The Transcendence of the World: Phenomenological Studies
58 pages
English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

The Transcendence of the World: Phenomenological Studies , livre ebook

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus
58 pages
English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

Description

In The Transcendence of the World, Richard Holmes brings together some of the major figures in the phenomenological movement to help explain our experience of the world—the world meant as independent of any particular awareness of it. Focussing on the writings of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Holmes delivers an accessible and coherent account of both the method and results of phenomenological analysis. He offers a critical appraisal of the works of these great thinkers and presents his own radical analyses in order to make sense of our experience of the world, and also the theory of quantum mechanics that purports to describe this world.

This book will be an important resource for students and scholars of philosophy and for all those interested in twentieth-century continental ideas.


Sujets

Informations

Publié par
Date de parution 30 octobre 2010
Nombre de lectures 0
EAN13 9781554587056
Langue English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0087€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

THE Transcendence OF THE World
PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDIES
THE Transcendence OF THE World
PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDIES
Richard Holmes
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Holmes, Richard, 1941- The transcendence of the world : phenomenological studies
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-88920-241-9
1. Transcendence (Philosophy). 2. Phenomenology. I. Title.
BD362.H65 1995 142 .7 C94-931282-7
Copyright 1995 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L3C5
Cover design by Leslie Macredie

Printed in the United States of America
The Transcendence of the World: Phenomenological Studies has been produced from a manuscript supplied in camera-ready form by the author.
All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means-graphic, electronic or mechanical- without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping or reproducing in information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed in writing to the Canadian Reprography Collective, 214 King Street West, Suite 312, Toronto, Ontario M5H3S6.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE The Project of Phenomenology
1. Explication and Descartes
2. The World According to Husserl
CHAPTER TWO The Unification of Consciousness
CHAPTER THREE The Constitution of Transcendent Objects
1. Edmund Husserl
2. Jean-Paul Sartre and the Transphenomenal Being of the Phenomena
3. Husserl s Answers
CHAPTER FOUR The World According to Heidegger
CHAPTER FIVE The Foundation of the World
CHAPTER SIX Excursus: A Consideration of Mental Telepathy
1.The Analogy with Memory
2. The Analogy with Aesthetic Experience
CHAPTER SEVEN Conclusion
Afterword
Appendix The Need for the Turn to Transcendental Phenomenology
Notes
List of Works Cited
Index
Preface
This book has been developed with twogoals in mind. First, I want to bring together some of the majorfigures in the phenomenological movement on the topic of what itmeans to be a world independent of any particular awareness ofit. To this end, I focus on the writings of Edmund Husserl,Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre as containing the mostimportant and influential analyses of our experience of theworld. Second, I am both critical as I appraise their work andradical as I develop my own analyses which strive to make sensenot only of our experience of the world but of the theory ofquantum mechanics that purports to describe this world.Fundamental to this task is the desire to confront the postmodernchallenge to the possibility of legitimating any particulardefinite sense that may be given to or interpreted from ourexperience. What I offer here is not an anachronistic version ofphenomenology that ostrich-like refuses to see the developmentsin contemporary philosophy since Heidegger s End ofPhilosophy 1 and thewhole deconstructive movement. Rather, I am interested to usephenomenologists such as Husserl, Heidegger, and Sartre, as wellas Derrida, to forge a common perspective that enables thisexplication of what it means for us to have a world. Crucial tomy task is a focussing on the phenomenon of our world and how weinteractively are of it and it of us. Throughout my concern is toprovide an analysis that will allow a plurality of theories todefend their interpretations whether they are about literaryworks, ordinary physical objects, or the behaviour ofmicroparticles. Although, at best, my present accomplishment is asketch or preview of such a provision, its legitimacy has itsroots in the phenomena and what I take to be the underlyingvisions and results of thinkers from Husserl to Derrida; it isoffered in the spirit of co-phenomenologizing with them.
Acknowledgements
