Michael Staudigl | University of Vienna (original) (raw)

New Publications by Michael Staudigl

Continental Philosophy Review 53, issue 3,, 2020

Special Issue with contributions from James Mensch, Felix Ó Murchadha, Jacob Rogozinski, Jean Gre... more Special Issue with contributions from James Mensch, Felix Ó Murchadha, Jacob Rogozinski, Jean Greisch, James G. Hart, Ruud Welten, Christina M. Gschwandtner, Jean-Luc Marion and Michael Staudigl

Continental Philosophy Review , 2020

This introductory essay discusses how the trope of “religious violence” is operative in contempor... more This introductory essay discusses how the trope of “religious violence” is operative in contemporary discussions concerning the so-called “return of religion” and the “post-secular constellation.” The author argues that the development of a genuine phenomenology of “religious violence” calls on us to critically reconsider the modern discourses that all too unambiguously tie religion and violence together. In a first part, the paper leshes out the fault lines of a secularist modernity spinning out of control. In a second part, it demonstrates how the “liberal imaginary” revolves around individualist conceptions of freedom and sovereignty that, on their part, become parasitic upon imaginations of disorder, otherness and (especially religious) violence. In a third part, the author demonstrates how these insights call for developing a transformed phenomenological framework in order to give a more sensible account of “religious violence.” Finally, in presenting the articles gathered in this “special issue” of Continental Philosophy Review, some pathways into such a sensibilized phenomenology of “religious violence” are outlined.

PhaenEx 13/2, 2020

This paper examines the relationship between religion and violence from a phenomenological point ... more This paper examines the relationship between religion and violence from a phenomenological point of view. In the context of the so-called "return of the religious" and the crisis of contemporary social imaginaries, it deals with the supposedly disruptive and liberating potentials of religion in general, and religious violence in particular. The discussion revolves around the concept of "verticality" as developed by A. Steinbock and offers a generative interpretation of verticality's liberating and transformative potentials. The paper proceeds to demonstrate how religion and violence are interrelated on a variety of levels. In conclusion the author argues that we need to understand the relationship between religion and violence in terms of its contingent actualization and display but must avoid pitting it down as an essential feqture of religious systems of knowledge and practice.

Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society, 2019

This article offers an interpretation of late modern social imaginaries and their relationship to... more This article offers an interpretation of late modern social imaginaries and their relationship to religion and violence. I hypothesize that the transition from the "secular age" to a so-called "post-secular constellation" calls on us to critically reconsider the modern trope that all too unambiguously ties religion and violence together. Discussing the fault lines of a secularist modernity spinning out of control today on various fronts, I argue that the narrative semantics of the so-called "return of religion" is frequently adopted as an imaginative catalyst for confronting these contemporary discontents-for better and worse. In linking recent work on "social imaginaries" with Paul Ricoeur's discussion of the productive role of imagination in social life, I then explore the transformative potential of religious imagination in its inherent ambiguity. In conclusion I demonstrate that this quality involves a poietic license to start all over, one which can be used to expose both the violence of our beloved political ideals of freedom and sovereignty, as well as their repercussions on religious practice.

Studia phaenomenologica, 2019

This paper provides a phenomenological exploration of the phenomenon of collective violence, spec... more This paper provides a phenomenological exploration of the phenomenon of collective violence, specifically by following the leading clue of war from Plato to the "new wars" of late globalization. It first focuses on the genealogy of the legitimization of collective violence in terms of "counter-violence" and then demonstrates how it is mediated by constructions of "the other" in terms of "violence incarnate." Finally, it proposes to explore such constructions-including the "barbarian" in Greek antiquity, "the cannibal" in the context of Colonialism, or the contemporary cipher of religious irrationality as mirror effects of one's own disavowed forms of violence.

Cadernos de Ética e Filosofia Política, 2018

O artigo empreende a tentativa de refletir criticamente sobre a possibilidade de um contato não d... more O artigo empreende a tentativa de refletir criticamente sobre a possibilidade de um contato não danoso com o outro, indicada sob o mote da interculturalidade, à luz do pensamento radical de Lévinas e Derrida sobre a alteridade. Essa reflexão se encontra sob a suspeita de que as filosofias ou fenomenologias da interculturalidade não dão conta da negatividade do encontro intercultural de fato com o outro irredutível, como a história do imperialismo e colonialismo europeus produziram. Para comprovar isso, eu refletirei sobre as funções, as quais o conceito de cultura assumiu nos discursos sobre a Europa. No centro da questão se encontra a comprovação de que a identificação da superioridade europeia sob o signo da cultura implica na constituição do outro como um outro ameaçador, a qual promove a brutalidade desta lida, ou seja, a história da violência – tanto interna quanto externa – da Europa. Sobre este plano de fundo eu concluo com o rascunho de alguns contornos de uma política da não-indiferença cultural, cujas raízes vejo remeterem ao pensamento de uma descolonização do imaginário da Europa.

Portuguese translation by D. R. Mileli

Introduction to our special issue "Phenomenology and the Post-secular turn," which proposes to us... more Introduction to our special issue "Phenomenology and the Post-secular turn," which proposes to use and re-calibrate phenomenological methods to give an account of the post-secular and the issues it entails.

Published as Michael Staudigl & Jason W. Alvis, "Phenomenology and the Post- secular Turn: Reconsidering the ‘Return of the Religious’." International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 24:5 (2016), 589-599
DOI: 10.1080/09672559.2016.1259917

In this paper I argue that we need to analyze ‘religious violence’ in the ‘post- secular context’... more In this paper I argue that we need to analyze ‘religious violence’ in the ‘post- secular context’ in a twofold way: rather than simply viewing it in terms of mere irrationality, senselessness, atavism, or monstrosity – terms which, as we witness today on an immense scale, are strongly endorsed by the contemporary theater of cruelty committed in the name of religion – we also need to understand it in terms of an ‘originary supplement’ of ‘disengaged reason’. In order to confront its specificity beyond traditional explanations of violence, I propose an integrated phenomenological account of religion that traces the phenomenality of religion in terms of a correlation between the originary givenness of transcendence and capable man’s creative capacities to respond to it. Following Ricœur, I discuss ‘religious violence’ in terms of a monopolizing appropriation of the originary source of givenness that conflates man’s freedom to poetically respond to the appeal of the foundational with the surreptitiously claimed sovereignty to make it happen in a practical transfiguration of the everyday.

