Early Phenomenology in Central and Eastern Europe

Witold Płotka, Dr. habil., is Associate Professor at the Institute of Philosophy at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. He was a visiting researcher at the Husserl-Archiv of the University of Cologne. His publications include articles on, for instance, the theory of intentionality, theory of knowledge, and the history of the phenomenological movement. He published two books: Studia z fenomenologii poznania. Transcendentalna filozofia Edmunda Husserla a problem wiedzy [Studies in the Phenomenology of Cognition. Transcendental Philosophy of Edmund Husserl and the Problem of Knowledge] (2015) and Fenomenologia jako filozofia mniejsza. Rozważania wokół sporów o metodę Husserla [Phenomenology as a Minor Philosophy. Considering the Controversies over Husserl’s Method] (2019). He edited also two-volumes of Wprowadzenie do fenomenologii [Introduction to Phenomenology] (2014), and co-edited (together with Peter Andras Varga) the Special Issue of the Horizon. Studies inPhenomenology (5(1), 2016) dedicated to phenomenology in Central and Eastern Europe. He is the winner of “The 2011 CARP Directors’ Memorial Prize in Honour of José Huertas-Jourda.” He is member of the Husserl Circle, former Secretary of the Polish Phenomenological Association, and President of the Central and East European Society for Phenomenology (CEESP). Recently he published, for instance, “Reduction and the Question of Beginnings in Husserl, Fink and Patočka” (Human Studies, 41(4), 2018), “From Psychology to Phenomenology (and Back Again): A Controversy over the Method in the School of Twardowski” (Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Online First, 2019), and “A Controversy over the Existence of Fictional Objects: Husserl and Ingarden on Imagination and Fiction” (Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 51(1), 2020).  Patrick Eldridge, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Languages at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John. He obtained his doctorate at the Husserl Archives (KU Leuven) and was a visiting doctoral researcher at the University of Oregon. His research areas include Phenomenology, Philosophy of Memory, and Post-Kantian European Philosophy. He is the author of the articles: “Depicting and Seeing-in. The ‘Sujet’ in Husserl’s Phenomenology of Images,” Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 17 no.3 (2018): 555-573; “Regret and the Consciousness of the Past,” International Journal of Philosophical Studies 25 no.5 (2017): 646-663; “The Punctum and the Past. Sartre and Barthes on Memory and Fascination,” Sartre Studies International 22 no.1 (2016): 117-131; “Observer Memories and Phenomenology,” Phenomenology & Mind 7 (2015): 213-223. He has translated numerous works from French and German into English, including works by Rudolf Bernet, Jan Assmann and (together with Nicolas de Warren) the correspondence between Krzysztof Michalski and Jan Patočka.

• Chapter 1. Introduction: Rediscovering Early Phenomenology in Central and Eastern Europe (Witold Płotka and Patrick Eldridge).- Chapter 2. Early Phenomenology in Prague (Hynek Janoušek and Robin D. Rollinger).- Chapter 3. Husserl’s Early Phenomenology and the Ontology of Truth in the Lvov-Warsaw School (Dariusz Łukasiewicz).- Chapter 4. Gustav Špet’s “Hermeneutical Phenomenology” Project: His Reinterpretation of Husserl’s Phenomenology (Natalia Artemenko).- Chapter 5. On the Phenomenological Implications of Semyon Frank’s Psychological Philosophy of the Living Soul (Alexander Kozin).- Chapter 6. Vasily Sesemann’s Theory of Knowledge, and Its Phenomenological Relevance (Dalius Jonkus).- Chapter 7. Roman Ingarden’s Early Theory of the Object (Marek Piwowarczyk).- Chapter 8. Nae Ionescu and the Origins of Phenomenology in Romania (Viorel Cernica).- Chapter 9. Theodor Celms and the “Realism–Idealism” Controversy (Uldis Vēgners).- Chapter 10. Leopold Blaustein’s Descriptive Psychology and Aesthetics in Light of His Criticism of Husserl (Witold Płotka).- Chapter 11. Life and the Natural World in the Early Work of Jan Patočka (1930–1945) (Karel Novotný).- Chapter 12. The Beginnings of Phenomenology in Yugoslavia: Zagorka Mićić on Husserl’s Method (Dragan Prole).- Index.

“The volume is a contribution to historiography, enriching the study of the history of phenomenology thematically and thus contributing to the development of phenomenology itself … . A glimpse into the history of phenomenology thus becomes an exciting exploration of the debates which were at the heart of phenomenology and in which original Central and Eastern European philosophical thinking was born.” (Jaroslava Vydrova,HORIZON, Vol. 10 (1), 2021)