HPhil Seminar: April 11, 2024

The HPhil (History of Philosophy) Research Group of the Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon announces the 2023/24 edition of its permanent seminar on the history of philosophy, devoted to the presentation of conferences by renowned specialists while also creating opportunities to emerging scholars, aiming to promote advanced studies in groundbreaking debates and the permanent training of its academic community.

In this session of the seminar, George Heffernan (Merrimack College) will present a paper, entitled “Universale Besinnung-Selbstbesinnung-Weltbesinnung: Husserl’s Method for the Treatment of Ethical, Existential, and Metaphysical Questions as Grenzprobleme der Phänomenologie”, (abstract below)

The session will take place on April 11, 2024 at 5 p.m., in the Room C201.J (Room Mattos Romão, Department of Philosophy). Admission is free.

Abstract 

This paper poses the question concerning Husserl’s method for the treatment of ethical, existential, and metaphysical questions as “limit problems of phenomenology”. In his early works the founder of phenomenology focused on theoretical problems in mathematics, logic, and epistemology, but after World War I he also proposed that phenomenology could provide cultural, philosophical, and spiritual renewal for a global humanity in crisis. Especially Husserliana volume XLII, Grenzprobleme der Phänomenologie (2014), a treasure trove of texts from 1908 to 1937, shows that Husserl possessed a profound understanding of and an acute appreciation for the relationship between phenomenological reflection and practical existence. Yet, because the usual transcendental-phenomenological method of epoché and reduction does not appear to be adequate to “limit problems of phenomenology”, at least not without further ado, there arises the question of which method is suitable for their treatment. A careful study of the texts of Husserliana XLII reveals that Husserl assiduously applies the method of universale Besinnung-Selbstbesinnung-Weltbesinnung – universal making sense of things, making sense of the self, making sense of the world – to ethical, existential, and metaphysical problems. Thus this paper focuses on the phenomenological approach to these problems, especially to the timely and timeless questions that in The Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (1936) Husserl calls “the questions concerning meaning or meaninglessness of this entire human existence” (Husserliana VI, 4).