Are we living in a ‘post-secular age’, and can phenomenology help us better understand the discon... more Are we living in a ‘post-secular age’, and can phenomenology help us better understand the discontents of secularism and the supposed ‘return of religion’? The contributions within this volume employ phenomenology to furnish deeper reflection upon the roles religion plays—beyond a primarily individualist conception—in our social orders and imaginaries. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Philosophical Studies.

Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, 2018

Introductory paper to a special issue of JCRT, Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory 17/2(201... more Introductory paper to a special issue of JCRT, Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory 17/2(2018), together with L. Hagedorn

Human Studies, 2017

Introductory Paper to the Special Issue "Alfred Schutz and Religion," Human Studies, 40/4 (2017)

Bogoslovni vestnik / Theological Quarterly / Ephemerides theologicae, 2017

Reflecting the contemporary context of the "return of religion" and the changing role of religion... more Reflecting the contemporary context of the "return of religion" and the changing role of religion in our late modern social imaginaries, I argue that we need a revised phenomenological account to confront the "phenomenon of religion" today. By way of charting a middle course between, on the one hand, "radical phenomenology" and its focus on the invisible (Levinas, Marion, Henry), and the widely exported hermeneutics of religion (Ricoeur), on the other hand, the author proposes a novel understanding of transcendence: this account emphasizes a constitutive correlation of experiences of transcendence with practices of self-transcendence and liturgies of making transcendence together. In the last analysis, the author sketches how this conception can help us to confront the ambiguous poietic potential of religious practice and thus shed some light on the difficult relationship between religion and violence. (Forthcoming in Bogoslovni vestnik
/ Theological Quarterly / Ephemerides theologicae 77/2(2017)

Forthcoming Events by Michael Staudigl

SOPHERE call for papers, 2021

Recent advances in the study of religion successfully have demonstrated the positive, community-b... more Recent advances in the study of religion successfully have demonstrated the positive, community-building potentials of religious experience in terms of its material/performative practices, psychological models of coping with pain/crisis, and embodied habits that help individuals establish more co-creative forms of reason in order to develop more grounded social imaginaries and epistemologies. Without disregarding or disagreeing with the innumerable potential effects and benefits of having and creating religious experiences, in this conference we wish to focus more so on how the irrevocable ambivalence of religious experience simultaneously can lead it to bear its discontents and negative socialities, namely, in the forms of hostility, violence, and revenge. Although violence is not the necessary product of hostility, it always looms as a threat and is often motivated by various processes of enmification. And although revenge is not a necessary response to some preceding act of violence, individuals and groups quite often resort to it in order to appease aggrieved individuals and parties. Of course, this trifecta of hostility, violence, and revenge very often is invoked in political activities irrespective of religious traditions and engagements. Yet in all too many cases, this trifecta becomes even more pronounced due to the ways and means individuals and groups have, and choose to have, religious experiences and use religious narratives to justify violent responses. Can we describe phenomenologically the core motivations for why hostility, violence, or revenge too frequently are preferred over peaceful interactions and phronetic engagements with others? Does a certain entitlement or perverse freedom arise from a sense of representing divine power, stemming from unconditional claims that are promoted "in the name of" a transcendent principle? To what degree does the dialectic between purity and compromise play a role in the will to act violently towards others who one deems to embody a "threat of disorder," a stain of impurity, or are simply passed by indifferently? Could the clear-cut orders of "the sacred" and "the secular" possibly contribute to deepening an age-old dualism or desire for equilibrium through revenge? Further, if religious experience does not necessarily invite the irrational (or on the contrary, hyper-rational) responses of seeking the harm, injury, or "correction" of others, in what way do forms of religious experience contribute to the (re)production of negative socialities that revolve around imaginations of threat and disorder? What kind of responsibilities might the presence of a non or a-religious community or politic play in creating spaces of opposition and conflict? In order to find constructive answers to such questions, we invite reference to the whole phenomenological movement, including post-phenomenology, hermeneutics, and deconstruction; historical and contemporary research with the engagement of phenomenology, theological phenomenology, experienced-based comparative studies like cultural anthropology of experience, qualitatively based sociology of religion, as well as theological and psychological perspectives that utilize phenomenological research methods. Abstract and Paper proposals on the following topics would be most welcome:

CFP, 2020

In the context of the current COVID 19-crisis, the vexed relationship between religion, intuition... more In the context of the current COVID 19-crisis, the vexed relationship
between religion, intuition, discursive reason, and instrumental
rationality has become ever more complicated. Given resurgent appeals to
the transformative (purifying, redemptive, liberating, etc.) force of
religious resources in times of crisis–both manipulating and hopeful—we
invite papers which explicate the involved aspects of (ir)rationality, on a
societal, social, communal, and personal scale. Our working hypothesis is
that the by now apparent lapses and discontents of secular reason
contributed, if not lead to, the COVID19 pandemics. With the toll of
deaths nearing 600,000 worldwide, and the United States leading the
numbers, what does it tell us about the status of knowledge,
consciousness and its relationships with the power networks ? Given
the astounding denials of both trivial-ontic-empirical
and scientific facts of epidemics (especially in the US) and the
gripping realities of global misinformation, the relationship between the reason—in action, politics, press, local decision-making—and the subjective dimension of religiosity stand out in this new light, calling for phenomenological reporting and reflection, which must precede the care and the cure. While religious experience has been shown to have emancipatory value and enhance resilience and decrease stress, we'd like to clarify if this assessment still stands in this new situation.
Supplemental Research Webinar (online workshop only) of the Society for
the Phenomenology of Religious Experience, 16-17 September 2020

We invite submissions of papers of about 3000 words, which would correspond to 20 min of reading maximum. Please also provide up to 300 words synopsis of your talk, in a separate Word document formatted for anonymous review.
Please submit both to viennaweb2020@sophere.org Deadline for submission is July 15, 2020, with notifications of acceptance by September 1. The workshop is free of charge, as a contribution to healing the pandemic (donations to Sophere are of course welcome). Best papers will be recommended for a free of charge publication in a special issue of Open
Theology (De Gruyter), prepared in cooperation with the workshop.

Workshop Directors:
Jason Alvis J.WESLEY.ALVIS@gmail.com
Michael Staudigl michael.staudigl@univie.ac.
Olga Louchakova-Schwartz olouchakova@gmail.com

CfP Religious Experience and the Crisis of Secular Reason (Sophere Plenary Conference September ... more CfP Religious Experience and the Crisis of Secular Reason (Sophere Plenary Conference September 2020)

A series of lectures on positions, topics and perspectives in contemporary philosophy of religion... more A series of lectures on positions, topics and perspectives in contemporary philosophy of religion. Dep. of Philosophy, University of Vienna

Section Call for Papers for the Conference of the German Society for Phenomenology, Vienna, 18 - ... more Section Call for Papers for the Conference of the German Society for Phenomenology, Vienna, 18 - 21 September 2019.

This fully English section is part of the conference, which is dedicated to the topical constellation of "Fact, Facticity, Reality: Phenomenological Perspectives." Applications to shall be directed to the general organizers, for more details pls. see: http://phaenomenologische-forschung.de/dgpf-tagung-2019/call-for-papers-english-version/

International Workshop, Faculty of Theology, Vienna University, Funded within the Bilateral Grant... more International Workshop, Faculty of Theology, Vienna University, Funded within the Bilateral Grant "The Return of Religion as a Challenge to Thought," organized by J. Alvis, B. Klun & M. Staudigl

Religion fundamentally relies on community for its social expression, historical continuation, an... more Religion fundamentally relies on community for its social expression, historical continuation, and constitution of the “social bond”. therefore recent developments—at least in the West—may indicate the fading out or even the end of religious community. for at what point might religion’s being quarantined to mere opinion (or feeling, etc.) still allow it to “function” when it gets relegated to being but a “private option,” a subjective spiritual exercise, or an existential flashpoint of conver- sion? Precisely in the context of community, the alleged “return of religion” and the promise/threat that it entails require closer analysis.

Conference, University of Vienna & IWM, 16-18/05/18 Keynote: Charles Taylor (Montreal & IWM, Vie... more Conference, University of Vienna & IWM, 16-18/05/18

Keynote: Charles Taylor (Montreal & IWM, Vienna)

Speakers will include Jeffrey Bloechl (Boston College), John D. Caputo (Syracuse/Villanova), Joseph Cohen (UC Dublin), Emmanuel Falque (Institut Catholique Paris), Crina Gschwandtner (Fordham University), Kevin Hart (University of Virginia), Robyn Horner (ACU), Richard Kearney (Boston College), Carool Kersten (King's College), Marianne Moyaert (VU Amsterdam), Carl Raschke (University of Denver), Jacob Rogozinski (Strasbourg), Yvonne Sherwood (Kent University), Raphael Zagury-Orly (Tel Aviv, Bezalel College)

Continental Philosophy Review 53, issue 3,, 2020

Special Issue with contributions from James Mensch, Felix Ó Murchadha, Jacob Rogozinski, Jean Gre... more Special Issue with contributions from James Mensch, Felix Ó Murchadha, Jacob Rogozinski, Jean Greisch, James G. Hart, Ruud Welten, Christina M. Gschwandtner, Jean-Luc Marion and Michael Staudigl

Continental Philosophy Review , 2020

This introductory essay discusses how the trope of “religious violence” is operative in contempor... more This introductory essay discusses how the trope of “religious violence” is operative in contemporary discussions concerning the so-called “return of religion” and the “post-secular constellation.” The author argues that the development of a genuine phenomenology of “religious violence” calls on us to critically reconsider the modern discourses that all too unambiguously tie religion and violence together. In a first part, the paper leshes out the fault lines of a secularist modernity spinning out of control. In a second part, it demonstrates how the “liberal imaginary” revolves around individualist conceptions of freedom and sovereignty that, on their part, become parasitic upon imaginations of disorder, otherness and (especially religious) violence. In a third part, the author demonstrates how these insights call for developing a transformed phenomenological framework in order to give a more sensible account of “religious violence.” Finally, in presenting the articles gathered in this “special issue” of Continental Philosophy Review, some pathways into such a sensibilized phenomenology of “religious violence” are outlined.

PhaenEx 13/2, 2020

This paper examines the relationship between religion and violence from a phenomenological point ... more This paper examines the relationship between religion and violence from a phenomenological point of view. In the context of the so-called "return of the religious" and the crisis of contemporary social imaginaries, it deals with the supposedly disruptive and liberating potentials of religion in general, and religious violence in particular. The discussion revolves around the concept of "verticality" as developed by A. Steinbock and offers a generative interpretation of verticality's liberating and transformative potentials. The paper proceeds to demonstrate how religion and violence are interrelated on a variety of levels. In conclusion the author argues that we need to understand the relationship between religion and violence in terms of its contingent actualization and display but must avoid pitting it down as an essential feqture of religious systems of knowledge and practice.

Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society, 2019

This article offers an interpretation of late modern social imaginaries and their relationship to... more This article offers an interpretation of late modern social imaginaries and their relationship to religion and violence. I hypothesize that the transition from the "secular age" to a so-called "post-secular constellation" calls on us to critically reconsider the modern trope that all too unambiguously ties religion and violence together. Discussing the fault lines of a secularist modernity spinning out of control today on various fronts, I argue that the narrative semantics of the so-called "return of religion" is frequently adopted as an imaginative catalyst for confronting these contemporary discontents-for better and worse. In linking recent work on "social imaginaries" with Paul Ricoeur's discussion of the productive role of imagination in social life, I then explore the transformative potential of religious imagination in its inherent ambiguity. In conclusion I demonstrate that this quality involves a poietic license to start all over, one which can be used to expose both the violence of our beloved political ideals of freedom and sovereignty, as well as their repercussions on religious practice.

Studia phaenomenologica, 2019

This paper provides a phenomenological exploration of the phenomenon of collective violence, spec... more This paper provides a phenomenological exploration of the phenomenon of collective violence, specifically by following the leading clue of war from Plato to the "new wars" of late globalization. It first focuses on the genealogy of the legitimization of collective violence in terms of "counter-violence" and then demonstrates how it is mediated by constructions of "the other" in terms of "violence incarnate." Finally, it proposes to explore such constructions-including the "barbarian" in Greek antiquity, "the cannibal" in the context of Colonialism, or the contemporary cipher of religious irrationality as mirror effects of one's own disavowed forms of violence.

Cadernos de Ética e Filosofia Política, 2018

O artigo empreende a tentativa de refletir criticamente sobre a possibilidade de um contato não d... more O artigo empreende a tentativa de refletir criticamente sobre a possibilidade de um contato não danoso com o outro, indicada sob o mote da interculturalidade, à luz do pensamento radical de Lévinas e Derrida sobre a alteridade. Essa reflexão se encontra sob a suspeita de que as filosofias ou fenomenologias da interculturalidade não dão conta da negatividade do encontro intercultural de fato com o outro irredutível, como a história do imperialismo e colonialismo europeus produziram. Para comprovar isso, eu refletirei sobre as funções, as quais o conceito de cultura assumiu nos discursos sobre a Europa. No centro da questão se encontra a comprovação de que a identificação da superioridade europeia sob o signo da cultura implica na constituição do outro como um outro ameaçador, a qual promove a brutalidade desta lida, ou seja, a história da violência – tanto interna quanto externa – da Europa. Sobre este plano de fundo eu concluo com o rascunho de alguns contornos de uma política da não-indiferença cultural, cujas raízes vejo remeterem ao pensamento de uma descolonização do imaginário da Europa.

Portuguese translation by D. R. Mileli

Introduction to our special issue "Phenomenology and the Post-secular turn," which proposes to us... more Introduction to our special issue "Phenomenology and the Post-secular turn," which proposes to use and re-calibrate phenomenological methods to give an account of the post-secular and the issues it entails.

Published as Michael Staudigl & Jason W. Alvis, "Phenomenology and the Post- secular Turn: Reconsidering the ‘Return of the Religious’." International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 24:5 (2016), 589-599
DOI: 10.1080/09672559.2016.1259917

In this paper I argue that we need to analyze ‘religious violence’ in the ‘post- secular context’... more In this paper I argue that we need to analyze ‘religious violence’ in the ‘post- secular context’ in a twofold way: rather than simply viewing it in terms of mere irrationality, senselessness, atavism, or monstrosity – terms which, as we witness today on an immense scale, are strongly endorsed by the contemporary theater of cruelty committed in the name of religion – we also need to understand it in terms of an ‘originary supplement’ of ‘disengaged reason’. In order to confront its specificity beyond traditional explanations of violence, I propose an integrated phenomenological account of religion that traces the phenomenality of religion in terms of a correlation between the originary givenness of transcendence and capable man’s creative capacities to respond to it. Following Ricœur, I discuss ‘religious violence’ in terms of a monopolizing appropriation of the originary source of givenness that conflates man’s freedom to poetically respond to the appeal of the foundational with the surreptitiously claimed sovereignty to make it happen in a practical transfiguration of the everyday.

Are we living in a ‘post-secular age’, and can phenomenology help us better understand the discon... more Are we living in a ‘post-secular age’, and can phenomenology help us better understand the discontents of secularism and the supposed ‘return of religion’? The contributions within this volume employ phenomenology to furnish deeper reflection upon the roles religion plays—beyond a primarily individualist conception—in our social orders and imaginaries. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Philosophical Studies.

Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, 2018

Introductory paper to a special issue of JCRT, Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory 17/2(201... more Introductory paper to a special issue of JCRT, Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory 17/2(2018), together with L. Hagedorn

Human Studies, 2017

Introductory Paper to the Special Issue "Alfred Schutz and Religion," Human Studies, 40/4 (2017)

Bogoslovni vestnik / Theological Quarterly / Ephemerides theologicae, 2017

Reflecting the contemporary context of the "return of religion" and the changing role of religion... more Reflecting the contemporary context of the "return of religion" and the changing role of religion in our late modern social imaginaries, I argue that we need a revised phenomenological account to confront the "phenomenon of religion" today. By way of charting a middle course between, on the one hand, "radical phenomenology" and its focus on the invisible (Levinas, Marion, Henry), and the widely exported hermeneutics of religion (Ricoeur), on the other hand, the author proposes a novel understanding of transcendence: this account emphasizes a constitutive correlation of experiences of transcendence with practices of self-transcendence and liturgies of making transcendence together. In the last analysis, the author sketches how this conception can help us to confront the ambiguous poietic potential of religious practice and thus shed some light on the difficult relationship between religion and violence. (Forthcoming in Bogoslovni vestnik
/ Theological Quarterly / Ephemerides theologicae 77/2(2017)

SOPHERE call for papers, 2021

Recent advances in the study of religion successfully have demonstrated the positive, community-b... more Recent advances in the study of religion successfully have demonstrated the positive, community-building potentials of religious experience in terms of its material/performative practices, psychological models of coping with pain/crisis, and embodied habits that help individuals establish more co-creative forms of reason in order to develop more grounded social imaginaries and epistemologies. Without disregarding or disagreeing with the innumerable potential effects and benefits of having and creating religious experiences, in this conference we wish to focus more so on how the irrevocable ambivalence of religious experience simultaneously can lead it to bear its discontents and negative socialities, namely, in the forms of hostility, violence, and revenge. Although violence is not the necessary product of hostility, it always looms as a threat and is often motivated by various processes of enmification. And although revenge is not a necessary response to some preceding act of violence, individuals and groups quite often resort to it in order to appease aggrieved individuals and parties. Of course, this trifecta of hostility, violence, and revenge very often is invoked in political activities irrespective of religious traditions and engagements. Yet in all too many cases, this trifecta becomes even more pronounced due to the ways and means individuals and groups have, and choose to have, religious experiences and use religious narratives to justify violent responses. Can we describe phenomenologically the core motivations for why hostility, violence, or revenge too frequently are preferred over peaceful interactions and phronetic engagements with others? Does a certain entitlement or perverse freedom arise from a sense of representing divine power, stemming from unconditional claims that are promoted "in the name of" a transcendent principle? To what degree does the dialectic between purity and compromise play a role in the will to act violently towards others who one deems to embody a "threat of disorder," a stain of impurity, or are simply passed by indifferently? Could the clear-cut orders of "the sacred" and "the secular" possibly contribute to deepening an age-old dualism or desire for equilibrium through revenge? Further, if religious experience does not necessarily invite the irrational (or on the contrary, hyper-rational) responses of seeking the harm, injury, or "correction" of others, in what way do forms of religious experience contribute to the (re)production of negative socialities that revolve around imaginations of threat and disorder? What kind of responsibilities might the presence of a non or a-religious community or politic play in creating spaces of opposition and conflict? In order to find constructive answers to such questions, we invite reference to the whole phenomenological movement, including post-phenomenology, hermeneutics, and deconstruction; historical and contemporary research with the engagement of phenomenology, theological phenomenology, experienced-based comparative studies like cultural anthropology of experience, qualitatively based sociology of religion, as well as theological and psychological perspectives that utilize phenomenological research methods. Abstract and Paper proposals on the following topics would be most welcome:

CFP, 2020

In the context of the current COVID 19-crisis, the vexed relationship between religion, intuition... more In the context of the current COVID 19-crisis, the vexed relationship
between religion, intuition, discursive reason, and instrumental
rationality has become ever more complicated. Given resurgent appeals to
the transformative (purifying, redemptive, liberating, etc.) force of
religious resources in times of crisis–both manipulating and hopeful—we
invite papers which explicate the involved aspects of (ir)rationality, on a
societal, social, communal, and personal scale. Our working hypothesis is
that the by now apparent lapses and discontents of secular reason
contributed, if not lead to, the COVID19 pandemics. With the toll of
deaths nearing 600,000 worldwide, and the United States leading the
numbers, what does it tell us about the status of knowledge,
consciousness and its relationships with the power networks ? Given
the astounding denials of both trivial-ontic-empirical
and scientific facts of epidemics (especially in the US) and the
gripping realities of global misinformation, the relationship between the reason—in action, politics, press, local decision-making—and the subjective dimension of religiosity stand out in this new light, calling for phenomenological reporting and reflection, which must precede the care and the cure. While religious experience has been shown to have emancipatory value and enhance resilience and decrease stress, we'd like to clarify if this assessment still stands in this new situation.
Supplemental Research Webinar (online workshop only) of the Society for
the Phenomenology of Religious Experience, 16-17 September 2020

We invite submissions of papers of about 3000 words, which would correspond to 20 min of reading maximum. Please also provide up to 300 words synopsis of your talk, in a separate Word document formatted for anonymous review.
Please submit both to viennaweb2020@sophere.org Deadline for submission is July 15, 2020, with notifications of acceptance by September 1. The workshop is free of charge, as a contribution to healing the pandemic (donations to Sophere are of course welcome). Best papers will be recommended for a free of charge publication in a special issue of Open
Theology (De Gruyter), prepared in cooperation with the workshop.

Workshop Directors:
Jason Alvis J.WESLEY.ALVIS@gmail.com
Michael Staudigl michael.staudigl@univie.ac.
Olga Louchakova-Schwartz olouchakova@gmail.com

CfP Religious Experience and the Crisis of Secular Reason (Sophere Plenary Conference September ... more CfP Religious Experience and the Crisis of Secular Reason (Sophere Plenary Conference September 2020)

A series of lectures on positions, topics and perspectives in contemporary philosophy of religion... more A series of lectures on positions, topics and perspectives in contemporary philosophy of religion. Dep. of Philosophy, University of Vienna

Section Call for Papers for the Conference of the German Society for Phenomenology, Vienna, 18 - ... more Section Call for Papers for the Conference of the German Society for Phenomenology, Vienna, 18 - 21 September 2019.

This fully English section is part of the conference, which is dedicated to the topical constellation of "Fact, Facticity, Reality: Phenomenological Perspectives." Applications to shall be directed to the general organizers, for more details pls. see: http://phaenomenologische-forschung.de/dgpf-tagung-2019/call-for-papers-english-version/

International Workshop, Faculty of Theology, Vienna University, Funded within the Bilateral Grant... more International Workshop, Faculty of Theology, Vienna University, Funded within the Bilateral Grant "The Return of Religion as a Challenge to Thought," organized by J. Alvis, B. Klun & M. Staudigl

Religion fundamentally relies on community for its social expression, historical continuation, an... more Religion fundamentally relies on community for its social expression, historical continuation, and constitution of the “social bond”. therefore recent developments—at least in the West—may indicate the fading out or even the end of religious community. for at what point might religion’s being quarantined to mere opinion (or feeling, etc.) still allow it to “function” when it gets relegated to being but a “private option,” a subjective spiritual exercise, or an existential flashpoint of conver- sion? Precisely in the context of community, the alleged “return of religion” and the promise/threat that it entails require closer analysis.

Conference, University of Vienna & IWM, 16-18/05/18 Keynote: Charles Taylor (Montreal & IWM, Vie... more Conference, University of Vienna & IWM, 16-18/05/18

Keynote: Charles Taylor (Montreal & IWM, Vienna)

Speakers will include Jeffrey Bloechl (Boston College), John D. Caputo (Syracuse/Villanova), Joseph Cohen (UC Dublin), Emmanuel Falque (Institut Catholique Paris), Crina Gschwandtner (Fordham University), Kevin Hart (University of Virginia), Robyn Horner (ACU), Richard Kearney (Boston College), Carool Kersten (King's College), Marianne Moyaert (VU Amsterdam), Carl Raschke (University of Denver), Jacob Rogozinski (Strasbourg), Yvonne Sherwood (Kent University), Raphael Zagury-Orly (Tel Aviv, Bezalel College)

International Workshop, University of Vienna, 19-20 March 2018

Talk at the conference "Philosophy's Religions: Challenging Continental Philosophy of Religion",... more Talk at the conference "Philosophy's Religions: Challenging Continental Philosophy of Religion", Faculty of Theology, Unoiversity of Ljubljana, 5-7 September 2018

Lecture at the Workshop "The Joys of Violence" -- https://site.uit.no/violence/about-the-workshop/

The discourse of violence is fraught with various aporias. Most widely known is the truly vicious... more The discourse of violence is fraught with various aporias. Most widely known is the truly vicious circle of violence and counter-violence. This correlation attests to a profound aporia since the parts of this circle are not simply tied to each other as opposite, incongruent counterparts , or exclusive determinations. Most disconcerting is the fact that the discourse of order (and the legitimate counter-violence that it entails) is parasitic upon (imaginations of) disorder. The unruly, disorderly, etc., thus functions as the "originary supplement" of order, providing it with the "raw material" to keep the fabrics of ordering alive. In light of this insight, I hypothesize that this parasitic relationship is epitomized most clearly in our practices of representing violence and the fascination that these frequently entail: violence thus viewed appears as the ambiguous "tremendum fascinans," embodying the kind of "negative transcendence" that our social orders cannot do without. The joys we cannot but derive from the poetic imperative of symbolically appresenting this "other of reason," thus testifies to the said intertwining that links our moral condemnations of violence to our existential incapacity to escape it. The question, in the last analysis, thus amounts to whether or not representations of violence are possible that fall not prey to its parasitic logic, but can halt it, thus opening spaces of lesser violence which do not fall prey to any imaginations of some "final solution" to an assumedly monolithic problem of violence.

Talk at the conference "Phénoménologies de l'étranger. Hommage à la pensée de Bernhard Waldenfels... more Talk at the conference "Phénoménologies de l'étranger. Hommage à la pensée de Bernhard Waldenfels."

Partager
Coordination : Marion Bernard (UMR 8547 – Archives Husserl), Julien Farges (UMR 8547 – Archives Husserl), Laurent Perreau (Université de Franche-Comté / Archives Husserl)

Du mercredi 3 octobre 2018 au vendredi 5 octobre 2018 à l'ENS Ulm

Secularism and its Discontents. Toward a Phenomenology of Religious Violence In the wake of glo... more Secularism and its Discontents. Toward a Phenomenology of Religious Violence

In the wake of globalization and the new fault lines it generates, we are confronted with unprecedented forms of "religious violence." Such violences are among the most pressing challenges in public discourse and aca- demic research today, embodying a wholly "new logics of violence" that escapes traditional accounts. Whe- reas the issue is being discussed more broadly in the social sciences, the humanities, and religious studies, philosophy has thus far remained all too silent on the matter, dismissing violence in general as blatantly sen- seless, irrational, or evil. This astonishing eclipse highlights the desideratum to address violence in general, and religious violence specifically, as a genuinely philosophical problem—a problem that is mirrored in the occidentalist perceptions of our self-righteous concepts of secular reason.
To address this desideratum, this project will analyze contemporary forms of religious violence from an inherently philosophical viewpoint nourished by the phenomenological tradition. Concretely viewed, we will proceed against the backdrop of "secularism and its discontents," which points to the fault lines of mo- dernity that mark our contemporary situation. We hypothesize that a phenomenological account that focuses on the role of our embodiments, affectivity, and emotions in late modern social imaginaries can pave the path to confront the issue productively. In this context, we explore the indispensable role of transcendence for the affective integration of the social bond, and demonstrate that practices of self-transcendence harbor an inte- grating and empowering potential, both on the individual and the collective level. In testing our hypotheses in the contemporary context of an unprecedented collapse of traditional sociopolitical identities and binding values in the maelstrom of globalization, the project seeks to analyze the bewildering return of a "new ar-
chaic violence" in a time of exorbitant technological progress and the promises it entails.

The project's basic aim is three-fold: we propose to 1) motivate the philosophical concern with the new lo- gics of religious violence; 2) elaborate a phenomenological framework for addressing various related phenomena; and 3) investigate critically its impact on the self-understanding of secular reason and occidental philosophy in order, finally, to reflect upon new capacities for confronting such violences.

Methodically viewed, we will proceed by exploring the yet unplumbed potentials of phenomenological ana- lysis for the topic at hand. By orchestrating a series of confrontations between related research in contem- porary philosophy (continental philosophy of religion, debates on "post-secularism," "collective intentionali- ty," the "affective turn") and interdisciplinary studies on religious violence, we seek to apply phenomenolo- gical methods to an underexposed topic, one that we insist to demand serious attention in philosophical dis- course today.



The Return of the Religious in Postmodern Thought as a Challenge for Theology. In a time of a p... more The Return of the Religious in Postmodern Thought as a Challenge for Theology.

In a time of a postmodern and post-secular return of the religious on both the individual and societal levels, this joint Slovenian-Austrian research project aims to be an original contribution towards building a new platform of dialogue between postmodern thinking and theology. Its goal is an identification and analysis of theologically relevant topoi, which this project intends to explore according to three venues of postmodern thought. The first venue includes representatives of French phenomenology (e.g. Levinas, Henry, Marion, Chrétien) who have undertaken within this field the so-called “theological turn,” and have thus revealed new possibilities for the means of relation between philosophy and theology. The second venue of inquiry relates more to hermeneutical thinkers (e.g. Ricoeur, Vattimo, Caputo) who have already initiated dialogue with the biblical religious tradition and thereby demonstrated the potential of postmodernism for theological reflection. The third venue consists of two alternative postmodern approaches, which embody two different orientations. Girard’s anthropological approach returns to Christianity and adopts an affirmative attitude toward it, while on the other hand, Luce Irigaray demands a critical reinterpretation of Christianity from the feminist point of view and calls for a broader notion of religiosity with new topoi of corporeal gestures of proximity and of cosmico-ethical elements.
In the first phase of the project, the research will critically examine different notions of transcendence in relation to the aforementioned postmodern thinkers, who are of crucial importance for a dialogue with Christian theology. The second phase will engage in extrapolating theologically relevant topoi, which will serve as a horizontal connection between different postmodern approaches. Such topoi include, for example, the notions of gift and grace, event and narration, time and messianism, call and response, sensitivity and incarnation, weakness and kenosis, love (caritas) and hospitality. The main quality of this project consists, however, in combining two different approaches. The inquiry into postmodern thinking will not investigate only its relevance for theology (ad intra), but will also inquire into the presence of – often not reflected – religious elements on the societal level and to identify religious topoi in our post-secular society (ad extra). The Austrian partner will explore the potential of the theological turn in phenomenology for a post-secular political philosophy and thereby contribute to a better understanding of the postmodern status of religion in society. The synergy of both approaches (ad intra and ad extra) and the mutual relevance of the research results will provide a basis for new possibilities of dialogue between theology and secular thought, and between religion and society. Thus, it will contribute to overcoming the modern Enlightenment paradigm of separation between religion and society, which often amounts to an exclusion of religion from society, and will move toward a new culture of coexistence and mutual respect.

Religion beyond Myth and Enlightenment – A Phenomenological Reconsideration of Religion in the M... more Religion beyond Myth and Enlightenment –
A Phenomenological Reconsideration of Religion in the Modern World

PROJECT SUMMARY

The goal of our research project is a systematic phenomenological reconsideration of religion and its meaning for the modern world. This involves an overcoming of traditional concepts and dichotomies at work in political philosophy which prevent us from fully grasping the potentials inherent to religion. Typically, religious convictions are either regarded as mere irrational forces in opposition to the secular world or considered condescendingly as offering ‘some values’ that can serve as tools for a further refinement of our basically unchanged and unchallenged secular self-understanding. Both these attitudes not only deprive the non-secular worldview of its own character; they also exacerbate the ongoing clash between secular societies and religiously defined groups or cultures. Against this background, the often cited ‘return of the religious’ calls on us to revisit the place of religion in modern societies. To reassess religion’s role and potential in a post-secular context, we suggest an approach that reaches ‘beyond the dichotomy of myth and enlightenment’.
The central hypothesis of our project is that religion harbours a twofold potential for shaping our encounters with otherness and, hence, with the other of reason in general. One potential of religion will be addressed as a tendency to auto-immunity. In an attempt to protect its view of reality, religion seeks to escape from encountering otherness as an integral and constitutive part of its own identity. The result is not just a deformation of religion’s own character; it also includes the possibility of a violent reaction to such otherness. Religion’s second, positive potential consists in its capability to transcend the relative autonomy of pre-given sense structures. Thereby, religion allows the shaking of our sedimented interpretations of the world by accepting otherness as an integral and irreducible part of our own identity. Unless we address both these potentials as well as their relationship, the very phenomenon of religion remains unintelligible.
The philosophical inspiration to fulfil this task is mainly shaped by phenomenology and its unique capacity to unfold meaningful structures in a non-foundational and non-essentialist way. Relying on the broad (and yet often not fully recognized) insights of classical phenomenology, we will also take up more recent developments (esp. in the French and American context) that provide for an innovative and profound understanding of religious phenomena. Our venture seeks to develop a new paradigm in conceiving the relations between the secular-scientific and the religious worldviews. Overcoming their mutual exclusion, it calls for a thorough revision of the modern self-conception and, thus, aspires to break ground for a political thought that leads us to a genuinely post-secular society.

Research project underwritten by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF P 23255-G19)

The Many Faces of Violence: Toward an Integrative Phenomenological Conception Events of extre... more The Many Faces of Violence:
Toward an Integrative Phenomenological Conception

Events of extreme violence, such as suicide-attacks, 9/11, or the “return of a new archaic violence,” have recently renewed attention about physical violence. Interestingly, there has also been a reappearance of concern about social, cultural, and structural violence. However, while all these forms have been subject to special studies, interdisciplinary research is still hampered by the lack of a unifying approach. What is missing is a paradigm that allows us to think these forms of violence as aspects of a unified phenomenon. To resolve this deficit and elaborate an integrative conception of violence, this project will use the phenomenological method.

Generally viewed, phenomenology studies how we make sense of the world. Our working hypothesis holds that violence is destructive of sense and, on a more foundational level, our bodily capacities of sense-making. We see embodiment as a multi-level phenomenon, beginning with the physical “I can” and proceeding through various levels of cultural, social, and political practices. Given this correlation, we will analyze how violence destroys the ways we make sense of the world and ourselves according to our traditions and institutions. Because such sense structures delineate our world by forming a series of dependencies, we can be exposed to indirect violence, i.e. symbolic, cultural, and structural. To unfold the implications of our research, we will examine specific examples of cultural and political collapse, so-called “cultures of violence,” “coercive environments,” as well as structures of multiple social exclusion.

