'Self and Other. From Temporality to History'

This talk will examine the self-other relation in phenomenological terms, looking at how a phenomenological examination of the distinct experiences of the world, both my own and the other’s, needs to account for the transition from temporal to historical understanding. While Husserl is usually accused of not having worked out the historical nature of lived experience like those found in Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, a case will be made for a more universal concept of history using Husserl’s analyses of the appearance of the other as not only accounting for the appearance of the world in its objectivity, but also for the emergence of culture and history as understandable. Such a universal concept of history will be explored insofar as it presupposes the appearance and givenness of another embodied human being, similar to myself, but over there. The other, in Husserl’s account, is hence not only the indicator of the world’s objectivity and knowability, but also marks the beginning of history and culture. The talk will conclude with an attempt tie the abovementioned concepts of culture and history, founded on the original givenness of the other to the self, to the concept of justice understood as my responsibility to get the other right. While Husserl never claims this explicitly, it will be argued that his concepts of “absolute humanity” and “the absolute meaning of History” [Erste philosophie, 506] are at bottom teleologically guided strivings for justice and self-responsibility. 

Biography: I have published widely in the areas of phenomenology and hermeneutics and I am co-author of The Gadamer Dictionary (Continuum, 2012) and co-editor of The Blackwell Companion to Hermeneutics (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016). In addition to my publications on Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer, Michel Henry, and Hannah Arendt, I am Treasurer of the Irish Phenomenological Circle (IPC) and executive member of the editorial board at the Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology (JBSP).

'Autonomy and Conviviality: remarks on phenomenology, work and automation'

In 1988 the French Philosopher André Gorz published Métamorphoses du travail: Critique de la raison économique. In this book, through an engagement with Critical theory, Marxism and to a lesser extent phenomenology, Gorz sets out a critique of economic rationality and puts forward a positive programme of a “politics or time” geared towards an idea of radical autonomy as productive work outside of the industrial economy. Gorz’s work has a close relation to Ivan Illich’s theory and programme of “conviviality” published some fifteen years prior in Tools for Conviviality (1973). Illich argues for a programme of convivial technology, where he defines conviviality as autonomous and creative intercourse among persons and the intercourse of persons with their environments.  

In this talk, I examine the ideas of autonomy and conviviality in relation to what can be called an institutional theory of technology and the politics of time that both Gorz and Illich set out in separate ways; and  ask what autonomous time and space can be carved out  within an increasingly automated world of work?

Biography: Darian Meacham is Professor of Practical Philosophy at Maastricht University and chair of the philosophy department.   

'Facing the Past: Modes of Appropriating and Disappropriating History in Shaping Who We Are'

Various forms of engaging with history play a crucial role in shaping personal and collective identities. Rituals, anniversaries, family celebrations, monuments, and street names are all examples of how history is embedded and integrated into the fabric of everyday actions that define these identities. Consequently, the concept of history becomes intertwined with memory practices, which involve both remembering and forgetting. 

In recent years, debates surrounding the relationship between history, memory, and issues of identity have gained increased significance. This can be attributed to several factors, some of which are directly linked to concrete memory practices. One example is the ongoing critical examination of how certain cultures of remembrance, particularly those relating to influential figures, often overlook or disregard their involvement in authoritarian or colonial regimes. These approaches have drawn attention to the epistemic and social injustices that are deeply embedded in certain methods of transmitting and interpreting history. Furthermore, there has been a growing unease or uncanniness associated with memory practices that have been developed and partially institutionalized since the Second World War. This debate is particularly relevant to Germany and its concept of Erinnerungskultur, which has been evolving since the 1980s-1990s. While this approach is generally recognized as an unprecedented way of engaging with the past, there are recurring critical voices that emphasize what is being forgotten within this culture of remembrance or advocate for moving beyond it. Lastly, despite the rejection of teleological and eschatological narratives concerning the meaning of history, and despite scholarly critiques of using history to justify the present, such instrumentalizations still persist in contemporary discourse.

My contribution will not directly address the social and political issues related to these phenomena. Instead, I aim to discuss the structural elements that characterize how we confront the past and how our relationship with the past shapes who we are. How does the formation of historical identities depend on the embodiment of memory? Why is it that we can only engage with the past through critical analysis after a significant amount of time has elapsed between generations? Does remembering the past always involve elements of forgetting? What are the factors that, at a particular moment, bring forgotten aspects to the fore? In attempting to answer these questions, I will specifically explore how different approaches to confronting the past – including attitudes of owning, ignoring, and disowning history – are connected to particular attitudes towards the present and the future.

Biography: Michela Summa is a Junior Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Würzburg. She received her PhD from the University of Pavia and KU-Leuven, with a dissertation on Husserl’s phenomenology of temporal and spatial constitution. Before joining the University of Würzburg, she worked as a post-doc at the Clinic for General Psychiatry in Heidelberg from 2009 to 2015, and at the Institute for Philosophy in Würzburg from 2015 to 2018. In 2018, she also served as a guest professor for phenomenology and hermeneutics at the Institute for Philosophy in Kassel. She is the author of Spatio-temporal Intertwining: Husserl’s Transcendental Aesthetic, published in 2014 by Springer and co-editor of several volumes and special issues, including the collective volume Das Exemplarische – Orientierung für menschliches Wissen und Handeln“ (with Karl Mertens, Mentis, 2022), the special issue of the journal Human Studies on Affect, Tendency, and Drive: Perspectives on the Basic Structures of Intentionality (with Philipp Schmidt and Nicola Spano, 2024), and the Special Issue of the journal Topoi on Double Intentionality (with Martin Klein and Philipp Schmidt). She has written several articles on topics in the theory of knowledge, philosophy of mind, social philosophy, and phenomenology.