Michel Henry

Michel Henry ( born January 10, 1922 in Haiphong, Vietnam; † 3 July 2002, Albi, France) was a French philosopher and writer.

Biography

Michel Henry spent his early childhood in French Indochina, so in French colonial territory. 1929, at the age of 7 years, he came with his mother (his father had come shortly after his birth in a car accident ) to France. He received his philosophical training in Paris. During World War II he was involved in the Resistance. After the war he belonged to the group of French philosophers Martin Heidegger paid a visit to the Black Forest. From 1960 to 1982 Henry taught at the University of Montpellier. In addition to his philosophical work of Henry also published four novels, which, like his early philosophical work (L' essence de la manifestation, 1963) to date - have not been translated into German - except for that part which deals with the thought of Meister Eckhart.

Philosophy

Michel Henry is the founder of a phenomenology of life, which is sometimes referred to as " (radical ) life phenomenology " or "material phenomenology of life."

His phenomenological approach developed Henry basis of a critique of the classical phenomenology of Edmund Husserl: The one-sided focus on the intentionality, that is, on the relationship between the act of consciousness of the show and appearing therein ( " intentional " ) object that had led to the original publication ( " Phänomenalisierung " ) - and thus also the basic phenomenon of life - to miss. The critique of Husserl is, accordingly, that the classical phenomenology to keep up with their unquestioned assumption, the intentionality of consciousness for the original site of the show, just the actual reality of the show in front of all intentionality can be ignored and thus their ontological task, the reality of elucidate show, reveal. This " Weltphänomenalität " in which each Appearing is leveled to a merely intentional seen and is deprived of its reality, Henry is the original " Lebensphänomenalität " contrary: The appearance of life is not mediated by an intentional reference, but directly and immanent is happening. The original Phänomenalisierung is therefore not that life itself is on representational manner a consciousness, but that life is directly themselves are without the "light" of a conscious reflection intervenes.

The phenomenological concept of life Henry must not be biologically misunderstood: By " life " is not about the living nature as the object of biology meant but one before all scientific and everyday experience of objectivity lying immediate phenomenon, the man who, of these philosophical reflection hires, first experiences in themselves, in the way as it appears itself: the original self- appearance of man is not in a reflexive turning back on me ( as I am the subject of my own doing ), but rather in an immediate Mir- self - be - If, that is, in a show that is not in the power of the subject. It is this instance of the original show, the designated Henry as "life."

Michel Henry has outlined the basic insight that pervades his entire philosophical, essayistic and literary work, concrete in all different shapes and applied to a wide variety of topics and issues, including on issues of culture, religion, and abstract art.

Works

During his lifetime, published philosophical works

  • L' Essence de la Manifestation (1963 ), Eng. The Essence of Manifestation, Martinus Nijhoff, 1973; Springer, 2004, German translation part of the paragraphs to Meister Eckhart in: Rolf Kühn / Sébastien Laoureux (ed.), Meister Eckhart - knowledge and mystery of life. Research contributions of the life phenomenology. Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-495-48288-9. Pp. 13-102.
  • Philosophy Phenomenology et du corps (1965 ), Eng. Philosophy and Phenomenology of the Body, Springer, 1975
  • Marx: I. Une philosophie de la réalité (1976 )
  • II Une philosophie de l' économie (1976 )
  • Engl. Marx: A Philosophy of Human Reality, Indiana University Press, 1993

Literary works

  • Le Jeune Officier (1954 )
  • L' Amour les yeux fermés (1976 )
  • Le Fils du roi (1981 )
  • Le Cadavre indiscret (1996 )

Posthumous works

  • Paroles du Christ (2002), German words of Christ. A phenomenology of language and revelation. From the French by Maurice de Coulon. Afterword by Rolf Kühn. Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg / Munich 2010. ISBN 978-3-495-48396-1
  • Car donation. Entretiens et conférences (2002)
  • Le bonheur de Spinoza (2003)
  • Phénoménologie de la vie: Tome I. De la phénoménologie (2003)
  • Tome II De la subjectivité (2003)
  • Tome IV Sur l' éthique et la religion (2004)
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