Short description:

This volume explores the phenomenological notion of essence and related concepts. It discusses the role of essences in epistemology, philosophy of language, sociology, philosophical anthropology, transcendental phenomenology, phenomenological realism and idealism, imagination, metaphysics, and mathematics.

Long description:

This volume explores the phenomenological notion of essence and related concepts. It discusses the role of essences in epistemology, philosophy of language, sociology, philosophical anthropology, transcendental phenomenology, phenomenological realism and idealism, imagination, metaphysics, and mathematics.

Due to widespread nominalist tendencies in philosophical approaches to language, anthropology and sociology, contemporary philosophy has developed a growing aversion against the thinking of essences. Phenomenology, on the other hand, stresses the importance of essences from a methodological and thematic perspective. This volume identifies the centrality of essences in Husserl?s transcendental phenomenology and traces their influence from the early phenomenological movement to contemporary debates. It also reflects on the problematic relationship of essences to philosophical anthropology, philosophy of culture, and metaphysics.

The Phenomenology of Essences will appeal to researchers and advanced students working in phenomenology and history of philosophy.

"An important book that elucidates one of the pillars of phenomenological thinking not seldom forgotten today: the question of ?essence? and its challenging complexity."

Philipp Schmidt, University of Würzburg, Germany

"This volume explores the nuances and subtleties of phenomenological re-interpretations of classical notions of essences in a way that can engage contemporary criticisms of a broad range of essentialisms. Essences are more complicated than they might first appear. Grohmann brings together leading and emerging scholars to investigate the philosophical relevance of phenomenological notions of essences and to engage contemporary criticisms of this persistent classical term."

Adam Konopka, Xavier University, USA

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction Till Grohmann  Part 1: Essences and Ideas in the Early Phenomenological Movement  2. Reinach?s Negative States of Affairs and the Role of Essence Kimberly Baltzer-Jaray  3. Jean Hering, Husserl and the Essence of Caesar Daniele De Santis  4. Heidegger?s Essentialism Daniel O. Dahlstrom  5. Husserl?s Essentialist Reform of Brentano?s Axiology Genki Uemura  Part 2: Husserl?s Phenomenological Eidetics  6. Ideation and Eidetic Variation: A Reconsideration Based on Husserl?s Texts Rochus Sowa  7. Cultural Elements in Types and Eidos: The Intersubjective Constitution of Types and its effect on the Eidos in Husserl?s Phenomenology Dieter Lohmar  8. On ?Logical? and ?Relational? Essences in Husserl?s Phenomenology Till Grohmann  Part 3: Essences in Logic, Mathematics and Philosophy of Language  9. Husserlian Essences and Analytic Philosophy Paul M. Livingston  10. Phenomenological Essences in Historical Perspective: An Essay on the Transcendental-Phenomenological Project of De-Sedimentation Burt C. Hopkins  11. Metalanguage and Metaconsciousness: How Formal Logic Proceeds Towards True Being Kyle Banick  12. The Ideality of Logic: Reassessing Husserl?s Anti-psychologism in the Logical Investigations Denis Seron  13. The Essence of Phenomenology in the Mirror of the Phenomenology of Mathematical Essences Dominique Pradelle  Part 4: Beyond Husserl?s Essentialism  14. Merleau-Ponty?s Later Phenomenology of In-visible Essences Diego D?Angelo  15. Deconstructing Essences: Derrida?s Two Criticisms of Essentialism Emanuela Carta  16. Ideality and Essence in Marc Richir Alexander Schnell