Phenomenology and Practical Life
From the outset, the founder of the phenomenological movement, Edmund Husserl, stressed
the practical import of phenomenology as a method and as a philosophical approach.
In fact, by the time of the Kaizo articles from the early 20's, Husserl had come to
see the phenomenological method as a unique opportunity for ethical renewal in Europe
and around the globe. However, the major works published during his own life-time
gave rise to the impression that Husserl himself remained too caught up in the models
of the natural and formal theoretical sciences to be able to address practical life
adequately. Subsequent figures who counted themselves as phenomenologists and other
figures influenced by phenomenology each proposed to correct this deficit in his or
her own way: Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, de Beauvoir, or Sarte, to name just
a few. In the meantime, we now know that this impression of Husserl himself was incomplete,
as the publication of his Ideas II, the Fichte lectures, the full versions of the
Kaizo lectures, two volumes of his lectures on ethics, and the research manuscripts
on the life-world have amply shown.
This global conference will especially welcome papers on practical life, its evaluative, social, historical and ethical dimensions both in light of the various approaches and manuscripts from what is now the history of phenomenology as one of the leading philosophical movements of 20th and 21st century philosophy, and on systematic issues related to those topics from a systematic perspective informed by phenomenological methods and insights as well.
Photo: Edmund Husserl 1910s (By Unknown Public Domain)