmatic representatives of the cognitivist and noncognitivist strands, respectively, in 1994, and since then I have been studying different authors such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Foucault, Rawls, and Habermas. From 1995 through 1998, I conducted multi-disciplinary research in Rawls's and Habermas's critical appropriations of Kant's ethics and political philosophy, supported by the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq). My post-doctoral research at the New School for Social Research, under the supervision of Prof. Richard Bernstein, was part of that project. Since 1999, my research projects have focused on theories of justice, public reason, and autonomy. My last research project was on the conception of moral epistemology and autonomy in Kant, Rawls, and Habermas, with a view to paving the way for the current research on the philosophical foundations of human rights. I propose thus to contribute to philosophical research in 20th-century phenomenology and contemporary German philosophy.
Methodology:
Since 1994 I have been conducting bibliographical research so as to elaborate on theoretical insights into the formulation of a theory of justice and a theory of democracy that take into account the challenges of globalisation and the peculiarities of local processes of democratisation. The research methodology is therefore relying upon the reading of articles, books, essays, analyses, findings, and studies in social philosophy and political theory. Some of the methodological and technical difficulties that may arise refer us back to the philosophical problem of articulating theory and praxis, as one seeks to reconcile the empirical findings of the social sciences with the theoretical attempts at grounding complex concepts such as human rights, justice, and democracy. Habermas, Apel and Tugendhat have all extensively dealt with this problem in a proficuous interdisciplinary approach that effected a rapprochement between political philosophy and social, behavioral sciences (esp. political sociology, social psychology, and economics) and the juridical sciences (esp. theories of law, democracy, and state), as well as other interdisciplinary fields such as bioethics and ecology. Hence the major works by some of the greatest moral and political thinkers of our times, such as Rawls, Höffe, Kersting, Gerhardt, Wellmer, and Honneth, touch on the methodological problem of Habermas, Apel and Tugendhat's critique of a Kantian-inspired deontological proceduralism that refuses the utilitarian reductionism of empiricist traditions and the rationalism of foundationalist models. Likewise, the contributions of respected social researchers such as Alexy, Günther, Offe, Maus, Scharpf, Vollrath, Luhmann, Schmidt, and Pies attest to the limitations of empiricist models that tend to reduce human rights to a functional set of variables within given configurations of social arrangements, as one finds, e.g., in juridical positivism, system theories, rational choice theory, and game theory.
Ongoing Research on "Global Ethics" (Power Point)
Selected Bibliography
Alexy, Robert. Begriff und Geltung des Rechts. Freiburg/München: Alber, 2002.
Apel, Karl-Otto. Transformation der Philosophie. 2 vols. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1973. Translated as Towards a Transformation of Philosophy. Trans. G. Adey and D. Frisby. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.
---------. From a transcendental-semiotic point of view. Ed. M. Papastephanou. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998.
---------. Diskurs und Verantwortung: Das Problem des Übergangs zur postkonventionellen Moral. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 1988.
---------. Auseinandersetzungen in Erprobung des transzendentalpragmatischen Ansatzes. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 1998.
---------. "First Things First: Der Begriff primordialer Mit-Verantwortung: Zur Begründung einer planetaren Makroethik." In: Kettner, Matthias (ed.) Angewandte Ethik als Politikum. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 2000.
Audard, Cathérine et al. Individu et justice sociale: autour de John Rawls. Paris: Seuil, 1988.
---------. John Rawls, politique et métaphysique. Paris: PUF, 2004.
---------. Le pluralisme des valeurs entre particulier et universel. Bruxelles: St Louis, 2003.
Baynes, Kenneth. The Normative Grounds of Social Criticism: Kant, Rawls, Habermas. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1992.
Bernstein, Richard J. Praxis and Action. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971.
---------. The Restructuring of Social and Political Theory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976.
Brunkhorst, Hauke. Solidarität. Von der Bürgerfreundschaft zur globalen Rechtsgenossenschaft. Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp, 2002.
Cohen, Jean and Andrew Arato. Civil Society and Political Theory. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992.
Costa, Sergio. Dimensionen der Demokratisierung: Öffentlichkeit, Zivilgesellschaft und lokale Partizipation in Brasilien. Frankfurt: Vervuert, 1997.
---------. "Sozialwissenschaften, Sozialwissenschaftler und die Demokratisierung Brasiliens," in: Comparativ, Nr. 6, 1998.
---------. "Die Attraktivität der Civil Society: Zur Rezeption in Brasilien," in: Braig, M. u.a.: Begegnungen und Einmischungen, Stuttgart 1997.
