Ethics And Metaphysics In The Philosophy Of Edith Stein

This book is dedicated to Edith Stein (1891–1942), who is known widely for her contributions to metaphysics. Though she never produced a dedicated work on questions of ethics, her corpus is replete with pertinent reflections. This book is the first major scholarly volume dedicated to exploring Stein’s ethical thought, not only for its wide-ranging content, from her earlier to later works, but also for its applications to such fields as psychology, theology, education, politics, law, and culture. Leading international scholars come together to provide a systematic account of Stein’s ethics, highlighting its relation to Stein’s highly developed and complex metaphysics. Questions about the good, evil, the rights and ethical comportment of the person, the state, and feminism are addressed. The book appeals to scholars interested in the history of philosophical and ethical thought

This book explores Edith Stein's phenomenology of the state. It features chapters on the application of Stein’s political philosophy to real issues and questions affecting nations today. The contributors also situate Stein’s political theory within her larger philosophical corpus. The collection examines An Investigation Concerning the State from various angles. Scholars first consider some of the direct claims Stein makes about social and political ontology. They mine her work for its implications for and applications to contemporary debates. Then, the contributors position her work in relation to other figures in phenomenology, including Edmund Husserl and Max Scheler. Finally, Stein’s views are brought to bear on other disciplines, including feminism, theology, and literature. The contributors also use her theory of the state to address various contemporary issues, including bioethics and rights, globalization, as well as social and political inequality. The view of the state that emerges has implications for how we do politics and make ethical decisions. Moreover, Stein's work has an impact on our views of sociality (as opposed to the sociality of contractarian views of the state), pedagogy, women, theories of justice and law, as well as social psychology and religion. This volume helps readers better understand this vital voice in political philosophy and appeals to students, professors, and researchers working in the field.

For most philosophers, the work of Edith Stein continues to be eclipsed and relegated to obscurity. This work presents an excellent cross-section of Stein's writings and demonstrates the timeliness and relevance of her ideas for contemporary philosophical scholarship. Antonio Calcagno covers most of Edith Stein's philosophical life, from her early work with Husserl to her later encounters with medieval Christian thought, as well as a critical and analytical reading of major Steinian texts. Stein was an original thinker who challenged not only the direction in which Husserlian phenomenology was progressing but also sought to bring to philosophical light the relevance of certain key questions, including the meaning of what it is to be human, the relevance of metaphysics to science, and fundamental questions about the nature of God. Working to correct the perception that Stein is either an "unfaithful and distorting" phenomenologist or a pious Catholic mystic, Calcagno presents important work that has been neglected by both secular and religious scholars. The essays are not merely expository, but discuss the philosophical questions raised by Stein's work from a contemporary perspective, using Stein's original German texts. In its attention to the breadth and depth of Stein's philosophy from its initial development to its more mature form, The Philosophy of Edith Stein offers a new understanding of an individual who left behind an incredible philosophical and literary legacy worthy of scholarly attention. The book will be of interest not only to Stein scholars, but to feminists, phenomenologists, and Heideggerians.

Taking the term “phenomenologist” in a fairly broad sense, Early Phenomenology focuses on those early exponents of the intellectual discipline, such as Buber, Ortega and Scheler rather than those thinkers that would later eclipse them; indeed the volume precisely means to bring into question what it means to be a phenomenologist, a category that becomes increasingly more fluid the more we distance ourselves from the gravitational pull of philosophical giants Husserl and Heidegger. In focusing on early phenomenology this volume seeks to examine the movement before orthodoxies solidified. More than merely adding to the story of phenomenology by looking closer at thinkers without the same fame as Husserl or Heidegger and the representatives of their legacy, the essays relate to one of the earlier thinkers with figures that are either more contemporary or more widely read, or both. Beyond merely filling in the historical record and reviving names, the chapters of this book will also give contemporary readers reasons to take these figures seriously as phenomenologists, radically reordering of our understanding of the lineage of this major philosophical movement.

This study of the contemporary French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas compares his thought with that of his contemporaries, most notably Jacques Derrida and Husserl. Included is a discussion of Levinas's relation to Judaism, such as his use of literature from the Torah and other religious writings.

This book explores Edith Stein's phenomenology of the state. It features chapters on the application of Steins political philosophy to real issues and questions affecting nations today. The contributors also situate Steins political theory within her larger philosophical corpus. The collection examines An Investigation Concerning the State from various angles. Scholars first consider some of the direct claims Stein makes about social and political ontology. They mine her work for its implications for and applications to contemporary debates. Then, the contributors position her work in relation to other figures in phenomenology, including Edmund Husserl and Max Scheler. Finally, Steins views are brought to bear on other disciplines, including feminism, theology, and literature. The contributors also use her theory of the state to address various contemporary issues, including bioethics and rights, globalization, as well as social and political inequality. The view of the state that emerges has implications for how we do politics and make ethical decisions. Moreover, Stein's work has an impact on our views of sociality (as opposed to the sociality of contractarian views of the state), pedagogy, women, theories of justice and law, as well as social psychology and religion. This volume helps readers better understand this vital voice in political philosophy and appeals to students, professors, and researchers working in the field.

Many an interested person will have put aside a work by Edith Stein due to its seeming inaccessibility, aware that there was something important there for a future occasion. This essay collection attempts to give a key to reading Stein's various works. It is divided into two parts reflecting her development, «Phenomenology» and «Metaphysics».