2011
‘The ends of Phenomenology’: Graduate Conference in Phenomenology, 19-20 May 2011, University of Sussex, Brighton (UK)
Over 50 years ago, Merleau-Ponty began his great work The Phenomenology of Perception with the words: ‘what is phenomenology?’ It may seem strange that this question had still to be asked half a century after the first works of Edmund Husserl appeared. But after Husserl’s project of turning phenomenology into a science that would provide a transcendental theory of meaning, phenomenology diverged in various directions: from Heidegger’s existential analytic to Sartre’s existentialism and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, to the radicalization of Levinas and Derrida. Most phenomenologists agree that phenomenology is a philosophical movement that began with Edmund Husserl (1859-1938). However, there is no consensus as to the end of phenomenology, in the sense of its possible limits and outstanding goals.
Within this broad understanding of the practice of phenomenology, we invite papers that seek to continue and/or reconfigure its legacy, or perhaps seek to critically draw its limits and end. ‘The Ends of Phenomenology’ is a graduate conference in Phenomenology, organized by graduate students for graduate students. It aims to bring together postgraduates who are engaging in original research on phenomenology and thus to promote contemporary studies in this field.
Keynote Speakers:– Professor Charles Guignon (University of South Florida)
– Professor Robert Bernasconi (Pennsylvania State University)