Philosophy became my vocation primarily because of Fred Kersten as he tutored me in what it means to do phenomenology. His help in establishing my background in this area of study has been immense and I continue to look to his work for guidance. As my second main teacher, Herbert Spiegelberg provided me with the most rigorous training in the humility needed to approach the results of my reading of texts and phenomena. His encyclopedic knowledge of the phenomenological movement was a tremendous resource as well. Specific encouragement and critical help from many colleagues and students through the years has been invaluable. In this connection I must at least mention Lester Embree, Richard Zaner, Osborne Wiggins, Bob Nicholls, Mano Daniel, and Wendy O Brien-Ewara. The entire manuscript has been read and critiqued by Larry Haworth and Sandra Woolfrey and two anonymous readers for the Canadian Federation of the Humanities; I have benefited enormously from their comments and perspectives. Annemarie Klassen has done an exceptionally fine job of copy editing and the final product is very much better thanks to her work. Grace Logan was tremendously helpful as we prepared the camera-ready copy. As all may wish to attest, I cannot hold responsible anyone else for what has eventuated, but it would be strange and presumptuous to think I might have or could have done this alone. I also want to acknowledge and thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council General Research Grant Committee and Brian Hendley, the Dean of Arts at the University of Waterloo, for their financial support in aid of this publication. Finally, my heartfelt thanks to Gabriela, Nicola, Andrew, Lindsey and Paula for their continual support and affection.
Parts of this work have already appeared in the following places, although usually in somewhat different form:
An Explication of Husserl s Notion of the Noema. Research in Phenomenology 5 (1975): 143-153.
Consciousness Revisited. Research in Phenomenology 8 (1978): 191-201.
Being-In-Itself Revisited. Dialogue 23 (1984): 397-406.
The World According to Husserl and Heidegger. Man and World 18 (1985): 373-385.
Editor s Introduction. Eidos 7 (1989): 1-14.
Humanism and Transcendental Phenomenology. In Japanese and Western Phenomenology. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993.
Introduction
In what follows, my primary purpose is to explicate what it means to be a world transcending our awareness of it-the world of objects usually called real. I believe a correct description of consciousness and its objects yields a way of seeing the real world as something not fixed and determinate in itself out there, causing what we experience to be as we experience it. Instead, the world becomes what it is as we enact our project-objects become salient as they crystallize in our experience, not before. This contention is buttressed by working out an interpretation of quantum physics that provides, at least, a fruitful analogy for this explication of the transcendence of the world. My overall strategy is to try to redirect our attention-to move away from thinking of the real world as having its own objective meaning, independent of our awareness of it. Instead, we must rid ourselves of the prejudice which ascribes an impenetrable and independent meaning to the world and see it as transparent, yet transcendent, to consciousness. 2
My secondary purpose is to provide an accessible and coherent account of both the method and results of phenomenological analysis-one that I believe can make sense of the work of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Although these thinkers are often taken as being at odds with one another, I endeavour to relate them, and the fundamental insights they have developed, in a way that shows their deep compatibility and complementarity. 3 By putting together some of the basic themes from their writings, without claiming comprehensiveness or adequacy with respect to their entire rich and complex work, I have the foundation or which to build up my explication of the world. Unique to my account are two claims: (1) the world of all objects, including those we call real, emerges in concert with a community of mutually incompatible mundanized consciousnesses, and (2) the best way to appreciate this conception of the world is to view its status and constitution as analogous to that of photons (light) as we strive to appreciate the quantum weirdness associated with their seeming ability to communicate superluminally, and their ability to manifest themselves as both wavelike and particlelike. In general, the shift I am trying to inaugarate stems from my desire to mediate between the seminar room and the starry skies-the skepticism of Hume and the resistance of the real world. The melding of all our stories about the world can occur if proper attention is paid to our experience of it.
Part of what I want to demonstrate is the need to carry through with Husserl s initial insight about what it means to do philosophy. I say philosophy because I believe any philosophical endeavour should take as its project the explication of all that is phenomenally evident. Whether my task is sorting out what it means to be an object in the physical world; determining what is the nature and status of a theory about the physical world; developing the role of aesthetic appreciations or the thrust and legitimacy of ethical pronouncements; setting out the experience of time and our awareness of our own death; or, even, assessing the validity and desirability of faith, there is always a need to carry out this task by explicating the phenomena as presented in the awareness of them.
The world is meant as at least a collection of the objects which can be said to be worldly and these a

  • Univers Univers
  • Ebooks Ebooks
  • Livres audio Livres audio
  • Presse Presse
  • Podcasts Podcasts
  • BD BD
  • Documents Documents