Many contemporary explanations of conscious human experience, relying either upon neuroscience or appealing to a spiritual soul, fail to provide a complete and coherent theory. These explanations, the author argues, fall short because the underlying explanatory constituent for all experience are not entities, such as the brain or a spiritual soul, but rather relation and the unique way in which human beings form relations. This alternative frontier is developed through examining the phenomenological method of Martin Heidegger and the semiotic theory of Charles S. Peirce. While both of these thinkers independently provide great insight into the difficulty of accounting for human experience, this volume brings these insights into a new complementary synthesis. This synthesis opens new doors for understanding all aspects of conscious human experience, not just those that can be quantified, and without appealing to a mysterious spiritual principle.

In this important volume, French philosopher and poet J.L. Chretien boldly and subtly applies his vast experience in phenomenology to poetry and literature - showing indeed how to bridge the boundary with philosophy. His real aim is implicit and brave: to show that spiritual authors from Augustine to Claudel surpass Bergson in their philosophical grasp of intuition and joy. He thus claims new turf for spiritual authors in the context of examining an important human constellation of emotions. The approach is exquisitely multi-disciplinary and makes a vital contribution to our understanding of the phenomenology of religious experience. Available in English for the first time, his work will be of immediate interest to philosophers, theologians, literary critics, psychologists, art historians and sociologists.

What makes individuals what they are? How should they judge their social and political interaction with the world? What makes them authentic or inauthentic? This original and provocative study explores the concept of "authenticity" and its relevance for radical politics. Weaving together close readings of three 20th century thinkers: Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers and Jean-Paul Sartre with the concept of authenticity, Stephen Eric Bronner illuminates the phenomenological foundations for self-awareness that underpin our sense of identity and solidarity. He claims that different expressions of the existential tradition compete with one another in determining how authenticity might be experienced, but all of them ultimately rest on self-referential judgments. The author's own new framework for a political ethic at once serves as a corrective and an alternative. Wonderfully rich, insightful, and nuanced, Stephen Eric Bronner has produced another bookshelf staple that speaks to crucial issues in politics, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Existentialism, Authenticity, Solidarity will appeal to scholars, students and readers from the general public alike.

This collection examines the instrumental role of intersubjectivity in Husserl's philosophy and explores the potential for developing novel ways of addressing and resolving contemporary philosophical issues on that basis. This is the first time Iso Kern offers an extensive overview of this rich field of inquiry for an English-speaking audience. Guided by his overview, the remaining articles present new approaches to a range of topics and problems that go to the heart of its core theme of intersubjectivity and methodology. Specific topics covered include intersubjectivity and empathy, intersubjectivity in meaning and communication, intersubjectivity pertaining to collective forms of intentionality and extended forms of embodiment, intersubjectivity as constitutive of normality, and, finally, the central role of intersubjectivity in the sciences. The authors' perspectives are strongly influenced by Husserl's own methodological concerns and problem awareness and are formed with a view to applicability in current debates - be it within general epistemology, analytic philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, meta-ethics or philosophy of science. With contributions written by leading Husserl scholars from across the Analytic and Continental traditions, Husserl's Phenomenology of Intersubjectivity is a clear and accessible resource for scholars and advanced students interested in Husserl's phenomenology and the relevance of intersubjectivity to philosophy, sociology, and psychology.

This book provides an encompassing and thorough study of Martin Heidegger's thought. It is not only a presentation but also a profound critique of the thinker's beliefs. In the context of Heidegger's cooperation with Nazism, the author reflects on the reasons behind his inability to confront the problem of evil and vulnerability to the threats of totalitarianism.

Education is the transmission of knowledge and skill from one generation to another, and is vitally significant for the growth and unfolding of the living individual. It manifests the quintessential ability of the logos to differentiate life in self-individualization from within, and in its spread through inter-generative networks. Without reaching the evolutive phase of the human creative condition, the human being establishes a unique creative platform on which to conduct its co-existence. On this platform the progress of life is being transformed from a natural ontopoietic accomplishment into an autonomous achievement of the creative planning of the human mind. Specifically, human education focuses upon creative planning moving like a pendulum between nature and freedom.

The present collection of papers focuses on the underpinnings of the creative workings of the human strategies of reason.