---------. "Medien, Zivilgesellschaft und 'Kiez': Kontexte des Wiederaufbaus der Öffentlichkeit in Brasilien," in: Prokla, Nr. 105, 1996.
---------. "Sphère publique, redécouverte de la société civile et des mouvements sociaux," in: Alternatives Sud, Nr. 4, 1994.
Eder, K. "Zur Transformation nationalstaatlicher Öffentlichkeit in Europa". Berliner Journal für Soziologie, no. 2 (2000): pp. 167-184.
Flickinger, Hans-Georg (ed.) Entre Caridade, Solidariedade e Cidadania. Porto Alegre: Edipucrs, 2000.
---------. Autonomie des Politischen Carl Schmitts Kampf um einen beschädigten Begriff. Wenheim, VCH, 1990.
Flickinger, Hans-Georg. "O paradoxo do liberalismo político: A juridificação da democracia". Filosofia Política 3 (1986): 117-129.
---------. Em nome da liberdade: Elementos da crítica ao liberalismo contemporâneo. Porto Alegre: Edipucrs, 2003.
---------. Neben der Macht : Begriff und Krise des bürgelichen Rechts. Frankfurt: Syndikat, 1980.
Forst, R. Kontexte de Gerechtigkeit: Politische Philosophie jenseits Von Liberalismus und Kommunitarismus. Frankfurt/ Main: Suhrkamp, 1996.
Gerhardt, Volker 1995: Immanuel Kants Entwurf "Zum ewigen Frieden". Eine Theorie der Politik. Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Habermas, Jürgen. Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit: Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft. Neuwied/Berlin: Luchterhand, 1962.
---------. Theorie der kommunikativen Handelns, 2 Bänden, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1981.
---------. Zur Logik der Sozialwissenschaften. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1985.
---------. Erkenntnis und Interesse. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1968.
---------. Zur Rekonstruktion des historischen Materialismus. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1976.
---------. Nachmetaphysisches Denken. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1983.
---------. Moralbewusstsein und kommunikatives Handeln. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1984.
---------. Ziviler Ungehorsam: Testfall für den demokratischen Rechtsstaat. In: Die Neue Unübersichtlichkeit. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1985.
---------. Faktizität und Geltung: Beiträge zur Diskurstheorie des Rechts und des demokratischen Rechtsstaats. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1992.
---------. Die postnationale Konstellation. Politische Essays. Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp, 1998.
---------. "Europäisches Identität und universalistisches Handeln." Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, no. 7/ 2003, interview.
---------. Der demokratische Rechtsstaat- eine paradoxe Verbindung widersprüchlicher Prinzipien. In Zeit der Übergänge. Frankfurt/MaIn: Suhrkamp, 2001.
Hanna, Robert. Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy. Clarendon/Oxford University Press, 2001.
Höffe, Otfried. Ethik und Politik. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1979.
---------. Kategorische Rechtsprinzipien. Ein Kontrapunkt der Moderne. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1990.
---------. Introduction à la philosophie pratique de Kant. Paris: Vrin, 1993.
---------. Principes du droit: Éthique, théorie juridique et philosophie sociale.Paris: Cerf, 1993.
---------. Moral als Preis der Moderne. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1993.
---------. Vernunft und Recht. Bausteine zu einem interkulturellen Rechtsdiskurs. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1996.
---------. Gibt es ein interkulturelles Strafrecht? Ein philosophischer Versuch. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1999.
---------. Demokratie im Zeitalter der Globalisierung. München: Beck, 1999.
---------. „Königliche Völker". Zu Kants kosmopolitischer Rechts- und Friedenstheorie. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2001.
---------. Gerechtigkeit. Eine philosophische Einführung. München: Beck, 2001.
Homann, Karl. Rationalität und Demokratie. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1998.
Honneth, Axel. Kritik der Macht. Reflexionsstufen einer kritischen Gesellschaftstheorie. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1997.
---------. Kampf um Anerkennung. Zur moralischen Grammatik sozialer Konflikte. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2001.
---------. Das Andere der Gerechtigkeit. Aufsätze zur praktischen Philosophie. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2002.
Horster, Detlef. Jürgen Habermas. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1991.
Ineichen, Hans. "Analytische Hermeneutik," in: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Erlanger Streifzüge durch die Geschichte der Philosophie, hrsg.v. J.Kulenkampff u.T.Spitzley, Erlangen, 2001, S.185-206.
Jäschke, Walter. Hegels Philosophie - Kommentare zu den Hauptwerken: Hegels "Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften" (1830). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2000.
