Article/Publication Details
Views: 368

E. HUSSERL’S LATE PHENOMENOLOGY AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH IN THE CONTEXT OF A MYSTOCENTRIC APPROACH

Abstract
The article aims to make a comparison of methodological positions and principles presented in the works of the late E. Husserl and methodological theses of works related to the psychical research movement (A. N. Aksakov, N. P. Vagner, V. S. Soloviev, L. Hellenbach). It takes under scrutiny the program of psychical research in the perspective of the history of esoterism as “rejected knowledge,” whose representatives tried to conceive a unified worldview resolving the conflict between science and religion. It reveals the reasons why “mystocentric” researchers of esotericism considered phenomenology relevant to their research tasks: the search for a unified ontological foundation overcoming the Cartesian dualism of matter and spirit; the concept of the “lifeworld” as a special place of meaning and cosmos, opposing the “disenchanted” world of modern science; the criticism of “positivist” science and the “natural attitude”; the priority of intuition and analogy as methods of cognition; the scientific millenarism characteristic of innovative scientific projects. The research of “psychical phenomena” should be considered as research of “extra-philosophical phenomenology” important for understanding the historical and cultural context of the formation of the phenomenological movement in the first half of the XX century. The article emphasizes the philosophical aspect of psychical research which aimed at revealing the transcendental nature of man. The late Husserl’s program and the program of psychical research are defined as different reactions to the crisis of European science in its transition from the classical to the non-classical period. The phenomenological movement and the movement of psychical research should be viewed as manifestations of the monistic tendency in European philosophy, aimed at overcoming Cartesian dualism and going back to the ideas of the Cambridge Platonists.

Keywords
phenomenology, E. Husserl, esotericism, psychical research, mystocentrism.

References

• Aksakov, A. (1887). Spiritism and Evolutionism. “Answer to the Perplexed”. Rebus, 1887 (8), 87–88. (In Russian)
• Aksakov, A. (1893). Animism and Spirtism. Vol. 1. St. Petersburg: Aksakov A. N. Publ. (In Russian)
• Barton, J. (2023). The Gnostic Accusation. Journal for Continental Philosophy of Religion, 5 (1), 27–50.
• Bergson, A. (2023). Spiritual Energy. Articles and Presentations. Moscow, St. Petersburg: Tsentr gumanitarnykh initsiativ Publ. (In Russian)
• Brentano, F. (2018). Future of Philosophy. Selected Writings. Moscow: Akademicheskii proekt Publ. (In Russian)
• Cajori, F. (1926). Origins of Fourth Dimension Concepts. The American Mathematical Monthly, 33 (8), 397–406.
• Crane, J. G. (2013). Intuition: The “Unseen Thread”. Connecting Emerson and James. Modern Intellectual History, 10 (1), 57–86.
• Davidson, L. (1988). Husserl’s Refutation of Psychologism and the Possibility of a Phenomenological Psychology. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 19 (1), 1–17.
• Ellenberger, H. (2018). Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. Vol. 1. Moscow: Akademicheskii proekt Publ. (In Russian)
• Faivre, A. (1994). Access to Western Esotericism. New York: State University of New York Press.
• Faivre, А., & Voss, K-C. (1995). Western Esotericism and the Science of Religions. Numen, 42, 48–77.
• Ford, M. (1988). William James’s Psychical Research and its Philosophical Implications. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 34 (3), 605–626.
• Føllesdal, D. (2010). Lebenswelt in Husserl. In D. Hyder & H-J. Rheinberger (Eds.), Science and the Life-world: Essays on Husserl’s Crisis of European Sciences (27–45). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Gordin, М. D. (2010). Seeing is Believing: Professor Vagner’s Wonderful World. In L. Daston & E. Lundbeck (Eds.), Histories of Scientific Observation (135–155). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Hakl, H. T. (2013). Eranos. An Alternative Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century. London and New York: Routledge.
• Hanegraaff, W. (2012). Esotericism and the Academy. Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge University Press.
• Hanegraaff, W. (2015). The Globalization of Esotericism. Correspondences, 3, 55–91.
• Hartmann, E. (1887). Spiritism (A. M. Butlerov, trans.). Rus. Ed. St. Petersburg: A. N. Aksakov Publ. (in Russian)
• Herzog, M. (1995). William James and the Development of Phenomenological Psychology in Europe. History of the Human Sciences, 8 (1), 29–46.
• Hintikka, J. (2003). The Notion of Intuition in Husserl. Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 2 (2), 57–79.
• Husserl, E. (2004). The Crisis of European sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. Rus. Ed. St. Petersburg: fond “Universitet” Publ. (In Russian)
• Husserl, E. (2010). Cartesian Meditations. Rus. Ed. Moscow: Akademicheskii proekt Publ. (In Russian)
• Idel, M. (2021). Prisca Theologia and Retrograde Phenomenology at Eranos: Corbin, Eliade, not Scholem. Revue genevoise d’anthropologie et d’histoire des religions, 16, 109–124.
• Isenberg, S., & Thursby, G. R. (1985). A Perennial Philosophy Perspective on Richard Rorty’s Neo-Pragmatism. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 17 (1/2), 41–65.
• Jacobs, J. (2002). Phenomenology and Revolutionary Romanticism. In A.-T. Tymieniecka (Ed.), The Visible and the Invisible in the Interplay between Philosophy, Literature and Reality. Annalecta Husserliana. The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research, Vol. 75 (117–137). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• James, W. (1918). The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 2. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
• Kirsberg, I. (2016). Phenomenology in Religious Studies: What Can it Be? Research on Religion Only as Consciousness. Rus. Ed. Moscow: Progress-Tradition Publ. (In Russian)
• Kožnjak, B. (2017). The Philosophical Work of Lazar Hellenbach. Prilozi za istraživanje hrvatske filozofske baštine, 43 (1), 49–88.
• Lachapelle, S. (2011). Investigating the Supernatural: From Spiritism and Occultism to Psychical Research and Metapsychics in France, 1853–1931. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Levine, S. (2018). James and Phenomenology. In A. M. Klein (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of William James (570–590). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Mikhailov, A. (1984). Modern Philosophical Hermeneutics: Critical Analysis. Moscow: Universitet Publ. (In Russian)
• Moran, D., & Steinacher, L. (2008). Husserl’s Letter to Lévy-Bruhl: Introduction. The NewYearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy, VIII, 1–23.
• Nosachev, P. (2023). “Rejected Knowledge”. Research of Marginal Religiosity in the 20th and Beginning of the 21st Century. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ. (In Russian)
• Pellegrino, M. P. (2018). Gerda Walther: Searching for the Sense of Things, Following the Traces of Lived Experiences. In A. Calcagno (Ed.), Gerda Walther’s Phenomenology of Sociality, Psychology, and Religion (11–24). Dordrecht, Cham: Springer Verlag.
• Robertson, D. G. (2022). Gnosticism and the History of Religions. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
• Schuetz, A. (1941). William James’ Concept of the Stream of Thought Phenomenologically Interpreted. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 1 (4), 442–452.
• Sedgwick, M. (2023). Traditionalism. The Radical Project for Restoring Sacred Order. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Sharma, A. (2001). To the Things Themselves: Essayes on the Discourse and Practice. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.
• Simut, C. (2015). Bauer’s Synthesis of Bohme and Hegel. Redefining Christian Theology as a Gnostic Philosophy of Religion. Leiden: Brill.
• Solovyov, V. (1884). Preface to the Russian Translation. In L. Hellenbach, Individualizm v Svete Biologii i Sovremennoi Filosofii (IX–XXIX). Rus. Ed. St. Petersburg: A. N. Aksakov Publ. (In Russian)
• Solovyov, V. (1893). Preface. In E. Gurney, Phantasms of the Living and Other Telepathic Phenomena (IX–XXXIX). St. Petersburg: A. N. Aksakov Publ. (In Russian)
• Sommer, A. (2010). From Astronomy to Transcendental Darwinism: Carl du Prel (1839–1899). Journal of Scientific Exploration, 23 (1), 59–68.
• Spiegelberg, H. (1994). The Phenomenological Movement. A Historical Introduction. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• Staubermann, К. B. (2001). Tying the Knot: Skill, Judgement and Authority in the 1870s Leipzig Spiritistic Experiments. The British Journal for the History of Science, 1, 67–79.
• Studstill, R. (2000). Eliade, Phenomenology, and the Sacred. Religious Studies, 36 (2), 177–194.
• Tuckett, J. (2019). The A Priori Critique of the Possibility of a Phenomenology of Religion: A Response to the Special Issue on “Schutz and Religion”. Human Studies, 42 (4), 647–672.
• Vagner, N. (1892). Minutes of the Meeting of the Russian Society of Experimental Psychology. First Year of Existence. Voprosy filosofii i psikhologii, 12, 1–32. (In Russian)
• Vagner, N. (1902). Observations of Mediumism. Rus. Ed. St. Petersburg: tipo-lit. F. Vaisberga i P. Gershunina Publ. (In Russian)
• Vickers, B. (1984). Analogy versus Identity: The Rejection of Occult Symbolism, 1580–1680. In Occult and Scientific Mentalities in the Renaissance (95–164). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Wasserstrom, S. (1999). Religion after Religion. Gershom Scholem, Mircea Eliade and Henry Corbin at Eranos. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Wertz, F. J. (2016). Outline of the Relationship Among Transcendental Phenomenology, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Sciences of Persons. Schutzian Research, 8, 139–162.
• Whitehead, A. N. (1929). Science and the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Wolfe, C. (2021). Vitalism and the Metaphysics of Life: The Discreet Charm of Eighteenth-Century Vitalism. In S. James (Ed.), Life and Death in Early Modern Philosophy (292–314). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Wolffram, H. (2009). The Stepchildren of Science. Psychical Research and Parapsychology in Germany, c. 1870–1939. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.

