Phenomenology of the Alien: Basic Concepts

104 Pages·2011·0.69 MB·English

by  Bernhard Waldenfels

PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE ALIEN
Northwestern University
Studies in Phenomenology
and
Existential Philosophy
Founding Editor †James M. Edie
General Editor Anthony J. Steinbock
Associate Editor John McCumber

P H E N O M E N O L O G Y
O F T H E A L I E N
Basic Concepts
Bernhard Waldenfels
Translated from the German by
Alexander Kozin and Tanja Stähler
Northwestern University Press
Evanston, Illinois
Northwestern University Press
www .nupress.northwestern .edu
Copyright © 2011 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2011. All rights
reserved. Originally published in German as Grundmotive einer Phänomenologie des
Fremden, copyright © Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 2006.
Translation funded by Volkswagen Stiftung.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Waldenfels, Bernhard, 1934–
[Grundmotive einer Phänomenologie des Fremden. English]
Phenomenology of the alien : basic concepts / Bernhard Waldenfels ; trans-
lated from the German by Alexander Kozin and Tanja Stähler.
p. cm. — (Northwestern University studies in phenomenology and
existential philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8101-2756-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8101-2757-9 (pbk. :
alk. paper)
1. Other (Philosophy) 2. Phenomenology. I. Title. II. Series: Northwestern
University studies in phenomenology & existential philosophy.
BD460.O74W3413 2011
121.2—dc22
2011009404
o The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Introduction: Facets of the Alien 3
1 The Human as a Liminal Being 8
1. Orders and Their Limits — 2. Boundless Universe — 3. Ownness,
Alienness, Contingency — 4. Modern Compromises — 5. Paradoxes
of Self- Bounding — 6. Possibilities and Impossibilities
2 Between Pathos and Response 21
1. In the Realm of Sense — 2. Abysses of the Pathic — 3. Patient
and Respondent — 4. On the Hither Side of Good and Evil —
5. Temporal Diastasis — 6. Testing by Practice
3 Response to the Alien 35
1. Responsivity — 2. Call and Response — 3. Aspects of a
Response Logic
4 Corporeal Experience Between Selfhood and Otherness 43
1. The Enigma of the Body — 2. Sense and Affection — 3. The
Split Self — 4. The Other as My Double
5 Thresholds of Attention 58
1. Attending — 2. With All Senses — 3. Basic Features of
Attention — 4. Arts of Attention — 5. Techniques and Practices
of Attention
6 Between Cultures 70
1. Interculturality as In- Between Sphere — 2. The Ambiguity of the
Alien — 3. Alienness Versus Otherness — 4. The Paradox of Alien
Experience — 5. The Nexus of Own and Alien — 6. Alienness
Within and Outside Ourselves — 7. Collective Experience and
Collective Speech — 8. The Alien and the Third — 9. Xenology
and Xenopolitics — 10. Procedures of Estrangement
Notes 85
References 89

PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE ALIEN