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Rationalism, Idealism, Nationalism

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Alterity and Facticity

Part of the book series: Phaenomenologica ((PHAE,volume 148))

Abstract

It is well known that transcendental phenomenology has nothing in common with the kinds of particularism (racism, antisemitism, nationalism…) which have devastated Europe during, at least, the first decades of our century. Husserl himself seems to have been especially lucid, unlike some of his masters and a few dissenting disciples. Barry Smith notes that “unlike Meinong and Frege he was not an antisemite”2. James G. Hart approbates: Husserl “is not a racist” and according to him “each people can be a ray of the divine light and divine idea”3. In the same way we could dwell on the fact that Husserl was no nationalist4: “his strong theoretical proclivities kept him out of the nationalistic maelstrom that devoured many of his contemporaries”5. This might be true not only concerning Husserl’s behaviour and state of mind during the nazi period, but also during the First World War. After the war, Husserl was proud not to have believed he could become in a Fichtean way a guide on the road to “the blessed life” 6. What did dissuade him from taking part in the war propaganda ? If he “never wrote any war text” (Kriegsschrift). 7 it was, on one hand, because of an almost supernatural premonition: “my daimonion warned me”8, Husserl says, like a new Socrates. On the other hand, there is an explanation for his prudent abstention from nationalistic involvement: Husserl did remain conscious of his duty as a promoter of philosophy as a rigorous science; either in peace or during the war, Husserl aims to live “resolutely and purely as a scientific philosopher”9.

“Wo liegt die Tragik des Opfers ?”1

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Notes

  1. Hua 28/421.

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  2. Barry Smith, review of Husserl’s Briefwechsel, Husserl Studies 12, 1995, p. 103.

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  3. James G. Hart, “Husserl’s Lectures about Fichte”, Husserl Studies 12, 1995, p. 141.

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  4. Maybe Husserl once was a nationalist, according to his own testimony. But it was a long time before the foundation of phenomenology, as he still was a young student. Even in this time, Husserl explains in 1936, Thomas Masaryk’s influence “cured me of false, non-ethical nationalism” (quoted by Karl Schuhmann, Husserl-Chronik, Den Haag, Nijhoff, 1977, p. 5; on “unauthentic nationalism”, also see Husserl’s letter to Georg Pfeilschifter [1925, January the tenth], Briefwechsel VIII, p. 15). National egoism would have been only a youthful sin… But that letter remains quiet ambiguous: it does not say that nationalism is bad in itself, and that a “true, ethical nationalism” does not exist or even is not necessary. Is such a nationalism possible? What could its phenomenological meaning be? This paper is an attempt to deal with that questions.

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  5. James G. Hart, “Husserl’s Lectures about Fichte”, Husserl Studies12, 1995, p. 139.

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  6. I never felt like being called the “Führer der nach `seligem Leben’ ringenden Menschheit”, Husserl positively states in a letter to Arnold Metzger (September 1919; quoted in the Einleitung to Hua 25/xxxii).

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  7. Hua 25/xxxii.

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  8. Hua 25/xxxii.

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  9. Hua 25/xxxii.

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  10. “…nationale Phantasterei, die …ber Europa so viel Unheil verbreitet haben”, Briefe an Ingarden, Den Haag, Nijhoff, 1968, p.4.

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  11. Letter to Ingarden, 1917, July. Briefe an Ingarden, Den Haag, Nijhoff, 1968, p. 7.

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  12. To Ingarden (same letter, p. 7).

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  13. April 1918, (Briefe an Ingarden, p.9).

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  14. Letter to Ingarden, 1917 (July), Briefe an Ingarden, p.7.

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  15. Briefe an Ingarden, p. 6.

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  16. Briefe an Ingarden, p.7.

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  17. Could it become inaccessible, and why ? Husserl does not explain it.

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  18. Briefe an Ingarden, p.7.

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  19. “Egoismus ist ein unbedingt schlechtes Lebensziel […]. Das betrifft den individuellen, wie den nationalen und staatlichen Egoismus in gleicher Weise”. Manuscript F I 40, 139 b.

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  20. F 1 40, 138 a. On the possibility of murdering the soul of a nation, see Briefwechsel III, 6 (letter to Bell, 1919): “there is a soul of the German people […] and to murder this soul [,] has there ever been a more gruesome murder in the whole of world history ?” (quoted and translated by Barry Smith, Husserl Studies 12, 1995,p.103).

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  21. F 140, 139 b.

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  22. Briefwechsel III, 343.

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  23. Nothing human has to be seen during the epochè: See Krisis, è 54 a, Hua 6/187 (“in der Epochè […] zeigt sich eo ipso nichts menschliches”).

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  24. Hua 27/243 (text of the Prag-conference, 1934).

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  25. Hua 6/187–188 (Krisis, §54 b).

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  27. On the transcendentality and historicity or facticity of phenomenology, see Hua 15/161, and Karl Schuhmann, Husserls Staatsphilosophie, Freiburg, Alber, 1988, p.145.

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  28. Hua 27/94 (early version of an essay on renewal, 1922/23).

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  29. Hua 27/94.

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  30. Hua 27/95.

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  31. Hua 27/95.

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  32. Hua 27/117 (1922/23).

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  33. Hua 27/94.

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  34. Letter to Ingarden, 1918, november the 16th. Briefe an Ingarden, p.12.

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  35. Same letter, Briefe an Ingarden, p.11.

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  36. “chauvinistische After-Ideale”, same letter, p. 12.

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  37. Same letter, p. 12.

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  38. Hua 6/321 (Vienna-conference, 1935).

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  39. Hua 6/322 (same conference). Compare Hua 27/73.

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  40. Manuscript K III 9, 52 a.

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  41. Briefwechsel IV, 313 (1933, July).

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  42. C 16 VII, 1933, May (“Revolutionszeit”, Husserl writes with a pencil), 105b.

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  43. K III 9, 59 b, quoted by Karl Schuhmann, Husserls Staatsphilosophie, Freiburg, Karl Alber, 1988, p. 152. According to Schuhmann’s interpretation (p. 153, note 22), Husserl did not draw the consequences of this doctrine. Our §5 will indirectly question that point.

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  44. K III 9, 53 b.

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  45. Hua 14/220.

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  46. Hua 13/110.

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  47. Hua 14/220.

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  48. K III 9, 59 b.

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  49. Hua 14/220.

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  50. Hua 14/220.

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  51. Hua 14/220.

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  52. Hua 14/220.

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  53. Hua 14/220. This could be a reminiscence of an aristotelician remark about the apolis (Politics, Book I, Chapter 1I-9, 1253 a 3).

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  54. B IV 5/17 a+b, quoted by Karl Schuhmann, Husserls Staatsphilosophie, Alber, Freiburg, 1988, p. 149.

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  55. K III 9, 34 b.

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  56. K III 9, 30 a.

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  57. K III 9, 54 a. But sometimes Husserl seems to think that the difference between national world and “the” (objective) world can only be understood in the theoretical attitude (that of the philosopher): see Hua 6/332,1.23–37.

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  58. K III 10 (1935, July), 12 a.

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  59. Hua 6/14.

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  60. VI, 337.

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  61. “die Eskimos oder Indianer der Jahrrnarktsmenagerien”. Hua 6/318, 1. 39.

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  62. “Auf dem Jahrmarkt mögen Indianen, Löwen usw. als Menagerie gezeigt werden, oder in der Stadt rag dauernd ein zoologischer Garten sein. Dann gehört er in seiner Bedeutung als Darstellung fremden Menschen und Tiere […] zu unseren Umwelt”. K III 9, 33 b. Compare K III 9, 31 b: “a papou has […] no biography and a papouan tribe has no history of its life, no history as a people”.

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  63. K III 9, 33 b.

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  64. Hua 6/322–323. Compare Hua 27/68,1.3–9.

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  65. E III 7 (1934, January), 5 a.

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  66. Hua 6/335.

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  67. Hua 6/334.

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  68. “sicherlich wird der Kampf [the fight between promoters of the new theoretical attitude and the conservatives] sich in der politischen Machtsphäre abspielen”, Hua 6/335.

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  69. Actes du huitiéme congrés international de philosophie à Prague 2–7 septembre 1934, Prag, 1936, p.XLI = Hua 27/240.

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  70. Hua 6/335.

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  71. Hua 6/336.

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  72. Hua 6/336.

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  73. Hua 6/320.

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  74. Would Husserl make a distinction between “bad Indians” and “good Indians”? See Jacques Derrida, De l’esprit, Paris, Galilèe, 1987, p. 95 (footnote, 1. 11–18).

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  75. See Hua 6/318, 1. 38.

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  76. Hua 27/95.

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  77. Last words of the Vienna-conference (1935), Hua 6/348.

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  78. Let us not forget that devotion to pure ideals and Ideas is a “mortal enemy” of capitalism (“Todfeind […] allem ”Kapitalismus“ (letter to Arnold Metzger, 1919, quoted in Hua 25/???).

