Tag: Edmund Husserl

Edmund Husserl

3,657 words 

In my essay “Notes on Strauss and Husserl,”[1] I argued that Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology had a formative influence on Leo Strauss in two ways. First, Husserl’s method of dismantling traditional concepts in order to return to and describe the experiences they were based upon influenced Strauss’ recovery of the classical ideas of nature and natural right. Second, Husserl influenced Strauss’ hermeneutics, specifically his so-called “golden saying” on the surface of texts. (more…)

Heidegger (right) and Husserl in 1921.

1,353 words

In my “Notes on Strauss and Husserl,” I discuss the following passage from Leo Strauss’ Natural Right and History:

To grasp the natural world as a world that is radically prescientific or prephilosophic, one has to go back behind the first emergence of science or philosophy. It is not necessary for this purpose to engage in extensive and necessarily hypothetical anthropological studies. The information that classical philosophy supplies about its origins suffices . . . (more…)

Edmund Husserl

6,312 words

Leo Strauss credited Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology as a critical resource for his project of overthrowing modern political thought and vindicating the ancients. Strauss’s late essay, “Philosophy as Rigorous Science and Political Philosophy”[1] as well as posthumously published lectures and correspondence reveal significant debts to Husserl. Husserl was not, moreover, a mere “negative influence” — i.e., someone whose ideas Strauss rejected. Husserl was a “positive influence,” meaning that Strauss accepted and incorporated some of his ideas. (more…)

7,590 words

1. Knowledge of the Right Use of All Things

To explain what philosophy is, we always have to go back to the beginning. Pythagoras (ca. 570-495 BC) is said to have been confronted by Leon, the tyrant of Philius, who demanded to know if he was wise. He responded that he was not a wise man, but merely a φιλόσοφος (philosophos), a “lover of wisdom”; a practitioner of φιλοσοφία (philosophia). Φίλος (philos) means “love,” and σοφῐ́ᾱ (sophia) means “wisdom.” (more…)

Giacomo Balla, Science Against Obscurantism, 1920

6,034 words

Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, Part 7 here

1. Metaphysics, Natural Science, and Nihilism

My last essay ended with the observation that there are clear points of convergence between Kant’s thought and Heidegger’s. (more…)

Frans Hals, Portrait of René Descartes, 1649-1700.

6,518 words

1. To Be Is to Be “Set Before”

In the previous installment of this series, we saw Heidegger contrasting modernity to the Middle Ages in the following terms:

For the Middle Ages . . . the being is the ens creatum, that which is created by the personal creator-God, who is considered to be the highest cause. (more…)

Plato and Aristotle, detail from Raphael’s The School of Athens, 1510-1511.

8,701 words

1. Introduction

In my essay “Heidegger Against the Traditionalists,” I sketched a critique of Guénon and Evola from a Heideggerian perspective. Although I raised several objections to Traditionalism, the crucial one was this: Guénon and Evola are thoroughly (and uncritically) invested in the Western metaphysical tradition.  According to Heidegger, however, it is precisely the Western metaphysical tradition that is responsible for all the modern ills decried by the Traditionalists. (more…)

Greg Johnson
Graduate School with Heidegger
San Francisco: Counter-Currents Publishing, 2020
220 pages

There are three formats for Graduate School with Heidegger: 

1. Hardcover: $40 (including postage; add $13 for postage to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, & the Far East)
2. Paperback: $25 (including postage; add $13 for postage to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, & the Far East).
3. E-book: $5. 

(more…)

4,642 words

This is what I believe:

“That I am I.”

“That my soul is a dark forest.”

“That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest.” (more…)

185 words / 1: 53:02

To listen in a player, click here. To download the mp3, right-click here and choose “save link as” or “save target as.”

On Sunday, May 17, 2020, Counter-Currents Radio did an Ask Me Anything livestream with Greg Johnson and Fróði Midjord. This is a recording. (more…)

Martin Heidegger

2,441 words

Part 2 of 2

3. The Hermeneutic Circle in Heidegger’s Being and Time

Heidegger’s purpose in Being and Time[1] is to explore the question of the sense (Sinn) of Being (Sein). By “Being” Heidegger means the meaningful presence of beings to a knower. By the “sense of Being,” Heidegger refers to the meaningful presence of meaning itself. (more…)

Rembrandt. Filósofo Leyendo. 1631

3,690 words

English original here

La mejor forma de entender lo que es la metafísica, es entender lo que no es La metafísica no es una disciplina especializada; no es una indagación teórica o práctica que trata sobre un bloque específico de actos, o intenta cambiar el mundo en una forma específica. Cada tipo de hecho y cada tipo de actividad tiene una disciplina correlacionada a ella. No importa qué tipo de hechos nombres, no importa que tan triviales, hay chances de que alguien haya escrito una disertación doctoral sobre ello – o habrá de hacer una algún día.  (more…)

3,181 words

English original here

Edmund Husserl, 1859–1938

Nota del autor:

Hace mucho, mucho tiempo, cuando aún estaba cursando, tuve la tonta idea de enseñar Heidegger en clases de educación adulta. En realidad me fue bastante bien. Generalmente preparaba un resumen bastante detallado, lo seguía una página, y luego empezaba a hablar por fuera de él. Esta es la transcripción de un alumno sobre mi exposición sobre Ser y Tiempo. (more…)