Article/Publication Details
Views: 354

RELIGIOUS (POST)EXPERIENCE IN THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF RELIGION BY GUSTAV MENSHING

Abstract
The article examines the conception religious experience by the German thinker, representative of the phenomenology of religion Gustav Mensching (1901–1978). His approach is characterized by the search for the foundations of religious (post)experience. In contrast to the traditional perspective of the study of the subject’s comprehension of the divine within the framework of the relevant religious experience, Menshing suggests focusing on the phenomenon of (post)experience. In this phenomenon, the divine unfolds as meaning-in-itself, and religious experience becomes only a conditional point of experiencing being both as a self-sufficient phenomenon and as the subject’s “feeling” into the religious/divine. Menshing’s point of view is to justify religious (post)experience both from the perspective of transcending the world of things, and from the standpoint of symbolizing reality, and in reflecting being “after God.” The phenomenologist’s key works deal with finding the “after” experience as the non-occurrence of being and the unfolding of its primacy either in symbolization or in transcendence. As shown in the article, Menshing at the beginning of his creative career was in the field of sociology of religion, which gave him the opportunity to identify religious experience as a joint search for the divine by the subject and communities. Later, however, the thinker became an adherent of the phenomenological approach and presented a concept in which the following key positions can be identified. First, Menshing started from Hegel’s ideas about spiritual enlightenment, but applied this perspective not only in evaluating the actions of the subject on the way to God, but also in the reception of the divine as experienced. On the other hand, Menshing shows that the divine unfolds as a meaning-in-itself after the subjective religious experience has already developed and has become the basis for the experience of religious existence. In addition, in Menshing’s theory, religious (post)experience captures being in its essence of entities, which opens up the prospect of “after God.” It is concluded that the search for the foundations of the unfolding of the meanings of the divine for Menshing marked a new frontier in the phenomenology of religion — from an intentional perspective to a numinous one.

Keywords
Gustav Menshing, religious experience, religious (post)experience, after God, the divine as meaning-in-itself, numinosity.

References

• Arapura, J. G. (1973). Religion as Anxiety and Tranquillity. An Essay in Comparative Phenomenology of the Spirit. The Hague: Mouton.
• Artemenko, N. (2021). Basic Concepts and Problems of Husserl’s Phenomenology (Lecture). Magisteria. Retrieved from: https://magisteria.ru/phenomenology/basic-concepts-and-problems-of-husserl. (In Russian)
• Biezais, H. (1972). Die himmlische Götterfamilie der alten Letten. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Historia Religionum. Uppsala, Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell.
• Chelovenko, T. G. (2010). On New Discourses of Modern Philosophical Phenomenology of Religion. Bulgakov Readings, 4, 68–72.
• Dupré, L. (1998). Religious Mystery and Rational Reflection: Excursions in the Phenomenology and Philosophy of Religion. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
• Grīnfelde, M. (2011). Gustavs Menšings un viņa Latvijas periods. Religiski-filozofiski raksti, ХIV (1), 77–83.
• Guseva, O. Y. (2008). Philosophical Phenomenology and Phenomenology of Religion: Formation of Methodology. Izvestiya Saratov University, Ser.: Philosophy. Psychology. Pedagogy, 8 (1), 16–20.
• Hegel, G. V. F. (1975). Philosophy of Religion. In 2 vols. Vol. 1 (M. I. Levina, Ed.). Moscow: Mysl’ Publ. (In Russian)
• Husserl, Е. (1999). Ideas for Pure Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy. Book I (A. V. Mikhailov, Trans.). Moscow: Dom intellektual’noi knigi Publ. (In Russian)
• Ingarden, R. (1962). Studies in Aesthetics. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo inostrannoi literatury Publ. (In Russian)
• James, G. A. (1995). Interpreting Religion. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press.
• Lanczkowski, G. (1978). Einführung in die Religionsphänomenologie. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
• Laubier, P. de (2007). Phénoménologie de la religion. Saint-Maur: Parole et silence.
• Mensching, G. (1926). Das Heilige Schweigen, eine religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung. Giessen: A. Töpelmann.
• Mensching, G. (1947а). Religion, Rasse und Christentum; eine religionswissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung. Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann.
• Mensching, G. (1947b). Soziologie der Religion. Bonn: Röhrscheid.
• Mensching, G. (1948а). Geschichte der Religionswissenschaft. Bonn: Universitäts-Verlage.
• Mensching, G. (1948b). Gott und Mensch: Vorträge und Aufsätze zur vergleichenden Religionswissenschaft. Wiesbaden: Vieweg & Teubner.
• Mensching, G. (1952). Freies Christentum einst und heute. Frankfurt am Main: Dt. Bund f. freies Christentum.
• Mensching, G. (1959). Die Religion; Erscheinungsformen, Strukturtypen und Lebensgesetze. Stuttgart: C. E. Schwab.
• Mensching, G. (1966). Soziologie der grossen Religionen. Bonn: Röhrscheid.
• Mensching, G. (1976). Wesen und Bestimmung des Menschen im Glauben der Völker. Neue Zeitschrift für Systematicsche Theologie Und Religionsphilosophie, 18 (2), 160–172.
• Pylaev, M. A. (2006). Western Phenomenology of Religion. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo RGGU Publ. (In Russian)
• Samarina, T. S. (2016). Phenomenology of Religion F. Hailer. Bulletin of the Volgograd State University. Ser. 7, Philosophy, 2 (32), 22–33.
• Sharpe, E. J. (1986). Comparative Religion: A History. Chicago: Open Court.
• Spiegelberg, G. (2002). The Phenomenological Movement. Historical Introduction (M. Lebedev, O. Nikiforov, Eds.). Rus. Ed. Moscow: Logos Publ. (In Russian)
• Stavenhagen, К. (1979). Absolute Stellungnahmen. Eine ontologische Untersuchung über das Wesen der Religion. New York: Garland.
• Waardenburg, J. (1976). Gustav Mensching, Structures and Patterns of Religion. Delhi, Varanasi, Patna: Motilal Banarsidass.
• Waardenburg, J. (1978). Reflections on the Study of Religion. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
• Yablokov, I. N. (2018). Phenomenological Sociology of Religion: Dichotomous and Immanent-transcendent Vectors of Development. Religious Studies, 2, 110–121.