Kant, Immanuel, 1784. Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht.
---------, 1785. Grundlegung der Metaphysik der Sitten. (GMS)
---------, 1788. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. (KpV)
---------, 1793. Über den Gemeinspruch: Das mag in der Theorie richtig sein, taugt aber nicht für die Praxis.
---------, 1795. Zum ewigen Frieden. (ZeF)
---------, 1797. Metaphysik der Sitten: Rechtslehre - Tugendlehre.
(All edited by Wilhelm Weischedel; Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1989; "Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft" in 12 vols.)
Kaulbach, Friedrich. Studien zur späten Rechtsphilosophie Kants und ihrer transzendentalen Methode. Würzburg, 1982.
---------. "Perspektivismus und Rechtsprinzip in Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft", Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie 10 (1985): 21-35.
---------. Immanuel Kants Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten. "Werkinterpretationen". Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1988.
---------. Immanuel Kant, Sammlung Göschen. 2. Auflage, Berlin, 1982.
---------. Das Prinzip Handlung in der Philosophie Kants. Berlin/New York, 1978.
---------. Philosophie als Wissenschaft. Eine Anleitung zum Studium von Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Hildesheim, 1981.
Kersting, Wolfgang. Wohlgeordnete Freiheit: Immanuel Kants Rechts- und Staatsphilosophie. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1984.
---------. Recht, Gerechtigkeit und demokratische Tugend. Abhandlungen zur praktischen Philosophie der Gegenwart. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1997.
Koller, Peter. Rationales Entscheiden und moralisches Handeln. In: Nida-Rümelin, Julian. (Hrsg.), Praktische Rationalität: Grundlagenprobleme und ethische Anwendung des rational choice-Paradigmas. Berlin, New York: de Gryter, 1993.
Krischke, Paulo. The Learning of Democracy in Latin America: Social Actors and Cultural Change. Huntington: Nova Science, 2001.
Kuhlmann, Wolfgang ; Böhler, Dietrich (eds.). Kommunikation und Reflexion. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1982.
Lohmann, Georg. Philosophie der Menschenrechte, hrsg. v. St. Gosepath u. G.Lohmann, Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt/M., stw, 1998, 2. Aufl. 1999.
---------. Menschenrechte zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit, hrsg. von Georg Lohmann und Klaus Peter Fritzsche, Ergon Verlag, Würzburg 2000.
---------. Demokratische Zivilgesellschaft und Bürgertugenden in Ost und West, hrsg. v. Georg Lohmann, Peter Lang Verlag Frankfurt am Main u.a., 2003.
Loparic, Zeljko. "O Problema Fundamental da Semantica Juridica de Kant," in Smith, Plinio J. and Wrigley, Michael B. (eds.), O filosofo e a sua historia. Campinas: CLE, 2003. pp. 477-520.
---------. "Kant's Dialectic," Nous, no. 21, 1987, pp. 573-593.
---------. "System-Problems in Kant," Synthese, vol. LXXIV, no.1, 1988, pp. 107-140.
---------. "The Logical Structure of the First Antinomy," Kant-Studien, vol. LXXXI, no. 3, 1990, pp. 280-303.
---------. Etica e finitude. Sao Paulo: Educ, 1995.
---------. "Hans Sluga: Heidegger's Crisis, Philosophy and Politics in Nazi Germany," Manuscrito, XIX, no. 2, 1995.
---------. "O fim da metafisica em Carnap e Heidegger," in De Boni, Luis (ed.) Festschrift E.J. Stein. Petropolis: Vozes, 1998. pp. 782-803.
---------. A semantica transcendental de Kant. Campinas: CLE, 2000.
---------. "Das Faktum der Vernunft: eine semantische Auslegung," Akten des IX Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, ed. Volker Gerhardt et al., Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 63-71.
Ludwig, Bernd. "Whence Public Right? The Role of Theoretical and Practical Reasoning in Kant's Doctrine of Right," in M. Timmons (ed.), Kant's Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretative Essays.
---------. Kants Rechtslehre. Hamburg: F.Meiner, 1988.
Luhmann, Niklas. Die Wissenschaft der Gesellschaft. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1990.
---------. Das Recht der Gesellschaft. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1990.
Maus, Ingeborg. Zur Aufklärung der Demokratietheorie Rechts- und demokratietheoretische Überlegungen im Anschluss an Kant. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1994.
Niquet, Marcel. Nichthintergehbarkeit und Diskurs: Prolegomena zu einer revisionären Transzendentalpragmatik. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1999.
