Contemporary Phenomenologies of Normativity: Norms, Goals, and Values, edited by Sara Heinämaa, Mirja Hartimo, and Ilpo Hirvonen, 2022
In phenomenology, normality is neither an objectively measurable average nor a mere historical or... more In phenomenology, normality is neither an objectively measurable average nor a mere historical or social construct. Rather than being understood from without, looked at from the outside of lived experiences, normality is approached from within as a condition and mode of lived experience. In the first part of the paper, I will show why it is relevant to turn to a phenomenological investigation of normality if one is interested in normativity. This perspective, so I will argue, is needed if one wants to understand not only how external norms actually become part of subjective experience but also how norms develop in the first place through repeated practices. As such, the experience of normality, understood here as consisting of selfevident feelings of orientation and familiarity, can be interpreted as the result of an operative normativity. In the second part, I will present Husserl's theory of normality in more detail in order to demonstrate how it could be applied to a more systematic investigation of normality and norms on different genetic levels. Lived normality is seen here as a dynamic and fragile system of balances; a constant attempt to achieve an equilibrium with one's environment and fellow subjects. (Re)turning to normality allows us to see normativity at work, embedded in the need for constant development, appropriation, and transformations of regular structures in experience.
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Papers by Maren Wehrle
In this chapter, I will present Simone de Beauvoir's philosophy as a responsive ethics, in which freedom and vulnerability, mind and body, we and others, are necessarily intertwined. Her entire work, so I would like to argue, not merely her "ethics of ambiguity", can be characterized as an attempt to develop such a performative ethics - an ethics that argues for the response-ability to accept and embrace one's ambiguity to live an "authentic," that is, ethical life.
https://www.degruyter.com/document/isbn/9783110647242/html
In this way, the following analysis is inspired by Judith Butler’s theory of performativity. While Butler is well-known for her analysis of the discursive, I will probe the phenomenological potential of performativity by applying the analy-sis to the human body. Butler’s theory of gender performativity opens up the picture of social norms as a two-way street – not only do norms effect our language and discursive behaviors, but language must also enact (take up or appropriate) norms in order for them to be effective. This applies, as I will argue, also in the case of the human body. As material and lived bodies, we are situated in a historically and culturally- informed world, wherein norms manifest as well-ordered and typified social practices according to which we live. Yet, at the same time, we are practical agents insofar as we must bodily enact certain norms for them to be effective.
The aim of the proposed paper is to bridge the gap between the biological and social approaches to ageing and gender with a phenomenological-anthropological approach. In this respect, I want to argue that the biological and the social are intertwined in human embodiment. The paper thus addresses ageing and gender neither as purely biological nor as merely discursive phenomena, but as phenomena of an embodied experience. Experience in this sense is necessarily situated, constituted by biological, material, historical and socio-cultural circumstances. As situated bodily beings, we not only have a first, but also a second nature: social norms are incorporated in the ways we habitually relate to the world, ourselves and others. While the process of ageing always confronts us with the finitude and materiality of our bodily being in general, with respect to gender and ageing, this means, as situated, specific circumstances and norms influence not only the way we think about ageing, but also the processes of becoming older and the experience of our aged bodies.
– and that these are, in turn, characterized by different temporalities. Anthropologically, I want to argue that having a body – what occurs as an inherent break to human embodiment–is the presupposition for the experience of a stable and object-like time. I will conclude that the double aspect of human embodiment and in particular the thematic experience of having a body enables both the experience of a past, which is remembered, and a future that is planned.
In this chapter, I will present Simone de Beauvoir's philosophy as a responsive ethics, in which freedom and vulnerability, mind and body, we and others, are necessarily intertwined. Her entire work, so I would like to argue, not merely her "ethics of ambiguity", can be characterized as an attempt to develop such a performative ethics - an ethics that argues for the response-ability to accept and embrace one's ambiguity to live an "authentic," that is, ethical life.
https://www.degruyter.com/document/isbn/9783110647242/html
In this way, the following analysis is inspired by Judith Butler’s theory of performativity. While Butler is well-known for her analysis of the discursive, I will probe the phenomenological potential of performativity by applying the analy-sis to the human body. Butler’s theory of gender performativity opens up the picture of social norms as a two-way street – not only do norms effect our language and discursive behaviors, but language must also enact (take up or appropriate) norms in order for them to be effective. This applies, as I will argue, also in the case of the human body. As material and lived bodies, we are situated in a historically and culturally- informed world, wherein norms manifest as well-ordered and typified social practices according to which we live. Yet, at the same time, we are practical agents insofar as we must bodily enact certain norms for them to be effective.
The aim of the proposed paper is to bridge the gap between the biological and social approaches to ageing and gender with a phenomenological-anthropological approach. In this respect, I want to argue that the biological and the social are intertwined in human embodiment. The paper thus addresses ageing and gender neither as purely biological nor as merely discursive phenomena, but as phenomena of an embodied experience. Experience in this sense is necessarily situated, constituted by biological, material, historical and socio-cultural circumstances. As situated bodily beings, we not only have a first, but also a second nature: social norms are incorporated in the ways we habitually relate to the world, ourselves and others. While the process of ageing always confronts us with the finitude and materiality of our bodily being in general, with respect to gender and ageing, this means, as situated, specific circumstances and norms influence not only the way we think about ageing, but also the processes of becoming older and the experience of our aged bodies.
– and that these are, in turn, characterized by different temporalities. Anthropologically, I want to argue that having a body – what occurs as an inherent break to human embodiment–is the presupposition for the experience of a stable and object-like time. I will conclude that the double aspect of human embodiment and in particular the thematic experience of having a body enables both the experience of a past, which is remembered, and a future that is planned.
Es reicht nicht, Aufmerksamkeit auf den aktuellen Akt, Gegenstand oder die jeweils messbare Verhaltensleistung zu reduzieren, wie dies in Philosophie und empirischer Psychologie oft der Fall ist. Um das Phänomen Aufmerksamkeit in seiner Dynamik zu beschreiben, muss man die Horizonte der Aufmerksamkeit thematisieren. Nicht nur die gegenständlichen Horizonte, sondern vor allem die subjektiven Horizonte: die zeitliche, leibliche und habituelle Dimension der Aufmerksamkeit.
This intro is unique as it entirely focusses on the method(s) of phenomenology and illustrates them by examples. It is for students, teachers, and all people interested in phenomenology. It aims at representing and uniting all past and present branches of phenomenology (whether classical, critical, post, interdisciplinary or applied).
It is short, user-friendly, and practical, in containing info/definition-boxes and practical exercises. No jargon, no personal cult, just phenomenology in action – back to the things themselves!
What are we doing when we do phenomenology?
This was the question behind this book, which I started writing in 2017, when I was asked to represent phenomenology in this series of the methods of philosophy.
It is my contention, that all phenomenologies/phenomenologists, whether they are traditional, post-, critical, political, interdisciplinary, or applied, (need to) engage in and aim for one or all of the three activities below:
1) Describing (what appears) without prejudices/presuppositions
2) Searching for generalities (structure or eidos)
3) Asking back to the conditions (historical or transcendental)
The English version will be published in 2023 by Springer. I am happy for any feedback and comments (to improve further editions) by all of you who teach and study phenomenology.
See here URL: http://www.springer.com/de/book/9783476026019.
See here the review by Corinna Lagemann:
http://reviews.ophen.org/2018/04/16/sebastian-luft-maren-wehrle-hrsg-husserl-handbuch-leben-werk-wirkung/