The Ontological Roots of Phenomenology: Rethinking the History of Phenomenology and Its Religious Turn

267 Pages·2022·1.398 MB·English

by  Anna Jani

The Ontological Roots
of Phenomenology
Continental Philosophy and the History of Thought
Series Editors: Christian Lotz, Michigan State University, and
Antonio Calcagno, King’s University College
at Western University
Advisory Board: Smaranda Aldea, Amy Allen, Silvia Benso, Jeffrey Bloechl, Andrew
Cutrofello, Marguerite La Caze, Christina M. Gschwandtner, Dermot Moran, Ann Murphy,
Michael Naas, Eric Nelson, Marjolein Oele, Mariana Ortega, Elena Pulcini, Alan Schrift,
Anthony Steinbock, Brad Stone
The Continental Philosophy and the History of Thought series seeks to augment and amplify
scholarship in continental philosophy by exploring its rich and complex relationships to
figures, schools of thought, and philosophical movements that are crucial for its evolu-
tion and development. A historical focus allows potential authors to uncover important but
understudied thinkers and ideas that were nonetheless foundational for various continental
schools of thought. Furthermore, critical scholarship on the histories of continental phi-
losophy will also help re-position, challenge, and even overturn dominant interpretations
of established, well-known philosophical views while refining and re-interpreting them in
light of new historical discoveries and textual analyses. The series seeks to publish care-
fully edited collections and high-quality monographs that present the best of scholarship in
continental philosophy and its histories.
Titles in series:
The Ontological Roots of Phenomenology: Rethinking the History of Phenomenology and
Its Religious Turn, by Anna Jani
Negative Dialectics and Event: Nonidentity, Culture, and the Historical Adequacy of
Consciousness, by Vangelis Giannakakis
Marxism and Phenomenology: The Dialectical Horizons of Critique, edited by Bryan
Smyth and Richard Westerman
Groundwork of Phenomenological Marxism: Crisis, Body, World, by Ian H. Angus
Max Stirner on the Path of Doubt, by Lawrence S. Stepelevich
The Ontological Roots
of Phenomenology
Rethinking the History
of Phenomenology and
Its Religious Turn
Anna Jani
LEXINGTON BOOKS
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jani, Anna, 1980- author.
Title: The ontological roots of phenomenology : rethinking the history of
phenomenology and its religious turn / Anna Jani.
Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, [2021] | Series: Continental
philosophy and the history of thought | Includes bibliographical
references and index. | Summary: “Anna Jani interprets the relationship
between phenomenology and ontology by redefining its goals,
methodological focuses, and key figures. The common methodology of
hermeneutical phenomenology originates from the question on being, which
resembles religious experiences in certain ways”—Provided by
publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021046612 (print) | LCCN 2021046613 (ebook) | ISBN
9781793649003 (cloth) | ISBN 9781793649010 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Phenomenology. | Ontology.
Classification: LCC B829.5 .J325 2021 (print) | LCC B829.5 (ebook) | DDC
142/.7—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046612
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046613
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
PART I: ONTOLOGICAL APPROACHES IN EARLY
PHENOMENOLOGICAL THINKING
1 First Considerations 3
2 New Ways in Phenomenological Thinking 41
PART II: THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING AND THE
PROBLEM OF THE HISTORICAL BEING
3 The Existentiality and Temporality of Dasein 101
4 The Actuality of the Event and Its Relation to the
Temporality of Being 133
PART III: THE METHODOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES
OF THE QUESTIONING ON BEING
5 The Origin of the Ontological Difference 161
6 The Truth of Beyng and the Truths of Being 185
PART IV: FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Conclusion 229
Bibliography 233
Index 245
About the Author 255
v

Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
This book could not have been written without the help of a number of people
and institutions, to whom I express my gratitude.
For financial support, I am grateful to the National Research, Development
and Innovation Fund of Hungary for supporting my research project PD_17
123883, which essentially contributed to the existence of this book. Here, I
would like to express my gratitude to the Pázmány Péter Catholic University,
which hosted my project and supported my research in all other fields as well.
I am personally grateful to Balázs M. Mezei not only for his professional but
also his personal support in the previous years, and for his interest in this proj-
ect. I am also grateful to my other Hungarian and international colleagues and
friends, who, maybe without noticing, in some way contributed to the prepa-
ration of the present volume: Béla Bacsó, Péter Ágoston Bagyinszky, Angela
Ales Bello, Christoph Betschart, Bianka Boros, Christof Böhr, Rocco Butti-
glione, Antonio Calcagno, István Czakó, William Desmond, Hanna-Barbara
Gerl-Falkovitz, István M. Fehér, János Frivaldszky, Ruth Hagengruber,
Zoltán Hidas, Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann, Krisztina Hölvényi, Ferenc
Hörcher, Mette Lebech, Zsuzsanna Mariann Lengyel, Rosa Maria Marafioti,
Manuela Massa, Ronny Miron, Miklós Nyírő, Csaba Olay, Balázs Prokk,
Attila Puskás, Péter Sárkány, Hans Reiner Sepp, Antonia Sondermann, Nóra
Szegedi, Zsolt Szeiler, László Gergely Szűcs, Holger Zaborowski, Beate
Beckmann-Zöller, Krisztián Vincze, Nicolas de Warren, János Weiss, and
Michael Wladika. I am also very grateful for all those ideas I could draw from
the literature I referred to in this book, to the countless authors and thinkers,
whose insights have modified, polished, and inspired my original idea about
the realization of this project.
The final version of the manuscript was completed in the Institution of Ad-
vanced Studies Kőszeg, where in spring 2021, I had the opportunity to spend
vii
viii Acknowledgments
six months under excellent circumstances. The discussions and acquaintances
with international scholars refreshed my energies for the revision of countless
ideas I touched upon in the book, helped me put them into other perspectives
or to clarify the relationship between the single chapters.
Very particular thanks are due to Borbála Rieger for the diligent and
careful language correction and her humor during this exhausting work.
Nevertheless, there may be errors in the text, the responsibility of which lies
entirely with the author.
Here I would like to express my gratitude to the Lexington Books for their
willingness to publish my work, and a special thanks to Jana Hodges for her
patient interest in the progress of my work and generous support during the
publishing process. I would also like to express my thanks to Sydney Wed-
bush, who guided my manuscript through the bureaucratic labyrinths with
countless pieces of advice during the publishing process. Particular thanks
due to the reviewer of the manuscript, whose expertise contributed to the final
version of the book.
In some cases, I used the original German edition, which I have translated
into English. I am grateful to Yale University Press,1 ICS Publications,2 Penn-
sylvania State University Press,3 and Alber Verlag4 for the generous permis-
sion to reproduce some of the materials.5
Finally, I would like to express my main thanks to my family and especially
to Péter András Varga, who was behind me throughout the implementation
of this book and supported the realization of it not only with his intellectual
and personal presence, but also with his useful insights. So, I dedicate this
volume to him and to our kids, Lujza and Márton, with the greatest gratitude.
NOTES
1. Excerpts from Paul Ricœur, Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpreta-
tion, trans. Denis Savage (Yale University Press, 1970), Copyright © 1970 by Yale
University, reprinted with permission.
2. Excerpts and chapter 2 subheading quotation from Edith Stein, Finite and Eter-
nal Being, transl. by Kurt F. Reinhardt, Washington, DC, 2002, and Edith Stein, Po-
tency and Act, The Collected Works of Edith Stein XI, trans. Walter Redmond (Wash-
ington, DC: ICS Publications, 2009), reprinted with permission.
3. Revised version of “Guilt, Confession, and Forgiveness: From Methodology to
Religious Experiencing in Paul Ricœur’s Phenomenology,” Anna Varga-Jani,
Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Vol. 33, No. 1,2019, pages 8–21, Copyright
© 2019 The Pennsylvania State University Press. This article is used by permission
of The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Acknowledgments ix
4. Chapter 2 includes revised parts of Anna Jani, Religiöses Erlebnis und Werter-
kenntnis. Zum Fragment der religionsphilosophischen ‘Aufzeichnungen’ Adolf
Reinachs,” in Jahrbuch für Religionsphilosophie 2018, eds. Holger Zaborowski and
Markus Enders (Freiburg: Karl Alber, 2018). Reprinted with permission.
5. Chapter 4 includes revised parts of A. Varga-Jani, “Historicity and Religiosity
in Heidegger’s Interpretation of the Reality: With an Outlook to Adolf Reinach’s
Contribution to Heidegger’s Phenomenological Conception.” Hum Stud 43, 409–429
(2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-020-09556-1. http://creativecommons.org
/licenses/by/4.0/.