Papers by:
Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, Zaiga Ikere, Daniela Verducci, Klymet Selvi, Andrina Tonkli-Komel, Jan Szmyd, Brian Grassom, Alon Segev, Mara Rubene, Dean Komel, Patricia Trutty-Coohill, Carmen Cozma, Piotr Mroz, Clara Mandolini, Mobeen Shahid, Semiha Akinci, Oliver W. Holmes, Khawaja Muhammad Saeed, Angela Ales Bello, Virpi Yliraudanjoki, Brian Hughes, Ella Buceniece, Halil Turan, Fabio Petrelli, Roberto Verolini, Bronislaw Bombala, Osvaldo Rossi, Joanna Handerek, Rimma Kurenkova, M. Chkeneva, Maija Kule, Nikolay Kozhevnikov

The figure of the 'other' is fundamental to the concept of communication. Online or offline, communication, which is commonly defined as the act of sending or imparting information to others, is only possible in the face of others. In fact, the reason we communicate is to interact with others-to talk to another, to share our thoughts and insights with them, or to respond to their needs and requests. No matter how it is structured or conceptualized, communication is involved with addressing the other and dealing with the ontological, epistemological, and ethical questions of otherness or alterity. But who or what can be other? Who or what can be the subject of communication? Is the other always and only another human? Or can the other in these communicative interactions be otherwise? This book is about others (and other kinds of others). It concerns the current position and status of the other in the face of technological innovations that can, in one way or another distort, mask, or even deface the other. Ten innovative essays, written by an international team of experts, individually and in collaboration with each other, seek to diagnose the current situation with otherness, devise innovative solutions to the questions of alterity, and provide insight for students, teachers and researchers trying to make sense of the opportunities and challenges of the 21st century.

Examines Jean-Paul Sartres antiracist politics and his contributions to critical race theories, postcolonialism, and Africana existentialism.

This book, first published in 1987, is a study of the development of Sartre's political thought from the late 1920s to the liberation of France in 1944, concentrating particularly upon his concept of freedom. It is argued that the evolution of Sartre's thinking can be regarded as constituting a series of problematics each of which has a corresponding notion of freedom, and these problematics are elucidated in turn.

This book, first published in 1987, is an extended examination of Merleau-Ponty's political philosophy. It describes and critically elucidates the main political themes to be found in his writings, and shows how his political ideas are related to his general phenomenological philosophy.

This book, first published in 1965, is a critical exposition of the philosophical doctrines of Jean-Paul Sartre. His contribution to ethical and political theory, and to metaphysics and ontology, is reviewed against the background of German idealism and phenomenology, and his arguments are presented clearly so that readers may assess their philosophical value in their own right.

This book, first published in 1953, was one of the first written in English that attempted to provide a sympathetic analysis of the new movement of Existentialism. In the attempt to bring out what is of permanent value in what was at the time a study yet to gain academic recognition, it is a valuable work that presents a clear-eyed analysis from the ground up.

This book, first published in 1969, examines the 'philosophies of existence' or Existentialism and the field's leading philosophers. These philosophers, the book argues, wished to distinguish themselves from other philosophies in their structure and approach - and it is that structure that this book takes care to analyse.

This book, first published in 1961, is a careful analysis of this modern movement of thought, and especially of its leading German representative Martin Heidegger. This study presents a sound reading and criticism of the existentialist thinkers.

Architecture and urban design are rarely considered as technology, but more frequently as a result of artistic creativity performed by gifted individuals. Postphenomenology and Architecture: Human Technology Relations in the Built Environment considers buildings and cities as technologies, from a postphenomenological perspective. This book argues that buildings and the furniture of cities-like bike lanes, benches, and bus stops-are inscribed in a conceptual framework of multistability, which is to say that they fulfill different purposes over time. Yet, there are qualities in the built environment that are long lasting and immutable, and transcend temporal functionality and ephemeral efficiency. The contributors show how different perceptions, practices, and interpretations are tangible and visible as we engage with these technologies. In addition, several of the chapters critically assess the influence of Martin Heidegger in modern philosophy of architecture., this book reads Heidegger in the perspective of architecture and urban design as technology, shedding light on what it means to build and dwell.

There has been a resurgence of interest in the problem of realism, the idea that the world exists in the way it does independently of the mind, within contemporary Continental philosophy. Many, if not most, of those writing on the topic demonstrates attitudes that range from mild skepticism to outright hostility. Richard Sebold argues that the problem with this is that realism is correct and that the question should then become: what happens to Continental philosophy if it is committed to the denial of a true doctrine? Sebold outlines the reasons why realism is superior to anti-realism and shows how Continental philosophical arguments against realism fail. Focusing on the work of four important philosophers, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Husserl, all of who have had a profound influence on more recent thinkers, he provides alternative ways of interpreting their apparently anti-realist sentiments and demonstrates that the insights of these Continental philosophers are nevertheless valuable, despite their problematic metaphysical beliefs.