Article/Publication Details
Views: 340

THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE SACRED BY MIRCEA ELIADE AS AN ONTOLOGICAL DISCOURSE AND AS A MODEL OF REPRESENTATIVENESS OF THE STRUCTURES OF RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS

Abstract
The purpose of this article is a theoretical analysis and explication of paradigmatic versions of the Western phenomenology of religion of the 20th century. Mircea Eliade’s phenomenology of the sacred as an onto-phenomenological discourse and as a model of congruence of structures of religious consciousness is represented. Eliade’s approach creates a theoretical basis for elaborating a methodology of religious consciousness. One of the objectives of this study is to show that in the phenomenology of religion by Eliade there is a convergence of ontological and phenomenological perspectives in understanding the mytho-religious reality, which expands the conceptual and problematic field of the classical phenomenology of religion. This is one of the possible methodologies for studying religious (and mythological) reality, which can be designated as a substantialist methodology. It is revealed that an appeal to the essence, and not to forms, to substantialism, and not to accidentality is a characteristic feature of the phenomenology of religion by Eliade. A holistic, integrated picture is created through insight into the essence of religion (phenomenological intentionality) as well as analytical investigation. Eliade’s phenomenology of the sacred is considered as a quest for universal structures of religious consciousness. It is argued that the clarification of the ways of constituting the ontology of religious reality is one of the tasks of both Eliade studies and modern religious studies in general. In Eliade’s theoretical model religious ontology is equivalent to the ontology of the sacred. These are two coherent ontologies. The phenomenological approach of M. Eliade allows producing new strategies for the explication and interpretation of reality as such and its religious dimension. The modern philosophy and phenomenology of religion are faced with the need to develop an integrated conceptual model of religious studies. In this regard, the explication of the essential and conceptual nature of the category “sacred” is significant, which is concept-formative in various versions of the phenomenology of religion.

Keywords
phenomenology of religion, ontological discourse, M. Eliade, sacred, religious experience, intentionality, neophenomenology, religious subject.

