Abstract
“The forces of the cosmos” could be considered the title of the world-ontology Eugen Fink develops after World War II, after having been Husserl’s research assistant during the 1928–1938 decade. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the specific meaning such a title has in the context of Fink’s thought, analyzing its presuppositions and its limits. On the one hand, the development of a philosophy of the world alludes to a particular elaboration of phenomenology made in the light of the world-pregivenness-problem and its ontological reinterpretation. On the other hand, the priority of ontology seems to make Fink forget the wealth of phenomenological inquiries, insofar as his post-war considerations emphasize the analyzing of ontological structures without taking an interest in the genesis of those concrete distinctions which coincide with the self-display of these structures themselves. Fink also offers an interesting clue for a new kind of phenomenological description (with regard to the openness of reality to the “forces of the cosmos”), without really developing all its potentialities.
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Notes
- 1.
See Eugen Fink, Die Doktorarbeit und erste Assistenzjahre bei Husserl, ed. Ronald Bruzina, in Gesamtausgabe, Abt. 1 (Phänomenologie und Philosophie), Bd. 3 (Phänomenologische Werkstatt), Teilbd. 1 (Freiburg i. Br.-München: Alber, 2006); Die Bernauer Zeitmanuskripte, Cartesianische Meditationen und System der phänomenologischen Philosophie, ed. Ronald Bruzina, in Gesamtausgabe, Abt. 1, Bd. 3, Teilbd. 2 (Freiburg i. Br.-München: Alber, 2008), hereafter cited in text as EFM 2.
- 2.
See Eugen Fink, Sixth Cartesian Meditation. The Idea of a Transcendental Theory of Method; with Textual Notations by Edmund Husserl, Studies in Continental Thought, trans. Ronald Bruzina (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press 1995), hereafter cited as VI.CM.
- 3.
Ronald Bruzina, Edmund Husserl and Eugen Fink. Beginnings and Ends in Phenomenology, 1928–1938 (New Haven-London: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 195, hereafter cited as RB.
- 4.
It is here evident the influence of Heidegger’s lectures, from which Fink took notes for six semesters from 1928 to 1931.
- 5.
EFM 2, p. 16.
- 6.
Ibid., p. 68.
- 7.
Ibid., p. 288.
- 8.
Ibid., p. 277.
- 9.
See for instance the 28th paragraph of Edmund Husserl, Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology, trans. Dorion Cairns (The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1960).
- 10.
On the difference between Fink and Husserl see also Sebastian Luft, “Phänomenologie der Phänomenologie”. Systematik und Methodologie der Phänomenologie in der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Husserl und Fink (Dordrecht-Boston-London: Kluwer, 2002); Guy van Kerckhoven, Mondanizzazione e individuazione. La posta in gioco nella Sesta Meditazione cartesiana di Husserl e Fink, trans. Massimo Mezzanzanica (Genova: Il Melangolo, 1998). An interesting proof is also Dorion Cairns, Conversations with Husserl and Fink (The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1976).
- 11.
The specific way these passages develop is treated in Simona Bertolini, Eugen Fink e il problema del mondo: tra ontologia, idealismo e fenomenologia (Milano: Mimesis, 2012). A complete view of Fink’s whole thought is in Anselm Böhmer (ed.), Eugen Fink. Sozialphilosophie, Anthropologie, Kosmologie, Pädagogik, Methodik (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2006).
- 12.
We remember the 27th paragraph of Edmund Husserl, Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, First Book, transl. Fred Kersten (The Hague-Boston-Lancaster: Martinus Nijhoff, 1983).
- 13.
See Eugen Fink, Sein und Mensch. Vom Wesen der ontologischen Erfahrung, ed. Egon Schütz and Franz-Anton Schwarz (Freiburg i. Br.-München: Alber, 2004), hereafter cited as SuM.
- 14.
Ibid., p. 217–218.
- 15.