Eugen Fink is considered one of the clearest interpreters of phenomenology and was the preferred conversational partner of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. In Play as Symbol of the World, Fink offers an original phenomenology of play as he attempts to understand the world through the experience of play. He affirms the philosophical significance of play, why it is more than idle amusement, and reflects on the movement from "child's play" to "cosmic play." Well-known for its nontechnical, literary style, this skillful translation by Ian Alexander Moore and Christopher Turner invites engagement with Fink's philosophy of play and related writings on sports, festivals, and ancient cult practices.

Roman Ingarden (1893-1970) belonged to those phenomenologists who never accepted Husserl's transcendental idealism. He devoted a great part of his intellectual energy to the "preparatory" analytical studies in which he hoped to develop an ontological framework suitable for an ultimate refutation of Husserl's idealistic doctrine. In these works we find a rich arsenal of ontological tools which is interesting even for those philosophers who are not interested in the subtleties of the Husserlian tradition or esoteric dialectics of the idealism / realism debate. Contributors: Arkadiusz Chrudzimski (Szczecin and Salzburg), Gregor Haefliger (Fribourg), Guido Kung (Fribourg), Jeff Mitscherling (Guelph), Andrzej Poltawski (Cracow), Peter Simons (Leeds), Edward Swiderski (Fribourg), Amie L. Thomasson (Miami), Daniel von Wachter (Munich)."

Philosophical genealogy is a distinct method of historical and philosophical inquiry that was developed by the nineteenth-century philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, and subsequently adopted and extended by the twentieth-century philosopher, Michel Foucault. In brief, genealogies critically examine the historical origin of philosophical concepts, ideas and practices. They challenge the value of traditional methods of philosophical inquiry along with the results that these inquiries produce. Philosophical Genealogy Volume I: An Epistemological Reconstruction of the Genealogical Method explored the three axes of the genealogical method: power, truth and the ethical. In addition, various ontological and epistemic problems pertaining to each of these axes were examined. In Philosophical Genealogy Volume II: An Epistemological Reconstruction of the Genealogical Method, these problems are now resolved. Volume II establishes what requisite ontological underpinnings are required in order to provide a successful, epistemic reconstruction of the genealogical method. Problems regarding the nature of the body, the relation between power and resistance as well as the justification of Nietzschean perspectivism, are now all clearly answered. It is shown that genealogy is a profound, fecund and, most importantly, coherent method of philosophical and historical investigation which may produce many new discoveries in the fields of ethics and moral inquiry provided it is correctly employed.

Western philosophy's relationship with prisons stretches from Plato's own incarceration to the modern era of mass incarceration. Philosophy Imprisoned: The Love of Wisdom in the Age of Mass Incarceration draws together a broad range of philosophical thinkers, from both inside and outside prison walls, in the United States and beyond, who draw on a variety of critical perspectives (including phenomenology, deconstruction, and feminist theory) and historical and contemporary figures in philosophy (including Kant, Hegel, Foucault, and Angela Davis) to think about prisons in this new historical era. All of these contributors have experiences within prison walls: some are or have been incarcerated, some have taught or are teaching in prisons, and all have been students of both philosophy and the carceral system. The powerful testimonials and theoretical arguments are appropriate reading not only for philosophers and prison theorists generally, but also for prison reformers and abolitionists.

Every human being knows that we are walking through life following trails, whether we are aware of them or not. Medieval poets, from the anonymous composer of Beowulf to Marie de France, Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von Strassburg, and Guillaume de Lorris to Petrarch and Heinrich Kaufringer, predicated their works on the notion of the trail and elaborated on its epistemological function. We can grasp here an essential concept that determines much of medieval and early modern European literature and philosophy, addressing the direction which all protagonists pursue, as powerfully illustrated also by the anonymous poets of Herzog Ernst and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Dante's Divina Commedia, in fact, proves to be one of the most explicit poetic manifestations of the fundamental idea of the trail, but we find strong parallels also in powerful contemporary works such as Guillaume de Deguileville's Pelerinage de la vie humaine and in many mystical tracts.

