Patočka’s asubjective phenomenology as latent possibility of Husserl’s Logical Investigations

• Published in: Studies in East European thought Vol. 73; no. 3; pp. 347 - 365
• Main Author: Paparusso, Riccardo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Consciousness; Education; History; Phenomenology; Philosophy; Political Philosophy; Political Science; Field of appearance; Showing-itself; Representative; Asubjective phenomenology; Horizon of horizons
• ISSN: 0925-9392; 1573-0948
• DOI: 10.1007/s11212-021-09430-5

This article explores Jan Patočka’s notion of “asubjective phenomenology,” which the Czech philosopher elaborated in the mature phase of his thought. More specifically, it proposes to analyze that notion in light of Patočka’s interpretation of Edmund Husserl’s Logical Investigations , in which he identifies the original, though implicit, possibility of a phenomenology independent of a subjective foundation. In the first part of the paper, the author offers an interpretation of Husserls’ concept of “theory in general” as the original model of the Patočkan phenomenal field, which, just like the logical dimension thematized by Husserl in the  Prolegomena to Pure Logic , is independent of both objective structures and subjective conditions. It is reasonable to assume that the absence, in Logical Investigations , of “transcendental consciousness,” inspired Patočka in conceiving the manifestation of the object as a thing’s “showing-itself.” This idea is advanced in the second part of the article. Lastly, the final section of the article discusses the concept of “representative” (the sensory content of the intentional act representation) as the second and most significant seed of “asubjective phenomenology” that can be retraced in Husserl’s Logical Investigations .