Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-l4ctd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-13T14:35:53.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Levinas's faithfulness to Husserl, phenomenology, and God

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2011

THOMAS FINEGAN
Affiliation:
Department of Law, Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland e-mail: finegant@tcd.ie

Abstract

The contemporary debate in phenomenology concerning the ‘theological turn’ raises the issue of the relationship between faith and reason. One of the foremost statements on the theological turn, that of Dominique Janicaud, is an affirmation of the faith–reason dichotomy in the context of phenomenology, specifically in relation to how thinkers like Emmanuel Levinas have abused the phenomenological project of its founder, Edmund Husserl. This article challenges the faith–reason dichotomy and shows that the role of faith in Levinas need not mark him out as a deviant from Husserlian phenomenology.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ales Bello, Angela (2008) ‘The divine in Husserl and other explorations’, in Analecta Husserliana: The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research, XCVIII (Dordrecht: Springer).Google Scholar
Bernet, Rudolf (1994) ‘Phenomenological reduction and the double life of the subject’, in Kisiel, T. and van Buren, J. (eds) Reading Heidegger from the Start: Essays in his Earliest Thought (Albany: SUNY Press), 245267.Google Scholar
Cairns, Dorian (1976) Conversations with Husserl and Fink: Phaenomenologica, LXVI (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derrida, Jacques (2007) ‘Violence and metaphysics: an essay on the thought of Emmanuel Levinas’, in Derrida, , Writing and Difference, trans. Alan Bass (London and New York: Routledge), 97193.Google Scholar
Duméry, Henry (1957) Critique et Religion: Problèmes de méthode en philosophie de la religion (Paris: SEDES).Google Scholar
Dupré, Louis (1968) ‘Husserl's thought on God and faith’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 29, 201215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, James G. (1986) ‘A précis of an Husserlian philosophical theology’, in Laycock, Steven W. and Hart, James G. (eds) Essays in Phenomenological Theology (Albany: SUNY Press), 89168.Google Scholar
Hart, James G. (1990) ‘Divine truth in Husserl and Kant: some issues in phenomenological theology’, in Guerrière, Daniel (ed.) Phenomenology of the Truth Proper to Religion (Albany: SUNY Press), 221246.Google Scholar
Hart, James G. (1992) The Person and the Common Life (Dordrecht: Kluwer).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, James G. (1993) ‘The study of religion in Husserl's writings’, in Daniel, Mano and Embree, Lester (eds) Phenomenology of the Cultural Disciplines (Dordrecht: Kluwer), 265296.Google Scholar
Husserl, Edmund (1930–1934) ‘Transcendental anthropology’, Nachlass, MSS EIII.Google Scholar
Husserl, Edmund (1959) Erste Philosophie II: Husserliana VIII, ed. Boehm, Rudolf (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff).Google Scholar
Husserl, Edmund (1960) Cartesian Meditations, trans. Cairns, Dorian (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Husserl, Edmund (1965) ‘Philosophy as rigorous science’, in Husserl, , Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy, trans. Quentin Lauer (New York: Harper and Row), 71147.Google Scholar
Husserl, Edmund (1970) The Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, trans. Carr, David (Evanston IL: Northwestern University Press).Google Scholar
Husserl, Edmund (1981) ‘The Dilthey-Husserl Correspondence’, in Husserl: Shorter Works, ed. McCormack, Peter and trans. Elliston, Frederick (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press), 203209.Google Scholar
Husserl, Edmund (1983) Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to Phenomenological Philosophy, trans. Kersten, Fred (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff).Google Scholar
Janicaud, Dominique (2000) ‘The theological turn of French phenomenology’, in Janicaud, et al., Phenomenology and the ‘Theological Turn’: The French Debate, trans. Prusak, Bernard G. (New York: Fordham University Press), 16103.Google Scholar
Janicaud, Dominique (2005) On the Human Condition, trans. Brennan, Eileen (London and New York: Routledge).Google Scholar
Laycock, Steven W. (1986) ‘The intersubjective dimension of Husserl's theology’, in Laycock, Steven W. and Hart, James G. (eds) Essays in Phenomenological Theology (Albany: SUNY Press), 169186.Google Scholar
Levinas, Emmanuel (1961) Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority, trans. Lingis, Alphonso (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff).Google Scholar
Levinas, Emmanuel (1974) Otherwise Than Being or Beyond Essence, trans. Lingis, Alphonso (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff).Google Scholar
Levinas, Emmanuel (1998) ‘God and philosophy’, in Levinas, Of God Who Comes to Mind, trans. Bergo, Bettina (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moran, Dermot (2005) Edmund Husserl: Founder of Phenomenology (Cambridge and Malden MA: Polity Press).Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, Franz (1985) The Star of Redemption, trans. Hallo, William W. (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar