Hedwig Conrad-Martius:

Questions of Being and Phenomenology

A panel discussion on the life and work of 20th-century German phenomenologist Hedwig Conrad-Martius

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Meet the Speakers

IRENE BREUER

“The ‘Real’ Reality (Wirkliche Wirklichkeit) of the World

  • This paper deals with Conrad-Martius’s conception of reality as “wirkliche Wirklichkeit” and sets it in relation to Husserl's. It delves into the problems of both the hypostatization of being, where I assert that it concerns the noema itself, and the origin of being in particular. I claim that even though Conrad-Martius rejects the transcendental reduction, Conrad-Martius accepts the eidetic reduction and the positing of a sphere of original and given facts, whose origin Conrad-Martius traces back to a transphysical realm, thus revealing the grounds for the Husserlian sphere of primal facts, which itself remains beyond the reach of phenomenological enquiries. Hence, Conrad-Martius’s and Husserl’s investigations encounter and complement each other at the point where the real bursts into reality and becomes available for consciousness.

  • Degree in Architecture (1988) and in Philosophy (2003) from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina. 2012: PhD in Philosophy from the Bergische University Wuppertal (BUW), Germany. 1988-2002: Lecturer, then Professor for Architectural Design and Theory at the UBA. 2012 to mid 2017: Lecturer for Theoretical Philosophy and Phenomenology at the BUW. 2019: DAAD scholarship, research on the reception of the German Philosophical Anthropology in Argentina. Pesently working on mentioned research subject, with the support of the BUW. Cf: https://uni-wuppertal.academia.edu/IreneBreuer

  • Although the development of Hedwig Conrad-Martius’ ontology is guided by a theoretical common thread, her early metaphysical conception radically changes over the years. In particular, the foundations of reality that the philosopher describes in Metaphysical Dialogues (1921) do not coincide with the metaphysical ground mentioned in other works, in which God is the only origin of real existence. At the beginning of the twenties Conrad-Martius traces the genesis of the world and its natural forms back to two origins, a divine one and a vital one, whereas the reference to the latter will then completely disappear and will even be referred to as a “metaphysical absurdity” (as the philosopher claims in Bios and psyche). Her first metaphysical reflections thus appear as a sort of experiment, probably conditioned by cultural roots that soon did not prove to be profitable for the elaboration of a rigorous philosophy of nature based on the meeting of scientific data and phenomenological method.

  • PhD, scientific collaborator, University of Parma (Italy). Her current main interest is the relation between phenomenology and specific fields of research such as ontology, anthropology, ethics, and environmental ethics, with reference to the paradigms proposed (for instance) by Edmund Husserl, Eugen Fink, Roman Ingarden, Nicolai Hartmann, and Hedwig Conrad-Martius. Among her recent publications: La relazione uomo-natura nell'ontologia di Nicolai Hartmann: per un possibile dialogo con l'etica ambientale, ETS 2018; R. Miron, S. Bertolini (Eds.), Women Phenomenologists: Hedwig Conrad-Martius, Edith Stein, Gerda Walther, “Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology”, 2/2021; Edith Stein and Hedwig Conrad-Martius: a Metaphysical Dialogue on the Origin of the Human Soul, in A. Calcagno, R. Miron (Eds.), Hedwig Conrad-Martius and Edith Stein: Philosophical Encounters and Divides, Springer 2022; S. Bertolini, R. Lazzari (Eds.), Eugen Fink, Grundfragen der antiken Philosophie, "Eugen-Fink-Gesamtausgabe", vol. 11, Nomos Verlag 2023.

SIMONA BERTOLINI

“A Metaphysical Dialogue Within the Development of Conrad-Martius’ Philosophy”

RONNY MIRON

“The Real I”

  • The dualist perception of the ‘I’ of Hedwig Conrad-Martius (1880–1966) is a radical attempt to respond critically to Husserl’s turn towards transcendentalism. Conrad Martius’s peculiar view of the I (ichhaftes Sein) appears as a remarkable refutation of one of the widespread criticisms of the phenomenological realism contemporary with Edmund Husserl regarding the lack of discussion of the issue of the ego or the I. My main argument is that the dualism not only signifies the structure of the I in Conrad-Martius’s philosophy but also suggests an essential framework for its phenomenological deciphering, within which the I transpires as a genuine philosophical problem that as such is unresolved.

  • Ronny Miron is a full Professor of Philosophy at Bar Ilan University, Israel. Her research is focused on post-Kantian Idealism, Existentialism, Phenomenology, and Hermeneutics, as well as current Jewish thought. She employs an interdisciplinary perspective combining the aforementioned traditions. She is the author of: Karl Jaspers: From Selfhood to Being (2012), The Desire for Metaphysics: Selected Papers on Karl Jaspers (2014), The Angel of Jewish History: The Image of the Jewish Past in the Twentieth Century (2014). Husserl and Other Phenomenologists (2018, edited book) and Hedwig Conrad-Martius, The Phenomenological Gateway to Reality, Springer (2021). The second edition of this, revised and enlarged, will appear shortly this year.