Crisis and Husserlian Phenomenology: A Reflection on Awakened Subjectivity

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Shedding new light on the theme of "crisis" in Husserl's phenomenology, this book reflects on the experience of awakening to one's own navet. Beginning from everyday examples, Knies examines how this awakening makes us culpable for not having noticed what was noticeable. He goes on to apply this examination to fundamental issues in phenomenology, arguing that the appropriation of nave life has a different structure from the reflection on pre-reflective life. Husserl's work on the "crisis" is presented as an attempt to integrate this appropriation into a systematic transcendental philosophy. Crisis and Husserlian Phenomenology brings Husserl into dialogue with other key thinkers in Continental philosophy such as Descartes, Kant, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida. It is suitable for students and scholars alike, especially those interested in subjectivity, responsibility and the philosophy of history.

Reviews

This is a remarkable book. Knies has an unerring feel for phenomenological description and writes in an elegant, jargon-free style accessible even to readers who have no prior knowledge of Husserl and the phenomenological tradition. In a completely original way, Knies moves from an analysis of what it is to presuppose something to a defense of transcendental phenomenology as awakening to a naivete for which we henceforth become responsible. What Husserl called crisis thus belongs to subjectivity as well as to history, a theme that is deeply pursued in this exemplary work of philosophy. A must-read. * Steven Crowell, Mullen Professor of Humanities, Rice University, USA *
Returning "to the things themselves" with philosophical acumen and philological accuracy, Kenneth Knies's Crisis and Husserlian Phenomenology sets an excellent example of how to do phenomenology with and beyond Husserl about crucial concerns that he and we share, for example, the power of presuppositions, the force of awakenings, the attraction of attitudes, the necessity of appropriations, and the significance of seriousnessjust to name a few. * George Heffernan, Professor of Philosophy, Merrimack College, USA *
Kenneth Knies offers an expansive investigation of the connection in Husserl's thinking between a phenomenology of consciousness and a phenomenology of awakening in a time of crisis. Based on a balanced combination of illuminating interpretations of Husserl's writings and suggestive developments of key phenomenological concepts, Knies' work ranges over a host of themes in exploring the complexity and challenge of self-reflection and self-responsibility, not only for the crisis of Husserl's time, but just as much for our own. * Nicolas De Warren, Associate Professor of Philosophy, The Pennsylvania State University, USA *

Author Bio

Kenneth Knies is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Sacred Heart University, Connecticut, USA. His primary research focus is phenomenology. He is also interested in ancient philosophy and the differing approaches to transcendental subjectivity in the modern tradition.