CFP: Edmund Husserl between Platonism and Aristotelianism

The New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy
Invites submissions on the following topic:

Edmund Husserl between Platonism and Aristotelianism

Volume XV (2015)

Guest Editors:
Daniele De Santis, Emiliano Trizio


Description

Edmund Husserl is known to have devoted little effort to the study of the classics of Western philosophy, with the possible exception of the writings of a few modern thinkers (such as Locke, Hume and Kant). This was due partly to his personal academic trajectory, which began with the study of mathematics and encountered philosophy through descriptive psychology, partly to the nature of the phenomenological project itself, as the attempt to lay the foundations of a scientific philosophy capable of defining its method and terminology on the basis of a purely intuitive procedure. Yet, Husserlian phenomenology is strongly and self-consciously rooted in the tradition of Western gnoseology and ontology and Husserl saw it as the fulfilment of that tradition initiated by Plato. Indeed, it is well known that in the writings of the father of phenomenology, his language and most of his terminology, is marked out by numerous references to the tandem Socrates-Plato as the creators of the idea of a foundational philosophy and as the initiators of the eidetic method.  

Although references to Aristotle are less frequent (often in relation to his role in the development of formal logic), one should not overlook the fact that issues such as the ontological status of “categories” as well as the description of “intentionality” hark back to a tradition of thought heavily influenced by Aristotle. Although direct references to the Stagirite are quite unusual, it is undeniable that Aristotle’s legacy has filtered into Husserl’s phenomenology through the works of his master Franz Brentano and his school.  

In short, Husserl’s phenomenology was inspired by the two most important sources of Western philosophy: Platon, der Göttliche (“the divine Plato”, as Schopenhauer called him once) and ’l Maestro di color che sanno (“the Master of those who know”, as Dante referred to Aristotle).  

We welcome submissions on any aspects of the relations between Husserl’s philosophy and the traditions of Platonism and Aristotelianism. These include, but are not limited to: the notions of eidos, Idea and category, formal and material ethics, episteme and doxa, teleology and Europe, skepticism, logic and the principle of non-contradiction, psychology and intentionality, analogy and abstraction, abstract entities and individual objects, formal and material ontology, geometry and mathematics. The articles cannot be longer than 75.000 characters, including spaces and footnotes.

The papers should be prepared for blind review and submitted by 30 October, 2014 to  [email protected] and to [email protected]

Confirmed Invited Contributors:

Nicolas de Warren (Husserl Archives - KU Leuven)
John Drummond (Fordham University)
George Heffernan (Merrimack College)
Burt Hopkins (Seattle University)
Claudio Majolino (Université de Lille-III)