Offe, Klaus. Wessen Wohl ist das Gemeinwohl? In: Wingert und Günther, 1995.
Oliveira, Nythamar Fernandes de. Tractatus ethico-politicus. Porto Alegre: Edipucrs, 1999.
---------. "The Critique of Public Reason Revisited: Kant as Arbiter between Rawls and Habermas", Veritas (PUC/RS) 44/4 (2000): 583-606.
---------. "Kant, Rawls, and the Moral Foundations of the Political", in Kant und die Berliner Aufklärung: Akten des IX Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, ed. Volker Gerhardt et al., Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 2001, pp. 286-295.
---------. "Les défis normatifs de la justice globale selon John Rawls", in Mattéi, Jean-François et Denis Rosenfield (eds.), Barbarie et civilisation. Paris: PUF, 2002.
---------. Rawls. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2003.
---------. On the Genealogy of Modernity. Huntington, NY: Nova Science, 2003.
Petersen, Nikolai e Draiton G. Souza (eds.) Globalisierung und Gerechtigkeit. Porto Alegre: Edipucrs, 2002.
Pies, Ingo. Normative Institutionenökonomik. Zur Rationalisierung des politischen Liberalismus. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1993.
Pies, Ingo und Martin Leschke (eds.), John Rawls' politischer Liberalismus. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1995.
Pogge, Thomas W. World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002.
---------. "Human Flourishing and Universal Justice," Social Philosophy 16:1 (1999): 33-61.
---------. "The Moral Demands of Global Justice," Dissent 47/4 (2000): 37-43.
Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971.
---------. Political Liberalism, New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
---------. The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Romany, Celina (ed.) Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Human Rights in the Americas: A New Paradigm for Activism. Washington: American University Press, 2001.
Scharpf, F.W. Zur Theorie von Verhandlungssystemen. Koordination durch Verhandlungs-systeme: Analytische Konzepte und institutionelle Lösungen. In: Benz, A.; Scharpf, F.W.; Zintl, R. (Hrsg.): Horizontale Politikverflechtung: Zur Theorie von Verhandlungssystemen. Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Köln, 1992.
---------. Politiknetzwerke als Steuerungssubjekte. In: Derlien, H.U.; Gerhardt, U.; Scharpf, F.W. (Hrsg.): Systemrationalität und Partialinteresse - Festschrift für Renate Mayntz, Baden-Baden, 1994.
Schmidt, Johannes. Gerechtigkeit, Wohlfahrt und Rationalität. Freiburg, 1991.
Stepan, Alfred (ed.) Democratizing Brazil: Problems of Transition and Consolidation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Sobottka, Emil. "Movimentos Sociais e Cidadania no Brasil Hoje" Veritas 43 (1998): 193-203.
Timmons, Mark (ed.) Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretative Essays.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Tugendhat, Ernst. Ti Kata Tinos. Eine Untersuchung zu Struktur und Ursprung aristotelischer Grundbegriffe. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1959.
---------. Der Wahrheitsbegriff bei Husserl und Heidegger. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1967.
---------. Vorlesungen über Ethik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1993.
---------. Probleme der Ethik. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1981.
---------. Diálogo em Letícia. Porto Alegre: Edipucrs, 2002.
---------. Egozentrizität und Mystik. München: Beck, 2003.
---------. Não somos de arame rígido. Canoas: Edulbra, 2001.
---------. Aufsätze 1992-2000 (Problemas. Barcelona: Gedisa, 2002)
---------. Wie sollen wir handeln. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2001.
---------. Philosophische Aufsätze (Ser, verdad, acción. Barcelona: Gedisa, 1998)
---------. Ethik und Politik (Ética y política. Madrid: Tecnos, 1998)
---------. Logisch-semantische Propädeutik (with Ursula Wolf, Propedêutica lógico-semântica, Petrópolis: Vozes, 1997)
---------. Selbstbewusstsein und Selbstbestimmung (Autoconciencia e autodeterminación. México: Fondo de Cultura económica, 1993)
---------. Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die sprachanalytische Philosophie. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1999.
Van Parijs, Philippe, Qu'est-ce qu'une société juste? Introduction à la pratique de la philosophie politique, Paris: Le Seuil, 1991.
---------. Sauver la solidarité, Paris:Editions du Cerf, 1995.
---------. Ethique économique et sociale, Paris: La Découverte, 2000.
Vollrath, Ernst. Grundlegung einer philosophischen Theorie des Politischen. Würzburg, 1987.
Wellmer, Albrecht. Gibt es eine Wahrheit jenseits der Aussagenwahrheit? In: Wingert und Günther, 1995.