References

• Barbosa da Silva, А. (1982). The Phenomenology of Religion as a Philosophical Problem: An Analysis of the Theoretical Background of the Phenomenology of Religion, in General, and of Eliade’s Phenomenological Approach, in Particular. Lund: Gleerup.
• Eliade, М. (2000а). Sacred and Рrofane. Rus. Ed. Moscow: Ladomir Publ. (In Russian)
• Eliade, М. (2000b). Images and Symbols (Essay on Magico-religious Symbolism). In The Myth of Eternal Return (127–247). Rus. Ed. Moscow: Janus-K. (In Russian)
• Eliade, М. (2002). History of Faith and Religious Ideas, Vol. 1. Rus. Ed. Moscow: Criterion Publ. (In Russian)
• Eliade, М. (2006). Nostalgia for the Origins. Rus. Ed. Moscow: Institut obshchegumanitarnykh issledovanii Publ. (In Russian)
• Ferenczi, S. (1955). Final Contributions to the Problems & Methods of Psycho-analysis. New York: Basic Books.
• Freud, S. (1989). The Future of One Illusion. In Twilight of the Gods (94–142). Rus. Ed. Moscow: Politizdat Publ. (In Russian)
• Gorokhov, A. (2010). Phenomenological Method M. Eliade. Bogoslov. Retrieved from: https://bogoslov.ru/article/1108038. (In Russian)
• Krasnikov, A. (2006). Neophenomenology of Religion. In E. S. Elbakian, A. N. Krasnikov & A. Zabiiako (Eds.), Study of Religion. Encyclopedic Dictionary (758–759). Moscow: Akademicheskii proekt Publ. (In Russian)
• Krasnikov, A. N. (2007). Methodological Problems of Religious Studies. Moscow: Akademicheskii proekt Publ. (In Russian)
• Leeuw, G. van der (1986). Religion in Essence and Manifestation (J. E. Turner, trans., H. H. Penner, ed.). New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
• Meagher, R. E. (1980). Mircea Eliade: Metodology and the Meaning of the Sacred. Hermathena, 128, 7–19.
• Nikonovich, N. (2006a). Historical Approach in the Philosophy of M. Eliade. Journal of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Humanities Series, 3, 12–20. (In Belarusian)
• Nikonovich, N. (2006b). Ontology of Archetypes: From Mythological to Transpersonal Paradigm. Bulletin of Polotsk State University. Series A. Humanitarian Sciences, 7, 74–80. (In Russian)
• Nikonovich, N. (2011). El paradigma del mito-ontológico de Mircea Eliade y su significación metodológica. ANDULI. Revista Andaluza de Ciencias Sociales, 10, 121–126.
• Nikonovich, N. (2017). The Problems of Ontology and Epistemology of Mythological and Religious Experience: Synthesis of Ideas of M. Eliade, C. G. Jung, S. Grof. Study of Religion, 1, 90–98. (In Russian)
• Nikonovich, N. (2018). Theoretical Analysis of the Philosophy of Myth by M. Eliade: Basic Ideas and Cognitive Potential. Minsk: Belorusskaia nauka Publ. (In Russian)
• Olson, C. (1988). The Fore-structure of Eiade’s Hermeneutics. Philosophy Today, 1 (32), 43–53.
• Olson, C. (1989). Theology of Nostalgia: Reflections on the Theological Aspects of Eiade’s Work. Numen, 1 (36), 98–112.
• Pylaev, M. A. (2006). Western Phenomenology of Religion: Theoretical and Methodological Foundations and Perspectives of Building Religious Studies as a Science of the Sacred. Moscow: Russian State University for the Humanities Publ. (In Russian)
• Rennie, B. S (1995). The Religious Creativity of Modern Humanity: Some Observations on Eiade’s Unfinished Thought. Religious Studies, 2 (31), 221–235.
• Samarina, T. (2019). Phenomenology, Noumenology, Postphenomenology of Religion. Moscow: Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences Publ. (In Russian)
• Sergeeva, Е. (2009). “Homo Religiosus” in Phenomenology of Religion. In XХ Annual Theological Conference of Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University of the Humanities (244–245). Moscow: Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University of the Humanities Publ. (In Russian)
• Smart, N. (2010). After Eliade: The Future of Religious Theory. Religious Studies, 3–4, 155–163. (In Russian)
• Smirnov, M., & Bokova, O. (2017). Methodology of Religious Studies as a Problem. Bulletin of the Leningrad State University named after A. S. Pushkin, 3, 133–146. (In Russian)
• Studstill, R. (2000). Eliade, Phenomenology, and the Sacred. Religious Studies, 2 (36), 177–194.
• Waardenburg, J. (2010). Reflections on Religious Studies, Including Essays on the Works of Gerard van der Leeuw. Classical Approaches to the Study of Religion. Goals, Methods and Theories of the Study. Introduction and Anthology. Vladimir: Vladimir State University Press. (In Russian)
• Zabiiako, А. (2002). The Sacred as a Category Phenomenology of Religion M. Eliade. Study of Religion, 3, 133–138. (In Russian)

