1st Edition
Phenomenology as Critique Why Method Matters
Drawing on classical Husserlian resources as well as existentialist and hermeneutical approaches, this book argues that critique is largely a question of method. It demonstrates that phenomenological discussions of acute social and political problems draw from a rich tradition of radically critical investigations in epistemology, social ontology, political theory, and ethics.
The contributions show that contemporary phenomenological investigations of various forms of oppression and domination develop new critical-analytical tools that complement those of competing theoretical approaches, such as analytics of power, critical theory, and liberal philosophy of justice. More specifically, the chapters pay close attention to the following methodological themes: the conditions for the possibility of phenomenology as critique; critique as radical reflection and free thinking; eidetic analysis and reflection of transcendental facticity and contingency of the self, of others, of the world; phenomenology and immanent critique; the self-reflective dimensions of phenomenology; and phenomenological analysis and self-transfermation and world transformation. All in all, the book explicates the multiple critical resources phenomenology has to offer, precisely in virtue of its distinctive methods and methodological commitments, and thus shows its power in tackling timely issues of social injustice.
Phenomenology as Critique: Why Method Matters will appeal to researchers and advanced students working in phenomenology, Continental philosophy, and critical theory.
1. Introduction: Critique – Matter of Methods
Sara Heinämaa, David Carr, and Andreea Smaranda Aldea
2. Phenomenology as Critical Method: Experience and Practice
David Carr
3. On the Functions of Examples in Critical Philosophy: Kant and Husserl
Michela Summa
4. Phenomenology and Critique: On ‘Mere’ Description and Its Normative Dimensions
Julia Jansen
5. Husserlian Phenomenology as Radical Immanent Critique – Or How Phenomenology Imagines Itself
Andreea Smaranda Aldea
6. Radical Besinnung as a Method for Phenomenological Critique
Mirja Hartimo
7. A Phenomenological Critique of Critical Phenomenology
Lanei Rodemeyer
8. On the Transcendental and Eidetic Resources of Phenomenology: A Case Study of Embodiment
Sara Heinämaa
9. Critical Phenomenology and Micro-Phenomenology: The First-Person Experience of the "Collective"
Natalie Depraz
10. Critique as Thinking-Freely and as Discernment of the Heart
Anthony Steinbock
11. Social Critique and Trust Dynamics
Alice Pugliese
12. Critique in the Age of Paranoid Revolt
Nicolas de Warren
13. Critique as Disclosure: Building Blocks for a Phenomenological Appropriation of Marx
Christian Lotz
14. Crisis and Modernity: On the Idea of Historical Critique
Timo Miettinen
15. What is Critique – for Phenomenology? A Foucauldian Perspective
Sophie Loidolt
16. The Power of the Reduction and the Reduction of Power: Husserl’s and Foucault’s Critical Project
Maren Wehrle
Biography
Andreea Smaranda Aldea is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Kent State University, USA.
David Carr is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Emory University, USA.
Sara Heinämaa is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
"The volume is a timely contribution with treasures in store for everyone from the verdant novice to the veteran phenomenological researcher . . . For anyone interested in classical phenomenology’s critical resources, Phenomenology as Critique is required reading."
Phenomenological Reviews