Wingert, Lutz; Günther, Klaus (eds.), Die Öffentlichkeit de Vernunft und die Vernunft der Öffentlichkeit. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1995.
Wood, Allen. "The Final Form of Kant’s Practical Philosophy," in M. Timmons (ed.), Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals: Interpretative Essays.
Proposed Syllabus
PHIL 341 / 757 - 20th-Century German Philosophy:
Heidegger and Contemporary Continental Philosophy
Course Outline
Focuses on Martin Heidegger and Contemporary Continental Philosophy, by examining the nature of phenomenology through readings selected from Husserl and Heidegger, so as to address themes such as: the structure of consciousness, the role of language, sensation and the body in human experience, the phenomenological method of investigation, our subjective relation to time and the temporality of human experience, the nature of intersubjectivity, Being and the world.
Lecture Notes: Husserl and Heidegger on
Meaning, World, and Subjectivity
Prof. Dr. Nythamar de Oliveira
Lecture 1: Introduction: The Transcendental Problematic
There are certainly many possible ways to approach the "origins of phenomenology" through the basic writings of Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) and Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). We shall be introduced to the nature of phenomenology through representative readings selected from these two great thinkers, so as to grasp the relevance of their contributions to several strands of continental and analytical philosophy, especially in the works of contemporary German philosophers such as Karl-Otto Apel, Jürgen Habermas, and Ernst Tugendhat. In order to reconstitute the philosophical background that paved the way for the emergence of Husserl's phenomenology as a method and as a set of philosophical disciplines, we shall revisit what may be termed the "transcendental problematic" par excellence. Both Husserl and Heidegger resort to Kant's transcendental method as a radical attempt to overcome traditional conceptions of metaphysics, as we find in great thinkers such as Aristotle, Descartes, and Hume. In effect, just as Kant played a decisive role in Husserl's critical appropriations of Descartes's "philosophy of consciousness" and Hume's empiricist "phenomenology of association," it was in light of Kant's recasting of the problem of metaphysics that Heidegger set out to undertake his own deconstruction of Aristotle's and Descartes' metaphysics. The transcendental problematic is found thus at the very articulation of Cartesian realism and Humean anti-realism in Kant's systematic attempt to secure the theoretical and practical uses of pure reason by recasting the relation of the traditional poles of subjectivity and objectivity. Hence, Husserl's early critique of logicism and psychologism opens up the horizon of a new correlation that replaces the metaphysical quest for truth by that of meaning, world, and subjectivity.
Readings:
Husserl, Edmund. "Kant and the Idea of Transcendental Philosophy," Southwestern Journal of Philosophy 5 (Fall 1974): 9-56. (excerpts)
---------. "The Critique of Psychologism," in The Essential Husserl, ed. Donn Welton. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999, p. 3-22.
Welton, Donn. "The Development of Husserl's Phenomenology." The Essential Husserl, p. ix-xv.
Further Reading:
Kern, Iso. Kant und Husserl. Eine Untersuchung über Husserls Verhältnis zu Kant und Neukantianismus. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1964.
Kerszberg, Pierre. Kant et la nature. Paris: Belles Lettres, 1999.
Kockelmans, Joseph. Edmund Husserl's Phenomenology. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1994. p. 1-46.
Smith, Barry, and Smith, David Woodruff, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Husserl. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Lecture 2: Meaning, Intention, Fulfillment
In order to grasp the phenomenological method of investigation, we are introduced to Husserl's inquiry into the foundations of logic and science, by exploring his theory of meaning. Sign, expression, sense and meaning. Indication and communication. Ideality of the unities of meaning. The dynamic union of expression and expressed intuition.
Readings:
Husserl, Edmund. "Expression and Meaning." Logical Investigations, First Investigation, Sections 1, 2, and 4-15. In The Essential Husserl, p. 26-51; "Meaning-Intention and Meaning-Fulfillment." Logical Investigations, Sixth Investigation, Sections 6-8, 10, and 11. In The Essential Husserl, p. 52-59.
Further Reading:
Levinas, Emmanuel. The Theory of Intuition in Husserl's Phenomenology. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Press, 1973.
Simons, Peter. "Meaning and language", in The Cambridge Companion to Husserl.
Welton, Donn. The Origins of Meaning: A Critical Study of Husserlian Phenomenology. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1983.
Lecture 3: World and Subjectivity
According to Husserl, in our everyday existence we live naturally, "objectivating, judging, feeling, willing in the natural attitude," as opposed to its exclusion ("parenthesizing") in the phenomenological epoché, which replaces "the Cartesian attempt to doubt universally."