Article/Publication Details
Views: 646

THE FACES OF GOD IN HUSSERL’S PHENOMENOLOGICAL METAPHYSICS

Abstract
This article draws on Husserl’s manuscripts on metaphysics, teleology, and monadology, primarily from Volume XLII of his Collected Works, to reconstruct a version of phenomenological theology and integrate it into contemporary philosophical discussions through a synthesis of poststructuralist and phenomenological approaches. From the poststructuralist perspective, I highlight the interpretation of J. Derrida’s recently published course “Phenomenology, Teleology, Theology: Husserl’s God,” where he emphasizes the dependence of phenomenological purity on speculative assumptions rooted in classical metaphysical thought, particularly the concept of God, which Husserl subjects to “exclusion” in Section 58 of Ideas I. On the phenomenological side, I engage with L. Tengelyi’s metaphysical approach, whose method of modalization and isolation of transcendental primordial facts serves as the basis for analyzing the phenomenon of universal teleology. I also emphasize the initial multiplicity and diversity within the realm of proto-facts, which leads me to broaden phenomenology and justify a return to the question of God by analyzing the genetic relations between motivational dynamics that shape metaphysical thought. This includes exploring the construction of proto-facticity within the bounds of intuitive evidence. The article also addresses the theological turn in contemporary French phenomenology, tracing its roots back to Husserl’s original project. I divide Husserl’s phenomenology of God into three interconnected aspects: first, in the description of pure consciousness, God appears as transcendence within immanence, an infinite idea inherent in consciousness; second, in the “speculative” dimension, God stands as the ultimate telos of history, generating transcendental intuition and universal reason; and third, in the lived experience of the lifeworld, God serves as an absolute value, bridging the natural and phenomenological attitudes by its irreducible significance for the subject. Finally, I examine biographical data to explore the personal dimension of Husserl’s concept of God and suggest that transcendental biography offers a way to understand the motivations behind phenomenological reduction.

Keywords
God, teleology, monadology, ontotheology, theological turn, phenomenological theology, phenomenological metaphysics, Husserl, Derrida, Tengelyi.

