Abstract
Edith Stein worked out the complex metaphysical notion of essential being (wesenhaftes Sein) against the backdrop of debates within phenomenology and Thomism. Both debates can be characterized as a back-and-forth between viewpoints that emphasize essence or existence as foundational for ontology. The existence versus essence debate characterizes the rift between Husserlian phenomenology and Heideggerian thought. A similar struggle took place between the Neo-Thomists, who emphasized Aquinas’ allegiance to Aristotle (the essentialists), and those who argued for an existential interpretation of Thomas’ metaphysics (the Existential Thomists). While seeking the perennial middle ground between phenomenology and Thomism, Stein steps over the false dilemma of existence or essence. The concept of essential being bears marks of influence from Husserl and Heidegger, Neo-Thomists and Existential Thomists.
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Notes
- 1.
See Zhok [1].
- 2.
Husserl [2, 248].
- 3.
Wippel [3, 132–176].
- 4.
Husserl [4, 1:§ 2, 9].
- 5.
Ibid., 1:§4, 12.
- 6.
Although Husserl labored at clarifying and elaborating a full theory of essence throughout his phenomenological career, Fonfara indicates that this goal remained unfulfilled. See Husserl [5].
- 7.
- 8.
The analysis of joy can be found primarily in FEB, Chapter II, §§ 3–6, and Chapter III, §§ 2–6, 8–9. My summary of Stein’s study of joy is selective and incomplete.
- 9.
Ritter and Kranz [9]. See entry for “Essentialismus.”
- 10.
Przywara [10, 515].
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
Stein [11, 104].
- 13.
Moran cites an article by one of Husserl’s Freiburg students, who as a young man in 1921 recognized a “Platonizing element” in Husserl’s project. Moran [12, 132–138].
- 14.
Heidegger [13, 47, 67].
- 15.
Stein [14, 4:233].
- 16.
Gredt [15]; Gallus Manser, Das Wesen des Thomismus, in Divus Thomas. Jahrbuch für Philosophie und spekulative Theologie, 1935.
- 17.
For a detailed study of the transition from the notion of a single Thomism to competing Thomisms, see McCool [16].
- 18.
Gilson [17, 166–167].
- 19.
Kerr [18, 80–85].
- 20.
For a well-documented discussion of the question of essence-existence composition in Aquinas, see Wippel [19, 107–132].
- 21.
For Gilson’s defense of Thomistic existentialism as counter to atheistic existentialism, and as compatible with a certain concept of essence, see Gilson [20, 367–370].
- 22.
Sharkey [21].
- 23.
Publication forthcoming in Tijdschrift voor Filosofie.
- 24.
Stein, Juvisy, 109.
- 25.
Ibid., 111.
- 26.
Ibid., 110.
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Gricoski, T. (2016). Essential Being and Existential Metaphysics. In: Calcagno, A. (eds) Edith Stein: Women, Social-Political Philosophy, Theology, Metaphysics and Public History. Boston Studies in Philosophy, Religion and Public Life, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21124-4_16
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