Transcendental consciousness as the phenomenological residuum. The cogito as act. Intentive mental processes. The transcendental reduction. The natural world as a correlate of consciousness. The phenomenological attitude and pure consciousness as the field of phenomenology.
Readings:
Husserl, Edmund. Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, trans. F. Kersten. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1983. Sections 27-36; 41-50, 55. "Phenomenology as Transcendental Philosophy." In The Essential Husserl, p. 60-85.
Further Reading:
Almeida, Guido Antonio de. Sinn und Inhalt in der Genetischen Phänomenologie E. Husserls. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1972.
Sokolowski, Robert. The Formation of Husserl's Concept of Constitution. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1970.
Welton, Donn. The Other Husserl: The Horizons of Transcendental Phenomenology. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2000. p. 1-24; 96-130.
Lecture 4: Consciousness and Intentionality
The constitution of meaning unveils the structure of consciousness qua "consciousness of" as the role of language defies the solipsism of the logical investigations. The noetic and noematic structure of consciousness. Expressive acts: signifying and signification. Noema, object, and horizon.
Readings:
Husserl, Edmund. Ideas I. Sections 87-90; 93-95. "The Structure of Intentionality." In The Essential Husserl, p.86-112.
---------. "Phenomenology" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1927). "Phenomenological Psychology and Transcendental Phenomenology." In The Essential Husserl, p. 322-336.
Further Reading:
Derrida, Jacques. La voix et le phénomène. Introduction au problème du signe dans la phénoménologie de Husserl. Paris: PUF, 1967. ET: Speech and Phenomena, and Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs. Trans. David Allison. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Press, 1973.
--------. Edmund Husserl's Origin of Geometry: An Introduction. University of Nebraska Press, 1989.
Dreyfus, Herbert (ed.) Husserl, Intentionality and Cognitive Science. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1982.
Welton, Donn. The Other Husserl. p. 131-197.
Lecture 5: Intersubjectivity and Life-World
As Husserl's phenomenology shifts away from the world of things towards the life-world, the elaboration of his theory of constitution unveils also a shift from static phenomenology to genetic phenomenology, as both world and intersubjectivity are shown to belong together. The noematic-ontic mode of givenness of the Other as transcendental clue for the constitutional theory of the experience of someone else. The appresentation (analogical apperception) of the other. Objectivity and intersubjective Nature. Our intentional explication of experiencing someone else.
Readings:
Husserl, Edmund. Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology. Trans. Dorion Cairns. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1960. Sections 42-56, 62. "From Subjectivity to Intersubjectivity." In The Essential Husserl, p. 135-160.
---------. Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy. Trans. David Carr. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1970. Sections 8-9; 14-15; 33-38. "Transcendental Phenomenology and the Way through the Life-World." In The Essential Husserl, p. 337-378.
Further Reading:
Husserl, Edmund. Psychological and Transcendental Phenomenology and the Confrontation with Heidegger, 1927-1931. Boston: Kluwer, 1997.
Steinbock, Anthony. Home and Beyond. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1996.
Welton, Donn. The Other Husserl. p. 331-404.
Lecture 6: Heidegger's Hermeneutic Turn: Introduction to Sein und Zeit
In order to fully understand the radical transformation of modern philosophy undertaken by phenomenology, we shall explore Martin Heidegger's phenomenological interpretation of ontology and his hermeneutic recasting of Husserl's phenomenology of meaning in his masterpiece of 1927, Sein und Zeit (Being and Time). We shall divide this work into six parts corresponding to the six main theses outlined by Heidegger himself, namely:
1. The question of Being (Seinsfrage) which has today been forgotten is the question about the meaning of Being (die Frage nach dem Sinn von Sein).
2. The fundamental analytic of Dasein unveils its transcendental structure.
3. Dasein is Being-in-the-world.
4. Being-in-the-world is correlated to care (Sorge) qua the Being of Dasein.
5. Care is temporal (zeitlich).
6. Temporality (Zeitlichkeit) is ecstatical insofar as Dasein is historical.
Readings:
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Trans. J. Stambaugh. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1998; Trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson. New York: Harper and Row, 1962. Sections 1-8.
Further Reading:
Blattner, William. Heidegger's Being & Time. A Reader’s Guide. London, Continuum, 2006.
Guignon, Charles, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
King, Magda. A Guide to Heidegger’s Being and Time. Edited by John Llewlyn. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2001.
Mulhall, Stephen. Heidegger and Being and Time. London and New York: Routledge, 1996.
Stapleton, Timothy J. Husserl and Heidegger: The Question of a Phenomenological Beginning. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1983.
Richardson, William. Heidegger: Through Phenomenology to Thought. 3rd. ed. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1974.
Lecture 7: Meaning and the Fundamental Analytic of Dasein
The theme of the analytic of Dasein. Anthropology, psychology, biology. The existential analytic. Existential ontology. Self and world belong together in Dasein. The Being of Dasein is Being-in-the-world (In-der-Welt-sein) and is always already "mine" (character of Jemeinigkeit). The critique of Descartes.
Readings:
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Sections 9-13.
Further Reading:
Heidegger, Martin. Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics. Trans. R. Manheim. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1959.
---------. What is a Thing? Trans. W. Barton and V. Deutsch. Chicago: Precedent, 1981.
Van Buren, John and Theodore Kisiel, eds., Reading Heidegger from the Start: Essays in His Earliest Thought. Albany: SUNY Press, 1994.
Lecture 8: Worldhood and Being-in-the-World
The worldhood of the world. Analysis of environmentality (Umweltlichkeit). Ontological and ontical definitions of world. Reference and signs. Hermeneutic discussion of Cartesian ontology of the "world." Equipment and handiness. Presence-at-hand, readiness-to-hand and Being-in-the-world.
Readings:
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Sections 14-18; 22-24.
Further Reading:
Dreyfus, Herbert. Being-in-the-World. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1991.
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Sections 19-21.
Kisiel, Theodore. The Genesis of Heidegger's Being and Time. University of California Press, 1995.
Sallis, John (ed.) Reading Heidegger. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1993.
Lecture 9: Authenticity and Inauthenticity
Being-in-the-world as Being-with and Being-one's-self. The "They" (das Man). Being-in as such. The existential Constitution of the "there." State-of-mind (Befindlichkeit), thrownness (Geworfenheit), understanding (Verstehen), interpretation (Auslegung), discourse (Rede). Heidegger's philosophy of existence to be differentiated from Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism. Anticipating the hermeneutic Kehre of the later Heidegger.
Readings:
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Sections 25-29; 31-34.
Further Reading:
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Sections 30, 35-38.
Heidegger, Martin. "Letter on Humanism." In Basic Writings. Edited by David F. Krell. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. "Existentialism is a Humanism," in Walter Kaufmann (ed.) Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, New York: Meridian, 1963.
Lecture 10: Care (Sorge) as the Being of Dasein
In order to complete his hermeneutical-phenomenological account of Dasein's mode of being, Heidegger thematises the uncanniness of everyday life, by focusing on the phenomena of idle talk, curiosity and ambiguity.
Readings:
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Sections 39-43.
Further Reading:
Heidegger, Martin. The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. Trans A. Hofstadter. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1982.
Richardson, John. Existential Epistemology. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.
Lecture 11: Dasein and Temporality (Zeitlichkeit)
Dasein's existential correlation of care (Sorge) and temporality (Zeitlichkeit), as inauthentitic modes of Dasein's Being are opposed to existentiell authenticity. Dasein's relation to its own death as a way to be. Being-towards-death and Dasein's everydayness.
Readings:
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Sections 45-53.
Further Reading:
Caputo, John. Demythologizing Heidegger. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
Pöggeler, Otto. Martin Heidegger's Path of Thinking. Trans. D. Magurshak and S. Barber. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1987.
Sallis, John. Reading Heidegger: Commemorations. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1982.
Lecture 12: Temporality (Zeitlichkeit) and Historicality (Geschichtlichkeit)
Temporality (Zeitlichkeit) is ecstatical insofar as Dasein is historical. Heidegger's existential, historical temporality paves the way for Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics. Existential time as the human horizon for Dasein.The question of the potentiality-for-Being-a-whole is factical and existentiell. Dasein's resolution.
Readings:
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Sections 61-66, 83.
Further Reading:
Apel, Karl-Otto. Transformation der Philosophie. 2 vols. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1973. Translated as Towards a Transformation of Philosophy. Trans. G. Adey and D. Frisby. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Heidegger's Ways. Trans. J.W. Stanley. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1994.
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Sections 54-60; 78-82.
Heidegger, Matin. On the Way to Language. Trans. P. Hertz. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
Lecture 13: Tugendhat's Critique of Heidegger's Conception of Truth
Ernst Tugendhat's 1964 lecture on "Heidegger's idea of truth" ("Heideggers Idee von Wahrheit") has been evoked as the most important immanent criticism of the latter's adoption of Husserl's concept of truth (apodictic evidence and categorial intuition), which was radicalised by the later Heidegger's "revocation of the truth-theoretical claim of the theory of aletheia." Dasein, disclosedness and truth.
