As Husserl already noticed, artworks themselves have a phenomenological character. This means, however, that to experience artworks as phenomena no “epoché” and no “phenomenological reduction” is necessary. The leading question of my essay is whether, and possibly how, this observation can be methodologically generalized for understanding phenomena. I discuss if, and possibly how, a phenomenological reflection on art allows and even demands a general conception of phenomenology that nevertheless does not confuse artworks with phenomena in general. My intention is to (...) show that and how phenomenality can be clarified with reference to its spatial character. Accordingly, works of architecture that are artworks will play a decisive role in my argument. (shrink)

Figal has long been recognized as one of the most insightful interpreters working in the tradition of philosophical hermeneutics and its leading themes concerned with ancient Greek thought, art, language, and history. With this book, Figal presses this tradition of philosophical hermeneutics in new directions. In his effort to forge philosophical hermeneutics into a hermeneutical philosophy, Figal develops an original critique of the objectification of the world that emerges in modernity as the first stage in his systematic (...) treatment of the elements of experience hermeneutically understood. Breaking through the prejudices of modernity, but not sacrificing the importance and challenge of the objective world that confronts us and is in need of interpretation, Figal reorients how it is that philosophy should take up some of its most longstanding and stubborn questions. World, object, space, language, freedom, time, and life are refreshed as philosophical notions here since they are each regarded as elements of human life engaged in the task assigned to each of us—the task of understanding ourselves and our world. (shrink)

Czech translation of Günter Figal’s lecture Theorie und Praxis: Über die Möglichkeit ihrer klassischen Verhältnisbestimmung.

Research that is initiated, designed or funded by sponsor agencies based in countries with relatively high social and economic development, and conducted in countries that are relatively less developed, gives rise to many important ethical challenges. Although clinical trials of HIV vaccines began ten years ago in the US and Europe, an increasing number of trials are now being conducted or planned in other countries, including several that are considered “developing” countries. Safeguarding the rights and welfare of individuals participating as (...) research subjects in developing countries is a priority. In September, 1997, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS embarked on a process of international consultation; its purpose was further to define the important ethical issues and to formulate guidance that might facilitate the ethical design and conduct of HIV vaccine trials in international contexts. This paper summarises the major outcomes of the UNAIDS consultative process. (shrink)

This article compares Kant and Fichte from the double stand- point of identity and difference with regard to two thinkers who were at first united by a master-student relation but who later on drifted apart from each other due to mutual defamation. At the center of the present discussion stands the relationship between spirit of freedom and system’s form which binds Kant and Fichte beyond methodological divergences and doctrinal differ- ences. The critical comparison between Kant and Fichte will be developed (...) in four steps: it will start with the general positioning of Kant within German Idealism, and then move on to Kant’s double critical enterprise of grounding an aprioristic doctrine of principles of nature and freedom; it will later on address the conception championed by Fichte of having pre- sented the “first system of freedom”, and from there it will focus on the manifestations of freedom within Fichte’s philosophical system, with Kant’s position as contrast. (shrink)

In the article I discuss Husserl’s conception of the Lifeworld as developed in his Crisis Book, in order to find out whether art can be especially illuminative in order to understand the Lifeworld and one’s own living in it. I draw a parallel between the sciences as discussed by Husserl as abstractions from the Lifeworld that offer a special view of what in the Lifeworld as such remains disclosed. However, scientific and artistic abstraction differs in character. Whereas the sciences establish (...) formal systems and thereby discover the world as to its computability, the arts abstract from the everyday set of meanings and go back to the primordial and original experience of the world in its perceptibility. Thus they are able to draw attention to the essential character of the Lifeworld as such. (shrink)

Scientific exploration and thus our knowledge about the outside world is subject to the conditions of our experience.These conditions are condensed here into an interface model which,besides being physical,has an additional interface structure not reducible to physics. We suggest that this structure can dynamically be characterized by separate modes.Their selection and operation presupposes free will and a rudimentary concept of time and space. Based on some analogies with quantum networks it is argued that the 'observed' gets 'dressed'as a consequence of (...) the observing. Interface dynamics and system dynamics supplement each other without over- determination. (shrink)

Nach der phänomenologischen Hermeneutik von Gegenständlichkeit (2006) und der phänomenologischen Ästhetik von Erscheinungsdinge (2010) legt Günter Figal mit Unscheinbarkeit ein Buch vor, in dem die Phänomenologie zusammen mit ihrer Sache, den Phänomenen, das Hauptthema ist. Phänomene, so der zentrale und in der phänomenologischen Philosophie neue Gedanke es Buches, sind als solche räumlich und also nur vom Raum her zu verstehen. Entsprechend muss die Phänomenologie eine Reflexion und Beschreibung des Raums sein. Der Raum ist das Unscheinbare, in dem etwas erscheinen (...) und darin Phänomen sein kann. Wenn es so ist, beschreibt die Phänomenologie nicht nur Raum, sondern ist selbst nur im Raum möglich. Die Bestimmungen des Raumes und der Räumlichkeit, die das Buch entwickelt, ergeben sich aus dem genauen Hinsehen, dem bewussten Erleben. So ist das Buch dem Gedanken Husserls verpflichtet, dass die Anschauung "die einzige Rechtsquelle der Erkenntnis" ist. (shrink)

Art, philosophically -- Beauty -- Art forms -- Nature -- Space.