References

• Aguirre, A. (1970). Genetische Phänomenologie und Reduktion. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Aquinas, T. (1955). In librum de Causis. Turin: Marietti.
• Bello, A. A. (2009). The Divine in Husserl and Other Explorations. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Boehm, R. (1970). Husserl’s Concept of the “Absolute”. In R. O. Elveton (Ed.), The Phenomenology of Husserl: Selected Critical Readings (174–203). Chicago: Quadrangle Books.
• Cairns, D. (1976). Conversations with Husserl and Fink. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Chernavin, G. (2012). On the Issue of Interrelation of Multiple Types of Teleology in Husserl’s Phenomenology: The Teleological Aspect of the Passage to the phenomenological Attitude. Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology, 1 (2), 7–40. (In Russian)
• Chernavin, G. (2013). The Teleology of the Concordant Experience in Husserl’s Phenomenology. Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology, 2 (1), 28–47. (In Russian)
• Chernavin, G. (2023). Semblance of Conscience. Moscow: AST Publ. (In Russian)
• Depraz, N. (2008). Le corps glorieux: phénoménologie pratique de la Philocalie des Pères du désert et des Pères de l'Église. Louvain, Paris, Dudley (MA): Éditions Peeters.
• Descartes, R. (1963). Oeuvres philosophiques, t. I (1618–1637). Paris: Garnier Frères.
• Derrida, J. (1962). Introduction. In E. Husserl, L’Origine de la géométrie (3–171). Paris: PUF.
• Derrida, J. (1967). L’Écriture et la Différence. Paris: Seuil.
• Derrida, J. (2024). Du Même à l’Autre. Paris: Seuil.
• Eckhart, M. (1942). Traités et sermons. Paris: Aubier.
• Enriquez, M. M. (2017). Von der Erkenntnis der Wahrheit zur inneren Umwandlung des Menschen — eine Studie auf der Grundlage von Ähnlichkeiten im Denken von Nikolaus von Kues und Edmund Husserl. Poznańskie Studia Teologiczne, 31 (1), 145–177.
• Fink, E. (1966). Studien zur Phänomenologie (1930–1939). Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Fink, E. (1988). VI. Cartesianische Meditation. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Hart, J. G. (1992). Entelechy in Transcendental Phenomenology: A Sketch of the Foundations of Husserlian Metaphysics. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 66 (2), 189–212.
• Heidegger, M. (1935). Einleitung in die Metaphysik. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann.
• Held, K. (2010). Gott in Edmund Husserls Phänomenologie. In C. Ierna, F. Mattens & H. Jacobs (Eds.), Philosophy, Phenomenology, Sciences: Essays in Commemoration of Edmund Husserl (723–738). New York: Springer.
• Henry, M. (1996). C’est Moi la Vérité. Paris: Seuil.
• Henry, M. (2003). Phénoménologie de la vie. Vol. 1: De la Phénoménologie. Paris: PUF.
• Housset, E. (2010). Husserl et l’Idée de Dieu. Paris: CERF.
• Husserl, E. (1950a). Cartesianische Meditationen und Pariser Vorträge. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (1950b). Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie I: Allgemeine Einführung in die reine Phänomenologie. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (1954). Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (1956). Erste Philosophie I (1923–24): Kritische Ideengeschichte. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (1959). Erste Philosophie II (1923–24): Theorie der phänomenologischen Reduktion. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (1966). Analysen zur passiven Synthesis: Aus Vorlesungs- und Forschungsmanuskripten 1918–1926. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (1973a). Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität: Dritter Teil: 1929–1935. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (1973b). Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität: Zweiter Teil: 1921–1928. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (1973c). Ding und Raum: Vorlesungen 1907. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (1974). Formale und Transzendentale Logik: Versuch einer Kritik der logischen Vernunft. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (1988). Vorlesungen über Ethik und Wertlehre (1908–1914). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Husserl, E. (1989). Aufsätze und Vorträge (1922–1937). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Husserl, E. (1993). Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie. Ergänzungsband: Texte aus dem Nachlass 1934–1937. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Husserl, E. (1994a). Briefwechsel III: Die Göttinger Schule. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Husserl, E. (1994b). Briefwechsel IV: Die Freiburger Schüler. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Husserl, E. (1994c). Briefwechsel VII: Wissenschaftlerkorrespondenz. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
• Husserl, E. (2006). Späte Texte über Zeitkonstitution: Die C-Manuskripte (1929–1934). Dordrecht: Springer.
• Husserl, E. (2008). Die Lebenswelt: Auslegungen der vorgegebenen Welt und ihrer Konstitution. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Husserl, E. (2012). Einleitung in die Philosophie: Vorlesungen 1916–1920. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Husserl, E. (2014). Grenzprobleme der Phänomenologie: Analysen des Unbewusstseins und der Instinkte. Metaphysik. Späte Ethik (Texte aus dem Nachlass 1908–1937). Dordrecht: Springer.
• Janicaud, D. (2000). Phenomenology and the “Theological Turn”: The French Debate. New York: Fordham University Press.
• Janicaud, D. (2009). La phénoménologie dans tous ses états. Paris: Gallimard.
• Jägerschmied, A. (1987). Gespräche mit Edmund Husserl (1931–1936). In E. Stein, Weg zur inneren Stille (203–239). Aschaffenburg.
• Kant, I. (1956). Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.
• Koyré, A. (1922). Essai sur l’idée de Dieu et les preuves de son existence chez Descartes. Paris: Éditions Ernest Leroux.
• Landgrebe, L. (1982). Faktizität und Individuation. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.
• Lee, N.-I. (1993). Edmund Husserls Phänomenologie der Instinkte. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Levinas, E. (1974). En découvrant l'existence avec Husserl et Heidegger. Paris: Librairie philosophique J. VRIN.
• Lo, L. C. (2008). Die Gottesauffassung in Husserls Phänomenologie. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
• Luft, S. (2002). Phänomenologie der Phänomenologie. Systematik und Methodologie der Phänomenologie in der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Husserl und Fink. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Marion, J.-L. (2011). Metaphysics and Phenomenology: A Relief for Theology. Logos, 3, 124–143. (In Russian)
• Mertens, K. (1996). Zwischen Letztbegründung und Skepsis: Kritische Untersuchungen zum Selbstverständnis der transzendentalen Phänomenologie Edmund Husserls. Freiburg, München: Verlag Karl Alber.
• Micali, S. (2008). Überschüsse der Erfahrung. Grenzdimensionen des Ich bei Husserl. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Patkul, A. B. (Ed.). (2024). The Phenomenological Concept of the World. St. Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo Russkoi khristianskoi gumanitarnoi akademii Publ. (In Russian)
• Prusak, B. (2000). Translator’s Introduction. In D. Janicaud, Phenomenology and the “Theological Turn”: The French Debate (3–15). New York: Fordham University Press.
• Richir, M. (1989). Nous sommes au monde. In Le Temps de la réflexion, No. 10: Le Monde (237–258). Paris: Gallimard.
• Richir, M. (1991). Phénomène et Infini. In Cahiers de l’Herne, Nr. 60: Emmanuel Lévinas (241–261). Paris: Éditions de l’Herne.
• Schnell, A. (2012). Phänomenbegriff und phänomenologische Konstruktion bei Husserl und Heidegger. In G.-J. van der Heiden, K. Novotny, I. Römer & L. Tengelyi (Eds.), Investigating Subjectivity: Classical and New Perspectives (43–54). Leiden, Boston: Brill.
• Schuhmann, K. (Ed.). (1977). Husserl-Chronik: Denk- und Lebensweg Edmund Husserls. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
• Strasser, S. (1979). History, Teleology, and God in the Philosophy of Husserl. In The Teleologies in Husserlian Phenomenology: The Irreducible Element in Man. Part III ‘Telos’ as the Pivotal Factor of Contextual Phenomenology (317–333). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
• Tengelyi, L. (2007). Erfahrung und Ausdruck: Phänomenologie im Umbruch bei Husserl und seinen Nachfolgern. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Tengelyi, L. (2016). Welt und Unendlichkeit. Freiburg, München: Verlag Karl Alber.
• Wetz, F. J. (1995). Edmund Husserl. Frankfurt am Main, New York: Campus Verlag.
• Wolz-Gottwald, E. (1999). Transformation der Phänomenologie. Zur Mystik bei Husserl und Heidegger. Wien: Passagen Verlag.
• Yampolskaya, A. (2013). The Phenomenological Method and its Boundaries: From German to French Phenomenology (Doctoral Thesis). Moscow: Russian State University for the Humanities. (In Russian)

