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The Natural World as a Philosophical Problem

by Jan Patocka
translated by Erika Abrams
edited by Ivan Chvatík and Lubica Ucník
contributions by Ludwig Landgrebe

Northwestern University Press, 2016
Cloth: 978-0-8101-3362-4 | eISBN: 978-0-8101-3363-1 | Paper: 978-0-8101-3361-7
Library of Congress Classification BD516.P3713 2016
Dewey Decimal Classification 113

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The first text to critically discuss Edmund Husserl’s concept of the "life-world," The Natural World as a Philosophical Problem reflects Jan Patocka's youthful conversations with the founder of phenomenology and two of his closest disciples, Eugen Fink and Ludwig Landgrebe. Now available in English for the first time, this translation includes an introduction by Landgrebe and two self-critical afterwords added by Patocka in the 1970s. Unique in its extremely broad range of references, the work addresses the views of Russell, Wittgenstein, and Carnap alongside Husserl and Heidegger, in a spirit that considerably broadens the understanding of phenomenology in relation to other twentieth-century trends in philosophy. Even eighty years after first appearing, it is of great value as a general introduction to philosophy, and it is essential reading for students of the history of phenomenology as well as for those desiring a full understanding of Patocka’s contribution to contemporary thought.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

JAN PATOCKA (1907–1977) was a Czech philosopher, phenomenologist, cultural critic, and one of the first spokespersons for the Charta 77 human rights movement in the former Czechoslovakia. He was among Edmund Husserl's last students, and he attended Heidegger's seminars in Freiburg.

IVAN CHVATIK is director of the Jan Patocka Archive and codirector of the Center for Theoretical Study at the Institute for Advanced Study at Charles University and the Czech Adademy of Sciences in Prague.

L'UBICA UCNIK is Professor of Philosophy at Murdoch University in Australia.

ERIKA ABRAMS is an award-winning translator and freelance writer. She coedited Jan Patocka and the Heritage of Phenomenology, and has translated and edited fifteen volumes of Patocka's writings in French.

LUDWIG LANDGREBE (1902–1991) was an Austrian phenomenologist and close associate of Edmund Husserl.

REVIEWS

“Finally in English, the first book explicitly dedicated to the groundbreaking topic of the life-world. Conceived with an intimate knowledge of the manuscripts that would lead to Husserl's Crisis, Patocka's study is far more than a commentary: it brilliantly advocates the need for philosophy, not by idealizing philosophy as a ‘unity function’ for the modern person’s splintered consciousness, but by drawing philosophy itself into the existential quest and returning to its Socratic impulses.” —Dr. Ludger Hagedorn, Head, Jan Patocka Archive, Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna

The Natural World as a Philosophical Problem “provides an engaging précis of Patocka's powerfully original philosophical approach to nature and illustrates his adept deployment of phenomenological method.” —Steven G. Crowell, author of Husserl, Heidegger, and the Space of Meaning

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD by Ludwig Landgrebe

THE NATURAL WORLD AS A PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM (1936)

Introduction

I. Stating the Problem
1. The Naive Life-World and the World of Science.
2. The Impact of the Scientific World-View on Our Life-Feeling.
3. Attempt at a Historical Typology of Possible Solutions to the Problem. Berkeley, Reid, Jacobi, Goethe. Modern Positivism: Avenarius, Mach, Bertrand Russell, Carnap, Wittgenstein, Physicalism.
4. Anticipating Our Own Proposed Solution. The Transcendental Theory of Experience Is in a Position to Reconcile the Supposed Opposites. Subjectivism As against All Sorts of Objectivism.

II. The Question of the Essence of Subjectivity and Its Methodical Exploitation
1. Descartes’ Cogito Cogitans and Cogito Cogitatum.
2. Kant’s I of Transcendental Apperception and the Empirical I.
3. Fichte’s Creative I and the Finite I. Fichte’s Subjective Method Is Synthetic.
4. Absolute Subjectivity and the Dialectical Method. Is the Essence of Subjectivity Identical with the I? Schelling.
5. Schelling’s and Hegel’s “Absolute Skepticism.” The Realization of this Idea in the Phenomenological Epoche and Reduction.
6. The Method of Phenomenology Is Analytic and Descriptive. Reduction Is Not a Method for Acquiring Eidetic Cognitions. The Method of Guiding Clues. Constitution and Its Problems. Eidetic Intuition.
7. The Objection of Solipsism. Transcendental Intersubjectivity As the Presently Attained Stage of the Subjective Reduction.

III. The Natural World
1. Description of the Situation of Man in the World. The Form of Being-in-the-World. Home and Alien. The Temporal Dimension of the World. The Subjective and Mood Dimensions of the World.
2. Reference to the Historical Development of the Problem. Kant, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Dilthey, Simmel, Husserl, Heidegger, etc.
3. The Subjective Attitude. The Concepts of Act- and Horizon-Intentionality.
4. The Concept of Horizon Already Anticipated before Husserl: Kant, Droysen.
5. Attempt at a Constitutive Sketch of the Genesis of the Naive World. Time as the Constitutive Basis. Original Time, Distinct from World-Time, Is Retention and Creation. The Process of Constitution Is Punctuated by the Process of the Objectification of Time. Progression: Qualitativeness, Space, Thing.
6. The Fundamental Tendencies Guiding the Articulation of Experience Are the Dispositional and the Communicative Tendency.

IV. A Sketch of a Philosophy of Language and Speech
1. Description of Language Comprehension, Disposing of Language (Speech), and the Phenomenon of Language Itself.
2. An Attempted Ideal Genesis of Language. Language Possible Only by Virtue of the Fact that Man Lives As a Free I.
3. Passive Experience and Its Mastering by Thought Through Language.
4. The Sensible Aspect of Language.
5. Language as Objective Meaning: the Thought-Schema and Its Mirroring in Language.

V. Conclusion
Proper Theory Becomes Possible Only on the Basis of Language. Outlook on the Genesis of Theory and, in Specie, of Modern Science.

“THE NATURAL WORLD” REMEDITATED THIRTY-THREE YEARS LATER
AFTERWORD TO THE SECOND CZECH EDITION (1970)
I. The Problem of the Natural World
II. Prehistory and History of the Problem of the Natural World
III. Human Life as the Movement of Existence

AFTERWORD TO THE FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION (1976)

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

INDEX

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