Readings:
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Section 44.
Tugendhat, Ernst: "Heidegger's Idea of Truth." Translated in Brice Wachterhauser (ed), Hermeneutics and Truth. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1994; also in Richard Wolin (ed), The Heidegger Controversy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
---------. Traditional and Analytical Philosophy: Lectures on the Philosophy of Language. Trans. P.A. Garner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Further Reading:
Apel, Karl-Otto. From a transcendental-semiotic point of view. Ed. M. Papastephanou. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998. p. 183-215.
Heidegger, Martin: "On the Essence of Truth" and "The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking" in D.F. Krell (ed), Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings.
Husserl, Edmund. Logical Investigations II Sections 40-48. Ideas I Sections 136-139, 145. In The Essential Husserl, p. 113-134.
Tugendhat, Ernst. Der Wahrheitsbegriff bei Husserl und Heidegger. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1967.
Lecture 14: Apel's Critique of Heidegger's Conception of Language
Karl-Otto Apel's Transformation der Philosophie came out in 1973, but its most famous chapter, a comparative study of Wittgenstein's and Heidegger's self-deconstructive conceptions of language dates back to 1967. Apel's attempt to operate a semiotic turn in transcendental philosophy consists in reconstructing regulative principles through a communicative community, so as to respond to the challeges of the "linguistic turn" in post-empiricist analytical philosophy and post-Heideggerian continental philosophy. Revisiting Heidegger's analysis of the problem of the transcendence of the world.
Readings:
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Sections 67-71.
Apel, Karl-Otto. "Meaning constitution and justification of validity: has Heidegger overcome transcendental philosophy by history of being?" In From a transcendental-semiotic point of view, p. 103-121.
Further Reading:
Apel, Karl-Otto. "Wittgenstein and Heidegger: language games and life forms." In From a transcendental-semiotic point of view, p. 122-159.
Bernstein, Richard J. Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985.
Silverman, Hugh, and Welton, Donn (eds.) Critical and Dialectical Phenomenology. Albany: NY: SUNY Press, 1987.
Heidegger, Martin. What is called thinking?. Trans. F.D. Wieck and J.G. Gray. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.
Lecture 15: Habermas's Critique of Heidegger's Transcendental Historicism
Jürgen Habermas's conception of communicative action implicitly draws on Heidegger's conception of worldhood, insofar as it explicitly relies upon a postmetaphysical transformation of Husserl's conception of Lebenswelt, which Habermas equates with Wittgenstein's concept of Lebensform --following Apel's pragmatics minus its transcendental thrust, which Habermas seeks to reduce to an intersubjective, discursive universalim. The problem of normativity in contemporary practical philosophy. Instrumental reason vs. communicative reason.
Readings:
Habermas, Jürgen. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity. Chapter 6. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987.
Further Reading:
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Sections 72-77.
Habermas, Jürgen. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity. Ch. 11.
---------. "Martin Heidegger: The Great Influence" and "Hans-Georg Gadamer: Urbanizing the Heideggerian Province," in Philosophical-Political Profiles. Trans. F.G. Lawrence. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1985.
Husserl, Edmund. Cartesian Meditations Sections 30-39, in The Essential Husserl, p. 307-321.
Two Essays: Propose one or two topics for dissertation (approx. 2500-3000 words each essay) Besides those discussed in class, here are some of the key concepts and guiding questions that might be raised in the light of our readings:
- Husserl's and/or Heidegger's conceptions of meaning, world, and subjectivity.
- Write about Husserl's and/or Heidegger's philosophy of language.
- Did Husserl succeed in his criticisms of logicism and psychologism?
- Is Husserl's phenomenology pre-linguistic in any sense?
- How did Husserl's theory of truth influence Heidegger's?
- How can one argue today for a co-constitutive phenomenology of meaning?
- How did Husserl influence Heidegger's attempt to go beyond his master?
- Was Heidegger an existentialist?
- How do you contrast authenticity and inauthenticity in Heidegger?
- Is Being-with others a concept that might find a social, political use?
- Is it possible to do philosophy without resort to some form of transcendental argument?
- What is the philosophical meaning of overcoming metaphysics?
- How do you assess the transformation of modern philosophy by phenomenology?
- Is the hermeneutical interpretation of phenomenology a real departure from critique?
- Is deconstruction qua radicalisation of hermeneutics a farewell to modern reason?