Dialogues In Phenomenology

Phenomenology in the United States is in a state of ferment and change. Not all the changes are happy ones, however, for some of the most prominent philosophers of the first generation of phenomenologists have died: in 1959 Alfred Schutz, and within the past two years John \Vild, Dorion Cairns, and Aron Gur witsch. These thinkers, though often confronting a hostile intel lectual climate, were nevertheless persistent and profoundly influential-through their own works, and through their students. The two sources associated with their names, The Graduate Faculty of The New School for Social Research, and the circle around John Wild first at Harvard and later at Northwestern and Yale, produced a sizable portion of the now second gener ation American phenomenological philosophers. In a way, it was the very hostility of the American philo sophical milieu which became an important factor in the ferment now taking place. Although the older, first generation phenome nologists were deeply conversant with other philosophical move ments here and abroad, their efforts at meaningful dialogue were largely ignored. Determined not to remain isolated from the dominant currents of Anglo-American philosophy in par ticular, the second generation opened the way to a dialogue with analytic philosophers, especially through the efforts of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, led by 2 INTRODUCTION such men as James M. Edie and Hubert Dreyfus and, in other respects, Herbert Spiegelberg and Maurice Natanson.

The connecting of issues that have been heretofore largely kept separate is the thrust of the articles assembled here. From an article by a noted Continental thinker on the interrelation of phenomenology and pragmatism to articles on the phenomenological powers of theater, this book features such established thinkers as Paul Ricoeur, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Otto Pöggeler, Don Ihde, James Edie, Marjorie Grene, Eugene Gendlin, and Karl-Otto Apel speaking in innovative ways. There is extensive discussion of the life and thought of Martin Heidegger, an examination of the connection between phenomenology and the thought of Meinong, and an exposition of several of Merleau-Ponty's central issues. A section of the book deals with the problems of the connections between phenomenology and the theory of natural science. This volume advances the interchange between American and Continental thinkers through novel and provocative dialogue.

The term 'phenomenology of dialogue' has been used in Professor Goutam Biswas' book 'Art as Dialogue' in the context of dialogical explication of aesthetic experience. In this book, I have problematised the issue of epistemological monism so far as phenomenological approach is concerned. Through the comparative study of the trajectories of Martin Buber, Mikhail Bakhtin and Emmanuel Levinas, I have projected the possibility of an alternative paradigm to end the tension between agent-oriented and participant-oriented view of intentional structure of consciousness and thus set a trend, which is called Phenomenology Of Dialogue.

The five essays in this work attempt in interpretive and original ways to further the common field of investigation of man in the life-world. Richard Zaner in his examination of the multi-level approach of the social sciences to the social order points us toward essences and the manner in which they are epistemically understood. By contrasting the work of the later Durkheim with that of Husserl, Edward Tiryakian is able to suggest a commonality of endeavor between them. Paul Ricoeur, after phenomenologically distinguishing three concepts of ideology, examines the supposed conflict between science and ideology and its resolution through a hermeneutics of historical understanding. Maurice N at anson in his discussion of the problem of anonymity reflects on both the sociological givenness of the world and its phenomenological reconstruction, showing the necessary interrelationship of both prior ities. Fred Dallmayr, after a presentation of the state of validation in the social sciences and their problems in attempting to ground them selves either in regard to logical positivism or phenomenology, refers us to the perspective of Merleau-Ponty concerning the relationship of cognition and experience.