I dispute the claim that the disclosure of the life-world by phenomenology is an accomplishment of 'permanent' significance. By briefly reviewing the meaning of the "world" and "life-world" in the writings of Husserl, Gurwitsch, Schutz-Luckmann, Ortega, Heidegger, Jonas, Straus, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, I show that they all treat the world, or rather the affairs which comprise it, as passively present whether viewed as a mental acquisition or as the "Other." But the meaning of the world-as that wherein are met physical demands upon us which must be satisfied if we are to continue living-cannot be considered either as a mental acquisition or as something that is "other" and over against us. A living being as living cannot fail to attend to the agency of the affairs of which the life-world consists, as well as one's own exploring and coping actions. If we are to really speak of life, then we must acknowledge the mutual and reciprocal activities of living beings and world.
Gurwitsch has written that "the disclosure of the life-world [by phenomenology is] an accomplishment of permanent significance." (1974, 12) But is such a claim justifiable? I believe it is not. I shall briefly examine first the way transcendental and then existential phenomenologists understand the meaning of "world" or "life-world" and how the "world" is to be experienced as such, and I shall critique the views of each in turn.
The appropriate philosopher with which to begin an examination of any major phenomenological theme is most certainly Husserl. We as objects and subjects find ourselves in our conscious activities in a pre-given world existing for all in common according to Husserl. This world, always already there, is the univ...
... middle of paper ...
...ng beings and world.
References
Dewey, John, Reconstruction in Philosophy, Boston, 1957.
Dubos, Rene, The Torch of Life, New York, 1962.
Gurwitsch, Aron, Studies in Phenomenology and Psychology, Evanston, 1966.
Gurwitsch, Aron, Phenomenology and the Theory of Science, Evanston, 1974.
Husserl, Edmund, Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Evanston, 1970.
Jonas, Hans, The Phenomenon of Life, New York, 1966.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Phenomenology of Perception, London, 1962.
Ortega y Gasset, Jose, Phenomenology and Art, New York, 1975.
Schutz, Alfred, and Luckmann, Thomas, Structures of the Life-World, 2 vols., Evanston, 1973 and 1989.
Shotter, John, Social Accountability and Selfhood, Oxford, 1984.
Straus, Erwin, "Aesthesiology and Hallucinations," in Existence, ed. by May, Angel, Ellenberger, New York, 1958.
Sigmund Freud's Theory of Psychoanalysis
1621 Words | 7 PagesNew York: New York University Press, 1988. Clark, David Stratford. What Freud Really Said. New York: Schocken Books, Inc., 1965. Myers, David G. Exploring Psychology.
A Battle with Invisible Enemies in Kafka's The Trail
1521 Words | 7 Pages(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988) 248. ix[ix] Speirs and Sandberg, 97. Works Cited Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views: Franz Kafka. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Boa, Elizabeth.
The Philosophy of Cognitive Science
2160 Words | 9 PagesAubier, vol 1, Paris, 1964. Gonzales, M. E. Q. Neural networks and Mental Representation: An essay on Harmony and Rationality. In: Trans/ Form/Ação, São Paulo, v. 14, p.93-108, 1991. Nagel, E. The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation. Routhledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1961.
Man Dethroned: The Controlling Nature of a Personified Unconscious
2070 Words | 9 Pages[7] Peter Gay, ed., The Freud Reader (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989), 569-570. [8] ibid, 236-328. [9] Judy Jones and William Wilson, An Incomplete Education (New York: Ballantine Books, 1995), 438. [10] Jack Copeland, Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1993), 34. [11] Lesley Chamberlain, The Secret Artist (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2000), 142.
Gustav von Aschenbach's Death in Venice
4010 Words | 17 PagesMann, Thomas, Letters of Thomas Mann, selected and translated by Richard and Clara Winston, (New York: Knopf, 1971). Plato, Phaedrus, trans. R. Hackforth, in Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, eds. The Collected Dialogues of Plato (New York: Pantheon, 1966). Rey, W., '"Tragic Aspects of the Artist in Thomas Mann's Works," Modern Language Quarterly, 19 (September 1958).
Freud’s Mind Structure Theory
1590 Words | 7 PagesAlso, it must be taken into consideration that psychology is the science of d... ... middle of paper ... ... New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1960. Izenberg, Gerald, N. The Existentialist Critique of Freud: The Crisis of Autonomy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976. Macmillan, Malcolm. Freud Evaluated: The Competed Arc.
Can Skepticism Be Defended, Perhaps In A Limited Form?
2155 Words | 9 PagesEdwards, Paul (1965), The Logic of Moral Discourse, New York: The Free Press. Gorovitz, Williams (1967), Philosophical Analysis, An Introduction to Its Language & Techniques, New York: Random House. Guthrie, W. K. C. (1971), The Sophists, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hamlyn, D. W. (1983), The Theory of Knowledge, London: Macmillan Press. Harris, Errol (1969), Fundamentals of Philosophy - A Study of Classical Texts, U.S.A.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. Harrison, J.
Alcohol & Drug Abuse: A Psychobiological Trait In Human Societies
2541 Words | 11 PagesHeath, Dwight B, Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 1, American Reference Publishing Co., Inc., Lakeville, CT: 1996. Kottak, Conrad Philip, Cultural Anthropology, Mc Graw­Hill Publishing, Inc., New York: 1994. Lee, Richard B., The Dobe Ju/'hoansi, Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Orlando: 1993. Lisansky, Edith S., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol.
When and Why Communism Emerged
1440 Words | 6 Pages2. proletarians and communists, ... ... middle of paper ... ...ics and Revolution New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc., 1968 Secondary Encarta Ecyclopedia '95 CD-Rom Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia CD-Rom Encyclopedia Britanica Bibliography: Bibliography Primary 1. Freedman, Robert The Marxist System New Jersey: Chatham House Publishers Inc., 1990 2. Hunley, J. D. The Life And Thought of Freidrich Engels New Haven: Yale University press, 1991 3. Marx, Karl Engels, Friedrich The Communist Manifesto New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1987 4. Gurley, John G. Challengers of Capitalism: Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1988 5.
Heidegger's Critique of Cartesianism
3337 Words | 14 Pages(5) Heidegger, Basic Problems of Phenomenology p.111. (6) Heidegger M., Discourse on Thinking New York: Harper and Row, 1966, p. 7. (7) Nietzsche, vol. 4, p. 106. (8) Heidegger, M. History of the Concept of Time, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992, pp.
More about Human Life And World
Sigmund Freud's Theory of Psychoanalysis
1621 Words | 7 PagesA Battle with Invisible Enemies in Kafka's The Trail
1521 Words | 7 PagesThe Philosophy of Cognitive Science
2160 Words | 9 PagesMan Dethroned: The Controlling Nature of a Personified Unconscious
2070 Words | 9 PagesGustav von Aschenbach's Death in Venice
4010 Words | 17 PagesFreud’s Mind Structure Theory
1590 Words | 7 PagesCan Skepticism Be Defended, Perhaps In A Limited Form?
2155 Words | 9 PagesAlcohol & Drug Abuse: A Psychobiological Trait In Human Societies
2541 Words | 11 PagesWhen and Why Communism Emerged
1440 Words | 6 PagesHeidegger's Critique of Cartesianism
3337 Words | 14 Pages