Self, The Other, And God A Study Of Henry’s Phenomenology Of Life

Henry’s phenomenology of life is a newly-established theory in almost a hundred years’ phenomenological movement,and it is also one of the most widespread and imaginative thoughts in recent fifty years.This dissertation makes a deep analysis of its significance and breakthroughs from three aspects with the life thread.This study examines the basic problems on phenomenology,also touches on some frontline problems in the phenomenology field,and covers some controversial issues in the current phenomenological researches.This dissertation is divided into six chapters to discuss the basic ideas of Henry’s phenomenology of life:First, the discussion on the theme of Henry’s phenomenology of life. For Husserl and Heidegger,the phenomenology’s primary task is to disclose the covered phenomenon, and the ultimate goal is to "Let phenomenon manifests itself in itself and from itself",but they admitted only a manifestation mode:Object-manifestation. For Henry, the basic task of phenomenology is still to reveal the covered phenomenon, and the theme is still the phenomenon’s given mode.but Henry acknowledges a more original manifesting way,the manifestation of life:self-manifestation.Henry’s phenomenology of life is devoted to discussing the theme,so Henry makes the most basic problem of phenomenology a turn from "how the world phenomenon is revealed by the intentionality of consciousness"to"how the life as the first phenomenon is appeared as phenomenon through self-manifestation".Second,describing the self-manifestation theory of life, the self-manifestation is a unique self-given mode of life:it cannot be objectized, also is not reduced to any other experience,appearing and what appears is the same one, and the meaning of self-manifestation of life is twofold. Life gives intentionality the refering ability,so the impressionality of life’s consciousness lays the foundation stone for the intentionality. the self-manifestation of life is saying itself as a way of speaking.The truth of the world is not suitable for thinking life, life is impossible in the world,so the self-manifestation of life conforms to the truth of life. The self-manifestation of life has four distinctive characteristics:1、non-intentionality;2、 affective;3、 passivity; 4 、 immanence and transcendence.Third, discussing the relationship between phenomenology of life and classical phenomenology.Phenomenology seems to be defined by a specific method,because Husserl and Heidegger quite definitely understood it as a kind of methodology. Henry criticizes the reduction method of classical phenomenology to expose its limitations. In the respect of the relationship between phenomenology and its method,Henry reverses the classical phenomenology’s access to the object by a method of thinking.For Henry, it is not a method to determine the access to the object itself,instead it is the given mode of the object itself to determine how the object manifests itself. Henry rules out the phenomenology as a reduction method,and strives to establish a phenomenology of life,so the phenomenological method renewedly conforms to the object in the original auto-affection of life.Although Henry seems to subversively criticize Husserl and Heidegger,we can still find that they had touched on the same subject of life.Fourth,elaborating the intersubjectivity theory of Henry’s phenomenology of life.Both Husserl’s intentionality construction and Heidegger’s being-with in the world can not clarificate the orginal relationship between the living beings,because for Husserl,The Others are constructed by intentional acting of consciousness, and for Heidegger,The Others are manifested with the tools and in Dasein’s solicitude. It seems to indicate that they define the relationship between the living beings as a cognitive relation. In fact,it is not a cognitive relation, but a pathos-with.The cognitive relation exists in the world,but pathos-with transcends the world,and exists in life. Pathos-with in life is a basis for the mutual responsiveness between I and The Other.Fifth, discussing the relationship between Henry’s phenomenology of life and Christianity.Henry has harmoniously blended phenomenology of life with Christianity,because they highly fit for each other.The Christianity as phenomenology is a kind of arch-phenomenology.Phenomenology of life theory and the doctrine of Christianity can be mutually explicated:The basic doctrines of Christianity can obtain a reasonable explanation through phenomenological theory,and in turn the general principles of phenomenology can be well illustrated by the hidden meaning of Christianity,therefore,the fit between Christianity and phenomenology of life powerfully demonstrates the phenomenological meaning of Christianity and its orginal phenomenonality.Nevertheless,there are still some differences between them,for example, the interpretation of Christianity-phenomenology on the origin of life is different from that of traditional Christian thought,"generation" for phenomenology of life and "creation" for Christianity.Sixth, Replying to critical remarks on Henry’s phenomenology of life.On RenaudBarbaras’s Criticizing that Henry’s dualism phenomenology is collapsed, this dissertation responds:early Henry didn’t see auto-affection as a dynamic process of self-temporalization, but Henry understood it as a dynamic process at his late age, just skirting the concept of "retention" and "protention"of Husserl’s inner time consciousness theory. Henry understands life as the foundation and condition of the transcendence from the immanence to the world,for it is the priori self-affection movement of life as the drive and desire that beforehand associates the inner self with the other and the external world. On Janicaud and Bernet’s Criticizing that there is a "theological turn" in Henry’s phenomenology,this dissertation gives a answer:Husserl has foreshadowed the radicalization of phenomenology and its moving toward theology,and God is a legitimate problem in Husserl’s phenomenology.Henry further deepens the blend of phenomenology with theology, these two disciplines present the high degree of consistency and mutually beneficial relationship.Henry’s Christian phenomenology is not a "theological turn", instead it is a deepening of his life phenomenological theory, which marks the completion of his life phenomenology.