Amphibian Dreams
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Steven Crowell
Abstract
What does the Kantian “transcendental turn” tell us about who we are? In his claim to “deny knowledge in order to make room for faith,” some have understood Kant’s achievement to have been a failed attempt to ward off nihilism, the idea that human existence is devoid of meaning. Karsten Harries argues that we can neither accept Kant’s solution nor give up what it sought to reconcile: a robust affirmation of science and an equally robust insistence on our freedom. Harries argues that phenomenology - here represented by Husserl and Heidegger - cannot adequately lead us out of these antinomies, but I will argue that he underestimates the resources of transcendental phenomenology to address nihilism because he operates with a restricted concept of reason. By examining the clues Harries offers for confronting nihilism - in art, in our experience of persons, in Hans Blumenberg’s notion of Unbegrifflichkeit - I will argue that such clues draw upon insights that belong within the scope of a transcendental phenomenology and that the concept of “human” reason they entail is not subject to the antinomies Harries attributes to transcendental philosophy.
Abstract
What does the Kantian “transcendental turn” tell us about who we are? In his claim to “deny knowledge in order to make room for faith,” some have understood Kant’s achievement to have been a failed attempt to ward off nihilism, the idea that human existence is devoid of meaning. Karsten Harries argues that we can neither accept Kant’s solution nor give up what it sought to reconcile: a robust affirmation of science and an equally robust insistence on our freedom. Harries argues that phenomenology - here represented by Husserl and Heidegger - cannot adequately lead us out of these antinomies, but I will argue that he underestimates the resources of transcendental phenomenology to address nihilism because he operates with a restricted concept of reason. By examining the clues Harries offers for confronting nihilism - in art, in our experience of persons, in Hans Blumenberg’s notion of Unbegrifflichkeit - I will argue that such clues draw upon insights that belong within the scope of a transcendental phenomenology and that the concept of “human” reason they entail is not subject to the antinomies Harries attributes to transcendental philosophy.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Table of Contents v
- Husserl, Kant, and Transcendental Phenomenology 1
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Section I: The Transcendantal and the A priori
- The Meaning of the Transcendental in the Philosophies of Kant and Husserl 23
- The Ethics of the Transcendental 41
- The Phenomenological a priori as Husserlian Solution to the Problem of Kant’s “Transcendental Psychologism” 57
- On the Naturalization of the Transcendental 83
- Kant, Husserl, and the Aim of a “Transcendental Anthropology” 101
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Section II: The Ego and the Sphere of Otherness
- Transcendental Apperception and Temporalization 127
- “The Ego beside Itself” 143
- Kant and Husserl on Overcoming Skeptical Idealism through Transcendental Idealism 163
- “Pure Ego and Nothing More” 189
- Towards a Phenomenological Metaphysics 213
- The Transcendental Grounding of the Experience of the Other (Fremderfahrung) in Husserl’s Phenomenology 235
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Section III: Aesthetic, Logic, Science, Ethics
- Aesthetic, Intuition, Experience 259
- Synthesis and Identity 279
- Questions of Genesis as Questions of Validity 303
- Philosophical Scientists and Scientific Philosophers 333
- A Phenomenological Critique of Kantian Ethics 359
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Section IV: Transcendental Philosophy in Debate
- Is There a “Copernican” or an “Anti-Copernican” Revolution in Phenomenology? 391
- Back to Fichte? 411
- “An Explosive Thought:” Kant, Fink, and the Cosmic Concept of the World 439
- Eugen Fink’s Transcendental Phenomenology of the World 455
- Amphibian Dreams 479
- Husserlian Phenomenology in the Light of Microphenomenology 505
- Index of Persons 523
- Subject Index 527
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Table of Contents v
- Husserl, Kant, and Transcendental Phenomenology 1
-
Section I: The Transcendantal and the A priori
- The Meaning of the Transcendental in the Philosophies of Kant and Husserl 23
- The Ethics of the Transcendental 41
- The Phenomenological a priori as Husserlian Solution to the Problem of Kant’s “Transcendental Psychologism” 57
- On the Naturalization of the Transcendental 83
- Kant, Husserl, and the Aim of a “Transcendental Anthropology” 101
-
Section II: The Ego and the Sphere of Otherness
- Transcendental Apperception and Temporalization 127
- “The Ego beside Itself” 143
- Kant and Husserl on Overcoming Skeptical Idealism through Transcendental Idealism 163
- “Pure Ego and Nothing More” 189
- Towards a Phenomenological Metaphysics 213
- The Transcendental Grounding of the Experience of the Other (Fremderfahrung) in Husserl’s Phenomenology 235
-
Section III: Aesthetic, Logic, Science, Ethics
- Aesthetic, Intuition, Experience 259
- Synthesis and Identity 279
- Questions of Genesis as Questions of Validity 303
- Philosophical Scientists and Scientific Philosophers 333
- A Phenomenological Critique of Kantian Ethics 359
-
Section IV: Transcendental Philosophy in Debate
- Is There a “Copernican” or an “Anti-Copernican” Revolution in Phenomenology? 391
- Back to Fichte? 411
- “An Explosive Thought:” Kant, Fink, and the Cosmic Concept of the World 439
- Eugen Fink’s Transcendental Phenomenology of the World 455
- Amphibian Dreams 479
- Husserlian Phenomenology in the Light of Microphenomenology 505
- Index of Persons 523
- Subject Index 527
