Abstract
In an article that in my opinion constitutes an hapax on the contemporary horizon of phenomenology, Françoise Dastur raises this question: “[…] is the very idea of a phenomenology of surprise conceivable without absurdity?” Extending the project sketched by Dastur – “to discover the foundation of the phenomenology of surprise in [the] philosophies [of Husserl and Heidegger]” – I would like to undertake here an examination of the contributions of Merleau-Ponty and E. Levinas in light of the work initiated by Hans Jonas on the living being’s experience of time, a line of investigation opened up in terms of the notions of risk and uncertainty.
This presentation was delivered at the Collège International de Philosophie in January 2008, at a colloquium organized by D. Cohen-Levinas on the topic of Lévinas and his dialogue with other phenomenologists. It is part of a larger project devoted to the experience of surprise. It was translated by Stacey Plessala and Mary Beth Mader.
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Notes
- 1.
F. Dastur, “Pour une phénoménologie de l’événement : l’attente et la surprise,” in: Etudes phénoménologiques, 1997, no. 25, p. 72.
- 2.
N. Depraz, Lucidité du corps. De l’empirisme transcendantal en phénoménologie, Dordrecht, Kluwer, 2001, deuxième Section intitulée “Auto-antécédance de l’incarnation,” pp. 57–109.
- 3.
N. Depraz, La surprise du vivant, manuscript in progress.
- 4.
On this matter, see N. Depraz, Introduction à Embodiment and Awareness, N. Depraz & S. Gallagher eds., Theoria Historia & Scientiarum, T. Komensky, Pologne, Torun, 2001.
- 5.
Art. cit., p. 73.
- 6.
On this matter, see N. Depraz, Lucidité du corps, op. cit., pp. 84–105.
- 7.
For more on these examples, see Lucidité du corps, op. cit., pp. 84–103. For the first two, cf. F. J. Varela et N. Depraz, “Au cœur du temps : l’auto-antécédance II”, Intellectica, 2003, No 36–37, pp. 183–203.
- 8.
F. J. Varela & N. Depraz, “At the Source of Time: Valence and the constitutional dynamics of affect,” in: S. Gallagher Ed. The Self and the Other, Ar@base. Electronic Journal: http://www.arobase.to, 1999, hard copy to appear at the Presses Universitaires de Rouen.
- 9.
N. Depraz, “The rainbow of emotions: at the crossroads of neurobiology and phenomenology” in Continental Philosophy Review, B. Heiner ed., special issue entitled “Intersubjectivity and Affectivity. Phenomenology and Cognitive Science,” 41, 2008, pp. 237–259.
- 10.
Cf. for example N. Depraz, “Etre présent à l’instant de la mort : ressources scientifiques, phénoménologiques et bouddhistes,” in: Bouddhisme et philosophie, Eds. N. Depraz, F. Bonardel and F. Midal, Cahiers d’études bouddhiques, 2006; DVD éditions Nangpa.
- 11.
Art.-cit., p. 63.
- 12.
In French the words “caught” and “surprise” are etymologically linked, since the former (“pris”) shares the samed root as the latter (“surprise”).
- 13.
E. Levinas, Time and the Other, Trans. Richard A. Cohen (Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press, 1987), 80; E. Levinas, Le temps et l’autre, Paris, P.U.F. [1948], 1983, p. 71.
- 14.
Op. cit., p. 32; Le temps et l’autre, 10.
- 15.
E. Lévinas, Totalité et infini, La Haye, M. Nijhoff, 1968, pp. 86–88.
- 16.
Cf. on this topic, E. Bovo, “Le temps, cette altérité intime. La critique de la temporalité husserlienne par Lévinas,” in: Cahiers d’études lévinassiennes, Jérusalem, 2002, No. 1, pp. 18–19.
- 17.
E. Levinas, Existence and Existents, Trans. A. Lingis (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1978), 93. E. Lévinas, De l’existence à l’existant, Paris, Vrin, [1947], 1993, p. 160.
- 18.
E. Lévinas, Totality and Infinity, 284; E. Lévinas, Totalité et infini, op. cit., p. 317.
- 19.
M. Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the Invisible, Trans. A. Lingis (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1968), 197. M. Merleau-Ponty, Le visible et l’invisible [1964], Paris, Gallimard, 1986, p. 251.
- 20.
M. Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the Invisible, 148; Le visible et l’invisible, 194.
- 21.
M. Vanni, L’impatience des réponses. L’éthique d’Emmanuel Lévinas au risque de son inscription pratique, Paris, CNRS, 2004, pp. 208 sq.
- 22.
M. Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, Trans. Colin Smith (London: Routledge, 1994), 252; Phénoménologie de la perception, Paris, Gallimard, 1945, p. 291.
- 23.
M. Merleau-Ponty, Nature: Course Notes from the Collège de France, Trans. Robert Vallier (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2003), 134; M. Merleau-Ponty, La Nature (Paris: Seuil, 1995), p. 180.
- 24.
M. Merleau-Ponty, Nature: Course Notes from the Collège de France, Trans. Robert Vallier (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2003), 134; M. Merleau-Ponty, La Nature, (Paris: Seuil, 1995), p. 180.
- 25.
H. Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2001); Le phénomène de la vie. Vers une biologie philosophique (1966), Bruxelles, De Boeck Université, 2001.
- 26.
H. Jonas, op. cit., (101–102); Le phénomène de la vie. Vers une biologie philosophique, p. 105–106.
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Depraz, N. (2010). Phenomenology of Surprise. In: Nenon, T., Blosser, P. (eds) Advancing Phenomenology. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 62. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9286-1_14
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