Indeed the notion of play becomes the principal symbol able to indicate the dynamics of the world in relation to the ontological structure of man. On this subject see the following recent volume: Eugen Fink, Spiel als Weltsymbol, ed. Cathrin Nielsen and Hans Rainer Sepp, in Gesamtausgabe, Abt. 2 (Ontologie – Kosmologie – Anthropologie), Bd. 7 (Freiburg i. Br.-München, Alber, 2010).
- 16.
See SuM.
- 17.
See Eugen Fink, Grundphänomene des menschlichen Daseins, ed. Egon Schütz and Franz-Anton Schwarz (Freiburg i. Br.-München: Alber, 1995).
- 18.
See Eugen Fink, Existenz und Coexistenz: Grundprobleme der menschlichen Gemeinschaft, ed. Franz-Anton Schwarz (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1987), hereafter cited as EuC.
- 19.
See Eugen Fink, Grundfragen der systematischen Pädagogik, ed. Egon Schütz and Franz-Anton Schwarz (Freiburg i. Br.: Rombach,1978).
- 20.
EuC, p. 191.
- 21.
Ibid., p. 193.
- 22.
Ibid., p. 173: “‘Gemeinschaft’ ist nicht einfach ein simpler Gegenbegriff zur Einzelexistenz. Vielmehr gibt es Gemeinschaften, die Verbindungen, Zusammenschlüsse von Einzelnen sind, und andererseits Gemeinschaften, die vor jeder isolierten Lebensweise liegen, – es gibt Gemeinschaften des Willens und Gemeinschaften des Blutes, – aber auch das nicht in einem unbezüglichen Nebeneinander. Das Verwirrende ist gerade, dass beide Gemeinschaftsformen sich durchsetzten, durchdringen, die eine in der anderen erst das Element ihres Daseins hat”.
- 23.
See for instance Eugen Fink, Hegel. Phänomenologische Interpretationen der “Phänomenologie des Geistes” (Frankfurt a. M.: Klostermann, 2007), p. 154–155.
- 24.
See the second section of Martin Heidegger, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics. World, Finitude, Solitude, transl. William McNeill and Nicholas Walker (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995).
- 25.
VI.CM, p. 56. On this work see for instance the second section of Natalie Depraz and Marc Richir (ed.), Eugen Fink. Actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle 23–30 juillet 1994 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1997); Alfredo Marini (ed.), La VIª Meditazione Cartesiana di E. Fink e E. Husserl, Atti del seminario di Gargnano 18–21 Aprile 1999, in “Magazzino di filosofia”, 5, 2001; Martina Scherbel, Phänomenologie als absolute Wissenschaft. Die Systembildende Funktion des Zuschauers in Eugen Finks VI. Cartesianischer Meditation (Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi, 1999).
- 26.
VI.CM, p. 62.
- 27.
Fink does not provide any clear definition of “construction”, but just claims: “The concept of ‘construction’ must not, however, be understood here in an ordinary sense (such as hypothesis-making). It has no affinity to any kind of ‘constructive’ procedure as practiced in the worldly sciences, e.g., in mathematics, in paleontology, etc. The transcendental title ‘construction’ is only an allusion to the modes of referral on the part of phenomenological cognizing with respect to the theme that is here in question, modes of referral which are still completely obscure in their own special character” (ibid., p. 56).
- 28.
Ibid, p. 57: “In this context ‘givenness’ thus does not signify being-at-hand and lying before one, for instance, in the way things are given, are there, as objects of natural worldly experience; but it means possible accessibility through the unfolding of the phenomenological reduction”.
- 29.
Ibid., p. 60.
- 30.
RB, p. 398.
- 31.
Ibid.
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Bertolini, S. (2014). The Forces of the Cosmos Before Genesis and Before Life: Some Remarks on Eugen Fink’s Philosophy of the World. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) Phenomenology of Space and Time. Analecta Husserliana, vol 116. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02015-0_4
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