The correlation between person and environment has long been a central focus of phenomenological analysis. While phenomenology is usually understood as a descriptive discipline showing how essential features of the human encounter with things and people in the world are articulated, phenomenology is also based on ethical concerns. Husserl himself, the founder of the movement, gave several lecture courses on ethics. This volume focuses on one trend in ethics—virtue ethics—and its connection to phenomenology. The essays explore how phenomenology contributes to (...) this field of ethics and clarifies some of its central issues, such as flourishing and good character traits. The volume initiates a conversation with virtue ethicists that is underrepresented in the current literature. Phenomenology and Virtue Ethics offers contributions from prominent phenomenologists who explore the following issues: how phenomenology is connected to the ancient Greek or Christian virtue tradition, how phenomenology and its foundational thinkers are oriented toward virtue ethics, and how phenomenology is itself a virtue discipline. The focus on phenomenology and virtue ethics in a single volume is the first of its kind. (shrink)

Heidegger and Epicurus seem to be separated by a great divide. Where Epicurus seeks ataraxia by minimizing anxiety and our concern with death, Heidegger describes how anxiety and death are factored into authentic living. But looks can be deceiving. A close study of Heidegger’s critique of das Man reveals a distinctly Epicurean line of thinking. His account of curiosity, in particular, parallels Epicurus’s own criticism of normal life as being mired in unnatural/empty desires due to an unconscious fear of death. (...) Despite this similarity, Heidegger’s interest in ontological anxiety, i.e., homelessness, contrasts deeply with Epicurus’s goal of mental tranquility. Yet this difference is overcome, in part, in Heidegger’s turn to peaceful dwelling as an expression of authentic Being-in-the-world. Indeed, Heidegger’s account of the fourfold as the essence of dwelling can be seen as an Epicurean four-part cure to suffering, bringing Heidegger into dialogue with the tradition of philosophical therapy. (shrink)

Husserl and Foucault appear to have little in common when it comes to the question of normality. Husserl often discusses the emergence or constitution of norms from a subjective perspective whereas Foucault targets norms as a coercive problem. But if we recognize that the body is the locus of concern for both thinkers, then we can see that Husserl's interest in norm optimization is at home with Foucault's genealogical critique of bio-power . The essay draws a line of comparison between (...) Husserl and Foucault around the idea of an optimizing practice. (shrink)

Husserl's notion of intentionality is based upon the postulate that consciousness is always consciousness of something. From this basic postulate, a distinct problem arises and to which Ricoeur's theory of narrative offers a response. ;The problem issues from the question of objectivity. When Husserl explains that consciousness is correlated to something , what he means is that a person grasps something real and that a person grasps this something as do all other people. Husserl, however, never properly incorporates such an (...) intersubjective perspective into the basic formulation of intentionality. Since Husserl always looks to the isolated ego as the source of objective validity, the external world seems to become reduced to the representative acts of consciousness. ;Ricoeur clearly overcomes this problem by focusing on the issue of linguistic mediation. What Ricoeur highlights is the fact that our intentions toward the world are already supported by a level of cultural achievement. The intending subject is not, therefore, an isolate ego weighing in his or her mind what expression is the best suited for what is intended. Intentions themselves feed on a social context, a culture, or a tradition which all have a presence in the form of written texts or narratives. Texts or narratives support and inform what can be intended. Although this appeal to narrative mediation answers the intersubjective question, we still need to be shown how the objective world is something more than a mere reflection of linguistic or narrative acts. ;Narrative is a term which has a dual significance: narratives are indeed accounts which people pass on to each other but they are also about reality insofar as they prescribe ways to act in the world. Here Ricoeur incorporates a theory of action into the notion of intentionality: actions are intelligible because of the intentions which permeate them and intentions are correlated to the world insofar as they can be acted upon. In this way, Ricoeur builds into the notion of intentionality an intersubjective component which remains connected to reality through the conscious acts of individuals. (shrink)

The age of the Anthropocene is arguably upon us. Heidegger’s famous discussion of technology helps us understand the attitude that put us in this crisis. Although Sartre’s work in the Critique of Dialectical Reason seems to be distinct from Heidegger’s, I show how his concern with the socially alienating phenomenon of seriality explains why this technological attitude is so persistent. And by studying Heidegger and Sartre together, we get a better sense of how our environmental destitution is correlated to a (...) social-political one. Relational respect is offered as an existential norm that helps us move beyond our violent tendency to objectify beings, both human and other than human. (shrink)

Hobbes’s account of sovereign power can be seen as an impetus to Arendt’s passion for authentic political life. From the Human Condition, we will see how the distinction between labor, work, and action can be read as a response to Hobbes’s accounts of both human nature and the necessity for harsh restrictions on citizens in society. In particular, the need for compelled silence, for Hobbes, appears as a dialectical counterpoint to the role of speech in the space of appearances for (...) Arendt. Hobbes also has a hand in drawing Arendt to her final interest in Kant’s Critique of Judgment. Here, Arendt addresses the problem of imperialism in Hobbes’s account of global power. She sees a way beyond imperialism through the cosmopolitan bond we share around the aesthetic domain. Aesthetic cosmopolitanism is a unique way into Arendt’s fight against tyranny. (shrink)

Aristotle’s account of virtue is criticized through John Russon’s existential phenomenology of the human being. For Russon, neurosis is a characteristic of human being, whereas Aristotle would say that neurotic tensions do not arise in genuinely good people. The essay argues that an Aristotelian attitude engenders a particularly destructive form of neurosis by not recognizing the inherently dynamic nature of human identity. The essay seeks to build a theory of virtue that resists the idea of human fulfillment as ending in (...) a final state of well-being and contentment. (shrink)

The collection of essays gathered here under the topic of justice is a welcome text both for scholars in general and for those who were hoping for a follow up to Ricoeur’s Oneself as Another. The essays assembled in The Just are at once essential readings for anyone concerned with the link between ethics, law, and politics and perfect complements to the seventh, eighth, and ninth studies contained in Oneself as Another. However, knowledge of Ricoeur’s earlier writings is not a (...) prerequisite for understanding the content of these essays since he retains the style of a moderator by engaging the most powerful authors on justice available: Aristotle, Kant, Arendt, Rawls, Walzer, to name just a few. (shrink)

Centered on the question of normativity and ethics, neuroscientist Jean-Pierre Changeux and philosopher Paul Ricoeur engage in a lively and informative dialogue. They share a common insight concerning ethics, but let us first look at some of their differences.