Question of the Other

Bernhard Waldenfels , born in 1934, studied philosophy, psychology, classical philology, and history in Bonn, Innsbruck, and Munich. He earned his PhD from the University of Munich in 1959. From 1960–1962, he studied modern French philosophy in Paris with Merleau-Ponty and Ricoeur. In 1967 he finished his Habilitation at Munich. He taught there until 1976 when he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Since 1999 he is Professor Emeritus. He has been a visiting professor in Rotterdam, Paris, New York, Louvain-la Neuve, Costa Rica, Debrecen, Prague, Rome, Vienna, and Hong Kong. He is a cofounder of the German Society for Phenomenological Research.

"After the death of Paul Ricoeur, Bernhard Waldenfels can justifiably be regarded as the most original living phenomenologist. For decades a nonconformist among German philosophers, Waldenfels has seen his favorite topics, the body and the Other, become focuses of mainstream philosophical discussion." — Elmar Holenstein, Professor Emeritus, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich"Bernhard Waldenfels is the most important systematic thinker of otherness in the phenomenological tradition. These stimulating lectures, delivered at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, discuss the horror of the alien and analyze its occurrence in terms of a preconceptual pathos that elicits a response on the part of the human subject. Just as this deep affectivity precedes linguistic description, so the Other occasioning it bears a surplus that lies beyond whatever is said about it. Readers will find in these lively lectures an original and illuminating understanding of otherness as it enters into their everyday lives." — Edward S. Casey, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Stony Brook University, State University of New York