Article/Publication Details
Views: 329

UNFOLDED BEINGS AND A GLIMPSE OF NOTHING: A PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION OF MARC RICHIR’S ARTICLE “THE FOLDED NOTHING”

Abstract
This article serves as a preface to the translation of Marc Riсhir’s work “The Folded Nothing” (1970) and explores its significance for the formation of Riсhir’s phenomenology. The author aims to prepare the reader for engaging with Riсhir’s complex text by situating “The Folded Nothing” both within the context of the philosopher’s other works and within the broader intellectual landscape shaped by thinkers who influenced Riсhir’s philosophy. Emphasizing the importance of “The Folded Nothing” for the French phenomenologist’s thought, the author traces how this work: 1) shapes the key “figures” of Riсhir’s early philosophical thinking; 2) establishes Riсhir’s stance toward traditional metaphysics; 3) introduces and develops the problem of theoretical language. To help the reader navigate Riсhir’s unconventional imagery, the author reconstructs the figure of double movement, providing explanatory commentary. Furthermore, the author highlights how the figure described in Riсhir’s text is also embodied in his writing/narration practice. Author also emphasizes the question of the role of the subject in the figure of phenomenalization, offering an original interpretation that accounts for the absence of such subject in Riсhir’s figure of phenomenalization. Additionally, author identifies and conceptualizes the key innovations of “The Folded Nothing”: 1) the “unfolding” of beings as a consequence of Riсhir’s figure of phenomenalization; 2) Riсhir’s construction of narrative as a de-transcendentalized phenomenological description. Finally, the author traces how the notion of “refonte” enters Riсhir’s philosophical vocabulary, a concept he would later use to characterize his phenomenological project in subsequent works.

Keywords
Richir, phenomenology, phenomenalization, metaphysics, refonte, nothing.

References

• Bachelard, G. (1934). La formation de l’esprit scientifique. Contribution à une psychanalyse de la connaissance objective. Paris: Librairie philosophique J. VRIN.
• Badiou, A. (1968). La subversion infinitésimale. Cahiers pour l’Analyse, 9, 118–137.
• Carlson, S. (2010). L’essence du phénomène: La pensée de Marc Richir face à la tradition phénoménologique. Eikasia. Revista de Filosofía, 6 (34), 199–360.
• Fichant, M., & Pêcheux, M. (1969). Sur l’histoire des sciences. Paris: François Maspero.
• Mikhaylov, D. (2023). “La Différance” and “Rien Enroulé”: Young Marc Richir Reads Derrida. Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology, 12 (1), 141–158.
• Regnault, F. (1966). Structure and Subject. Cahiers pour l’Analyse, 2. Retrieved from: http://cahiers.kingston.ac.uk/synopses/syn9.4.html.
• Regnault, F. (1968). Dialectique d’épistémologies. Cahiers pour l’Analyse, 9, 45–73.
• Richir, M. (1968). Grand jeu et Petits jeux. Textures (Bruxelles), 3–4 (hiver): Révolutions, 5–35.
• Richir, M. (1969). Prolégomènes à une théorie de la lecture. Textures (Bruxelles), 5 (printemps): Fictions, 35–53.
• Richir, M. (1977). Le statut de la philosophie première face à la crise des fondements des sciences positives. In Annales de l’Institut de Philosophie de l’U. L. B. (185–187). Bruxelles: l’Institut de philosophie de l’Université de Bruxelles.
• Richir, M. (1982). Barbarie et Civilisation. Réseaux, 41-42-43, 21–43.
• Richir, M. (1991). Passion du penser et pluralité phénoménologique des mondes. Epokhé (Grenoble: Jérôme Millon), 2 (octobre): Affectivité et pensée, 113–173.
• Richir, M. (2015). L’Écart et le Rien. Grenoble: Millon.
• Richir, M. (2020). Defenestration. Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology, 9 (2), 760–781. (In Russian)
• Vizgin, V. (1996). Gaston Bachelard’s Epistemology and the History of Science. Moscow: Institute of Philosophy, RAS Publ. (In Russian)