Phenomenalism, Phenomenology and the Question of Time: A Comparative Study of the Theories of Mach, Husserl, and Boltzmann analyzes two interconnected themes: the split between phenomenalism and phenomenology, and the question of time in relation to physical processes and irreversibility in physics. The first theme is the overlooked connections between the modern phenomenology of Edmund Husserl (and his mentor Franz Brentano) and phenomenalism as associated with Ernst Mach. The book's historical-conceptual perspective draws attention to the ways in which Husserl's twentieth century advance of phenomenological method was conceived in relation to Mach's late nineteenth century and early twentieth century work both in science and philosophy. At first glance, Mach's phenomenalism appears to be in stark contrast to Husserl's phenomenology, but on closer inspection, it influenced and informed its inception. By analyzing Husserl's revolutionary method of phenomenology in connection to Mach's earlier conceptions, the book elucidates the rise of modern physics, especially through the work of Ludwig Boltzmann, as an important context to both Mach's philosophical work and Husserl's early overtures into phenomenology and his later critique of the "crisis" of European sciences. The discursive affinities and differences between phenomenalism and phenomenology are examined in terms of a more contemporary debate over naturalizing phenomenology, either as a method continuous with science or reduced to it. This immanent tension is examined and evaluated specifically through the second thematic axis of the book, which deals with the question of time and irreversibility. Time in physics conforms to an explanatory scheme that relegates the issues of directionality and symmetry of time to concepts that are radically different from any phenomenological attempts to explain temporality in terms of intuition and consciousness. It is precisely through the notion of irreversibility that both perspectives, scientific and phenomenological, explicate time's arrow not as a mere manifestation of sensory asymmetry, as Mach would have it, but rather, through indirect descriptions of time and temporal objects. The issue of time's arrow, irreversibility, and Boltzmann's physical hypotheses regarding the nature of time are introduced and comparatively assessed with Husserl's work on phenomenology and the role of temporality to consciousness.

Continental philosophers of religion have been engaging with theological issues, concepts and questions for several decades, blurring the borders between the domains of philosophy and theology. Yet when Emmanuel Falque proclaims that both theologians and philosophers need not be afraid of crossing the Rubicon - the point of no return - between these often artificially separated disciplines, he scandalised both camps. Despite the scholarly reservations, the theological turn in French phenomenology has decisively happened. The challenge is now to interpret what this given fact of creative encounters between philosophy and theology means for these disciplines. In this collection, written by both theologians and philosophers, the question "Must we cross the Rubicon?" is central. However, rather than simply opposing or subscribing to Falque's position, the individual chapters of this book interrogate and critically reflect on the relationship between theology and philosophy, offering novel perspectives and redrawing the outlines of their borderlands.

Classic Writings for a Phenomenology of Practice features examples of newly translated classic phenomenological texts that have been largely forgotten or misunderstood. The writings are unique in that they speak to the practice of doing phenomenological research for the purpose of gaining insights and better understandings regarding aspects of professional practice and ordinary life phenomena and events. Phenomenology does not have to be impenetrable philosophy, dealing with tedious technical issues. Instead, phenomenology may offer relevance, value, and enduring allure to readers and researchers who are engaged with the quotidian life experiences and events of students, patients, clients, friends, and other individuals. This phenomenological approach aims to stay as close as possible to the ordinary events of everyday life: seeing the first smile of a child, feeling compulsive, being humorous, having a conversation, experiencing childhood secrecy, encountering new things-topics that span a manifold of life experiences. In this collection of classic phenomenological writings, each author is thoughtfully introduced, and each text is followed by a conversational descant: a reflection on the phenomenological reflection. The presentation of these classic writings and their reflections aims to show us what it means to do phenomenology directly on the phenomena that we live-thus asking us to be attentive to the fascinating varieties and subtleties of primal lived experiences and consciousness in all its remarkable complexities. This book is relevant for scholars and students who are interested in human science research and the origins and practices of the phenomenological method.

Among the first and foremost of American continental philosophers, Alphonso Lingis refines his own thought through a topic usually deemed unworthy of philosophical examination-passion. Lingis criticizes traditional scientific accounts of the emotions as dividing or disrupting our lives and argues for passion as a unifying force, a concept which invites philosophical exploration. The book's structure is twofold. First, it offers an examination of Lingis's most recent developments through the topic of passion with essays from some of the most established commentators on the work of Lingis. Second, it offers a substantial retrospective on Lingis's thought in relation to some of the major figures in continental philosophy, namely Levinas, Kant, Heidegger, Butler, Foucault, and Nietzsche, all interweaving the theme of passion. Written to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of Lingis's birth, these essays show how Lingis's thought has not only endured over so many productive decades but also remains vital and even continues to grow.