Abstract
One of Edith Stein’s unique contributions to phenomenology lies in her discussion of the body of the human person and its relation to consciousness. Consciousness allows the person to say that the principal trait or characteristic of the lived body is that it is one’s own body. Consciousness yields an understanding of one’s body as both a material thing and as living. The personal body gives itself in a very specific and unique way as this body and not another body, as my body and not as someone else’s body. Edith Stein integrates the materiality of the body with the living dynamism of the human body in a cohesive analysis, thereby demonstrating the unbreakable unity between body and consciousness. I analyze some of the dehumanizing characteristics of our postmodern culture and employ Stein’s analysis of the inseparability of consciousness from the body to shed light on some contemporary problems that affect us and our culture.
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Notes
- 1.
Manganaro [1].
- 2.
Edmund Husserl, Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie. Phänomenologische Untersuchungen zur Konstitution, ed. Marly Biemel. (Den Haag: Nijhoff, 1952) in Husserliana vol. .3, §37–§41, 147–160. English translation: Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and a Phenomenological Philosophy, Volume 2, trans. Richard Rojcewicz and André Schuwer (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1989), 155–168. Hereafter referred to as Ideas II.
- 3.
“Der Leib kann sich als solcher ursprünglich nur konstituieren in der Taktualität und allem, was sich mit den Tastempfindungen lokalisiert wie Wärme, Kälte, Schmerz u.dgl…” Husserl, Edmund, Ideen II, § 37, 150–151. “The Body as such can be constituted originarily only in tactuality and in everything that is localized with the sensations of touch: for example, warmth, coldness, pain, etc.”, Ideas II, 158.
- 4.
“Es gehört dem Strom des Bewußtseinslebens unabtrennbar zu, obwohl es in gewisser Weise doch dem Ich gegenübersteht, obwohl es etwas Ichfremdes ist. Es steht an der Grenze, wo Subjekt und Objekt sich scheiden, etwas anders gewendet: an der Grenze von Immanenz und Transzendenz. Fassen wir als immanent alles, was unlösbar zum Bewußtseinsleben gehört, so haben wir die Empfindungsinhalte als immanente Daten zu bezeichnen. Transzendent dagegen ist alles, was nicht mittels immanenter Daten aufgefaßt wird.“ Stein [2, 66–67].
- 5.
Husserl, Ideas II, 168–169.
- 6.
Ibid.
References
Patrizia Manganaro, “L’Einfühlung nell’analisi fenomenologico di Edith Stein,” in Aquinas 43, no. 1 (2000), 111.
Edith Stein, Einführung in die Philosophie, ed. Claudia Mariéle Wulf, in Edith Stein Gesamtausgabe, vol. 8 (Freiburg-im-Breisgau: Herder, 2004).
Husserl, E. Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosphie. Phänomenologische Untersuchungen zur Konstitution, ed. Marly Biemel. (Den Haag: Nijhoff, 1952) in Husserliana vol.,3, §37–§41, 147–160. English traslation: Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and a Phenomenological Phylosophy, Vol 2, trs. Ricard Rojcewicz and André Schuwer (Dordrecht Kluwer, 1989).
Stein, Edith, On the Problem of Empathy, trans. W. Stein (Washington, D.C.:ICS Publications, 1989).
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Fuentes, P.M. (2016). The Inseparability of Consciousness from Embodiment in the Phenomenology of Edith Stein. 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_8
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