Conference | Paper

God without God: Husserl's Philosophical Theology and Its Place in History of Philosophy

Michal Lipták

Wednesday 6th September 2023

11:00 - 11:30

 

As demonstrated in pioneering studies by Stephen Laycock and James Hart, Husserl’s phenomenology had peculiar religious undercurrent, despite God being “bracketed” most of the time in his texts. Remarks on God and religion were scattered, for example, in Ideen I, Hua XV or Kaizo articles (Hua XXVII). With publication of Hua XLII (containing most of convolute A V 21), however, Husserl’s writings on philosophical theology became widely available. For Husserl, the idea of God is operative in the very limit problems of phenomenology: the very possibility of hyletic flow on one hand, and teleological establishment of transcendental community as condition of possibility of intersubjectivity on the other. Less technically, these writings concern questions of creation [die Schöpfung] and fate [das Schicksal]. In my paper, I will argue that this occupation with religion and theological questions connects Husserl’s phenomenology strongly to philosophical development of German philosophy throughout 19th and early 20th century, concluding philosophical-historical arc that starts with Hegel. I will begin with thesis from Jon Stewart’s recent book “that religion plays an absolutely central and constitutive role in the development of philosophy” during 19th century and that “concept of alienation is one that connects philosophy and religion in this period” (2021, 10). When philosophico-historical lens are applied to Husserl’s occupation with religion, his phenomenology can actually be read as late addition to this tradition, even with problem of alienation implicitly present in his phenomenology. Moreover, this approach also discloses Husserl as, despite himself, Hegelian to some degree, part of “Hegel’s century”. Uncovering these historical roots of Husserlian phenomenology can significantly contribute to contemporary phenomenology’s self-understanding, reminding us that despite more intense focus on minute investigations of particular phenomena (especially prevalent in current critical or engaged phenomenology), great, “eternal” philosophical questions, preceding phenomenology’s birth, still inevitably lurk behind all such investigations.