Mohr Siebeck publishing company, Tuebingen, Germany. Academic books since 1801 in the fields of theology, philosophy, law.

If one takes Heidegger at his word then his philosophy is about pursuing different "paths" of thought rather than defining a single set of truths. This volume gathers the work of an international group of scholars to present a range of ways in which Heidegger can be read and a diversity of styles in which his thought can be continued. Despite their many approaches to Heidegger, their hermeneutic orientation brings these scholars together. The essays span themes from the ontic to (...) the ontological, from the specific to the speculative. While the volume does not aim to present a comprehensive interpretation of Heidegger's later thought, it covers much of the terrain of his later thinking and presents new directions for how Heidegger should and should not be read today. Scholars of Heidegger's later thought will find rich and original readings that expand considerations of Heidegger's entire oeuvre. (shrink)

El presente artículo pretende trazar las líneas generales de una fenomenología realista que gira alrededor del espacio entendido como aquello que posibilita la fenomenalidad de los fenómenos. Tomando como punto de partida la crítica del realismo especulativo (Meillassoux) al correlacionismo fenomenológico, intentaremos mostrar, por el contrario, que la realidad se comprende mejor si se tiene en cuenta la correlación entre el aparecer y lo que aparece. Sin embargo, para hacer justicia a la realidad, no se puede seguir sin más la (...) concepción husserliana de esta correlación. La realidad no debe entenderse como una realidad inmanente; es necesario considerar más bien su exterioridad, esto es, su espacialidad. El espacio, sin embargo, no aparece, sino que es inaparente. En consecuencia, una fenomenología de la exterioridad, esto es, una fenomenología realista, es necesariamente una fenomenología de lo inaparente. (shrink)

What makes philosophy metaphysical? Understood as the search for truth, philosophy has led those seeking it to the question of Being, says Gunter Figal. He shows that because this devotion to truth and Being are the heart of metaphysics, it is what makes up philosophy's metaphysical character. Figal embraces this, and, leaving arguments for simple affirmation aside, offers instead a critical discussion of the positions adopted by metaphysical philosophy's founding fathers, Parmenides, Plato and Aristotle. Alongside a phenomenological transformation (...) of the latter's ontology, Figal also sets out why he regards metaphysics as just one philosophical perspective among others, and not as a dominating `first philosophy?. The outcome is philosophy as a de-centered, non-hierarchical and liberating project. (shrink)

Mohr Siebeck publishing company, Tuebingen, Germany. Academic books since 1801 in the fields of theology, philosophy, law.

Der Aufsatz ist eine phänomenologische Untersuchung der Begriffsbildung. Die Allgemeinheit und Abstraktionsleistung von Begriffen werden über zwei ihrer Wesensmomente verständlich gemacht: Begriffe werden an Modellen entwickelt: m Verhältnis zu ihrer Sache erfordert die Begriffsbildung einen bestimmten Grad der Intensität. Das Ergebnis der Untersuchung dient als Ausgangspunkt dafür, den Status phänomenologischer Begriffe selbst zu verstehen. In diesem Zusammenhang wird vor allem der Darstellungscharakter dieser Begriffe betont.

Earth possesses a double-character: it supports life and grounds perception and experience, but because of being this very base, also restricts these stances, since as base of any activity, theoretical or practical, it cannot be overstepped. Thus, earth itself is also groundless. Nevertheless, this duplicity is not contradictory, is no dualism, when formulated as earth being both a space of movement and a space of sense. Understanding this duplicity means understanding the intertwining of these two spaces by articulating the possibilities (...) of movements within sense; it means an understanding of sense and meaning in moving. This is the task of philosophy: both alienation from earth and the matter-of-course of its sense and return to it by taking part in its sense of moving and becoming. This is gained by interpretation, of which we draw on as a model reading Nietzsche on 'Will to Power' and perspectivity, and Plato's conception of dialectic. Thus, interpretation represents itself sensibly in earth's duplicity. (shrink)

With reference mainly to Paul Klee’s Ad marginem from 1930 , this article focuses on space—namely, on the question of how space can be made visible as such. Having figures, lines, and the background establishing an intense interplay of transparency, Klee’s work refrains from displaying the mere spatiality of objects. It is this interplay of transparent figures entangled with their background that are withdrawing but not disappearing that creates an empty space that is as such limited and unoccupied. Compared to (...) a garden, the idea of limiting and simultaneously making visible an eminent openness is stressed. Referring, furthermore, to observations like Rilke’s poem Shawl or to Toyo Ito’s comments on Klee’s work, this article aims to display the eminent space character becoming visible in the painter’s œuvre. (shrink)

Starting from the observation that there are two different kinds of experiencing a thing – grasping and using it or keeping distance and contemplating it – this essay inquires into the enablement of this difference in experience. Referring to Georg Simmel's essay »Der Henkel« the special character of the handle of a vessel is examined in order to clarify the nature of the difference between things to grasp and things to contemplate. The argument is that this difference in experiencing a (...) thing is enabled by the spatiality of things and references to them. Therefore the example of the handles of a Japanese Igavase is taken to demonstrate how the particular spatiality of a thing determines the reference to it. Thus the difference in the ways of experiencing a thing results from a difference in the experience of space. (shrink)