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  79. Hua 27/122.

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  80. Hua 27/112. On the “tragedy” of modern scientific culture and the transformation of science into an irresponsible theoretical technology, compare Formal and transcendental logic, Introduction (Hua 17/7). On the opposition between the spirit of German Idealism and “the domination of the new exact sciences and the special technical culture deriving from them”, see the first lecture on “Fichte ‘s ideal of humanity”, Hua 25/267–268 (translation by James G. Hart, Husserl Studies 12, 1995, p.111).

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  81. Letter to Georg Pfeilschifter (1925), Briefwechsel VIII, 15.

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  82. Hua 6/347.

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  83. Actes du huitiéme congrésé, p. XLIII = Hua 27/242.

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  84. Hua 6/348.

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  85. Hua 27/117 (1922/23).

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  86. Hua 17/117.

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  87. Hua 17/117. On the need for a “spiritual organ” (a “German academy”, for example) to be the nation’s “highest Hegemonikon”, see Briefwechsel VIII, 15.

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  88. Hua 17/117.

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  89. Actes du huitiéme congrés…, p. XLIV = Hua 27/243.

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  90. Hua 27/243.

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  91. Letter to Pfeilschifter (allready quoted before), Briefwechsel VIII, 15.

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  92. Briefwechsel VIII, 15.

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  93. Letter to Kaufmann (1919), Briefwechsel III, 343. Husserl reminds Albrecht at the end of 1936 that he is not a foreigner to the German philosophy (and nation) (“… daβ ich in der deutschen Philosophie [also auch in dieser Nation] kein Fremdling bin”, Briefwechsel IX, 128).

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  94. Briefwechsel VIII, 16.

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  95. Briefwechsel VIII, 16.

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  96. Briefwechsel VIII, 16 (the last sentence has been quoted and translated by Barry Smith, review of Husserl’s Briefwechsel, Husserl Studies 12, 1995, p. 103).

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  97. Briefwechsel VIII, 16–17.

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  98. Briefwechsel VIII, 17.

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  99. Letter to Hugo Münsterberg (published by him in The Peace and America, New York and London, 1915), Hua 25/293–294.

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  100. Letter to Flora Darkow, 1923, Briefwechsel IX, 168. “The ignoble war is going on”, Husserl adds; a false, non-ethical peace is worse than hot war.

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  102. Lectures on Fichte, Hua25/268 (Engl. transl. in Husserl Studies 12, 1995, p. 112 ).

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  103. Letter to Bell (1919), Briefwechsel III, 6.

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  104. Letter to Münsterberg, Hua 25/294.

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  105. On America’s former and apparently “jung and […] authentic idealism”, see a letter to Flora Darkow (1923, February)) Briefwechsel IX, 168.

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  106. On “American unctuous politicians” see a letter to Flora Darkow (1915, June), Briefwechsel IX, 158, 1. 11.

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  107. Letter to Münsterberg, Hua 25/294. On “made in USA” shells, also see the letter to Flora Darkow (1915, June), Briefwechsel IX, 158, 1. 1–3.

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  111. “My two sons […] are in [the field] too”. Letter to M…nsterberg, Hua 25/293.

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  116. Letter to Münsterberg, Hua 25/293.

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  121. “Das Schicksal des Nichtariers im 3. Reich — seine innere u. aβere Tragik — […] ob ich arbeiten kann, leben kann, als Nicht-A entnationalisiert?” (1933, November; Briefe an Ingarden, p. 83).

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  122. Barry Smith, review of Husserl’s Briefwechsel, Husserl Studies 12, 1995, p.104.

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  123. Paul Valéry, “La crise de l’esprit”, CEuvres complètes, Paris, Gallimard, “Biles iothèque de la Plèiade”, 1957, first tome, p. 988. I thank Professor R. Bernet, the Director of the Husserl-Archives, for his kind permission to quote from unpublished Husserl-materials.

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Authors
  1. Philippe Ducat
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ENS Fontenay/Saint-Cloud, Archives-Husserl, ENS, France

    Natalie Depraz

  2. Lycée J. Ferry/Conflans Sainte Honorine, Collège International de Philosophie, Paris, France

    Natalie Depraz

  3. University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    Dan Zahavi

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Ducat, P. (1998). Rationalism, Idealism, Nationalism. In: Depraz, N., Zahavi, D. (eds) Alterity and Facticity. Phaenomenologica, vol 148. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5064-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5064-4_4

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