In this context, we will also address the poietic function of violence and analyze how it is used for the formation and expression of identity, involving both individuals and collectivities. As to the traditional equation of sovereignty and freedom, expressions of identity imply determinations of the other in terms of irrationality and threat that can be used to justify one’s own violence. In uncovering this circle of violence and counter-violence, we, finally, seek to rethink our political categories beyond the logic of confrontation that rests upon essentialist misconceptions of our communal being.

To construct an integrative approach to violence, our research will present a non-subjectivist phenomenology that enables us to see how violence is destructive of sense. In testing this hypothesis on historic, sociological and anthropological materials, we will ground our research empirically. Thus, we will, in the last analysis, elaborate a methodology for interdisciplinary research that will foster a deeper understanding of the many interrelated faces of violence.

Project underwritten by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF P 20300) (1.11.2007 - 30.06.2011)

Human Studies, 2017

This Special issue of Human Studies elaborates on the potentials of Schutzian phenomenology to co... more This Special issue of Human Studies elaborates on the potentials of Schutzian phenomenology to confront the very phenomenon of religion. The collected contributions set out to assess the conceptual and methodical resources of Schutz's phenomenology in order to explore and describe the realities of "lived religion" from a socio-phenomenological viewpoint. The papers fathom the potentials of Schutz's theory of "multiple realities," his account of the symbol, and his conception of "relevance" to 1) confront and describe a specifically "religious finite province of meaning," 2) to study specific phenomena of religious practice, 3) to productively think through religion's critical interrelation with secular life-worlds, and 4) to address the correlation of religion and violence from the socio-phenomenological point of view.

Contributing authors include Ruth Ayaß (Klagenfurt), Michael D. Barber (St. Louis), Mar Griera (Barcelona), Ilja Srubar (Erlangen), Keiji Hoshikawa (Tokyo), and Michael Staudigl (Vienna).

Are we living in a Post-secular age, and if so, how can it be understood? From Habermas’ claim t... more Are we living in a Post-secular age, and if so, how can it be understood? From Habermas’ claim that the secular hypothesis has failed, and religion can no longer be relegated easily to the private realm; to the sociological fact that religion, far from dwindling as many sociologists predicted, is as strong as ever (especially in developing countries), many have concluded that the answer to this question is an emphatic “yes.” The subsequent questions whether we have ever been really secular, whether the concept of secularism applies only to the special case of Europe, and whether the concept of religion is but a secret weapon of Western hegemonic universalism, all demonstrate clearly that any reflections whatsoever on any such “post-secularity” demand multi-disciplinary and innovative optics. Although some scholars in recent decades have proclaimed a triumphalist post-secularism (Milbank), others, such as Gauchet, Dupuy and Asad have shifted attention to how the religious is far more interwoven into the tapestry of the secular than we tend to realize. Asad demonstrated convincingly how the secular “is neither continuous with the religious that supposedly preceded it […] nor a simple break from it” and that “the concept of the secular cannot do without the idea of religion." This interlacement of secular modernity with its assumed (or perhaps projected) other can be witnessed in a variety of contexts, including the specifically late modern evolvement of new spiritual imaginaries, the resurgence of “political theologies,” or the tendency of disengaged reason to hypostatize itself in an auto-idolatrous way that bears at least co-responsibility for contemporary violences committed in the name of sacrosanct values.

This special issue intervenes in such debates in political philosophy and philosophy of religion concerning the “Post-Secular” through employing and applying research in phenomenology. Phenomenology undoubtedly has a long and rich tradition in studying the various and differing modes of religious experience. Following the incipient phase in German phenomenology (e.g. Scheler and Stein, but also the young Heidegger), French phenomenology, especially in the last 30 years (starting with prominent figures like Lévinas, Ricœur, Henry, or Marion) has contributed to the explorations of religious experience as such, and key concepts essential to it, such as (self)transcendence, sacrifice, gift, prayer, love, etc. More generally viewed, however, phenomenology has hardly contributed to debates concerning the role of religion in our contemporary societies. It is the intention of this issue to elaborate on the yet unplumbed potential phenomenological analysis maintains to confront these topics. Contemporary phenomenology undoubtedly has contributed to philosophically overcoming onto-theology and a post-metaphysical re-thinking of religion. Yet to apply phenomenology productively in order to confront “the return of religion” and its related contours of a “post-secular constellation” has remained a true desideratum that we wish here to take up.

Contributors include Jason W. Alvis, Christina M. Gschwandtner, James G. Hart, Robyn Horner, Sarah Pessin, J.Aaron Simmons, Michael Staudigl and Anthony J. Steinbock.

This will be the English translation of my book, Phänomenologie der Gewalt (2015, Springer), whic... more This will be the English translation of my book, Phänomenologie der Gewalt (2015, Springer), which will appear with Northwestern University Press (SPEP series) next year. I am still working on the translation and a new chapter on the phenomenology of religious violence, including analyses of selected "case studies" dealing with a) violent practices of average religious life (ranging from asceticism or wearing the "hair shirt" to the structurally sacrificial logic of religious community making), b) performative iconoclasm (the case of the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan), c) the theological-political usages of cruelty, esp. in the case of ISIS' so-called "theology of rape." The focus is on fathoming the relational element in all this, i.e., on exploring the relationship of violence with its assumed other--and vice versa.

»Die Gastfreundschaft ist die Kultur selbst«, erklärte Derrida und meinte damit offenbar eine bej... more »Die Gastfreundschaft ist die Kultur selbst«, erklärte Derrida und meinte damit offenbar eine bejahte und unbedingte Aufgeschlossenheit, wohl wissend, dass sie politisch und rechtlich geregeltes Leben zu überfordern droht. Muss man dennoch daran festhalten, dass kulturelles Leben im Allgemeinen – und europäisches Leben im Besonderen - zur Gastlichkeit bestimmt ist? Demnach wäre gelebte Europäität, nach der man bislang vergebens geforscht hat, geradezu im Sinne einer gastlichen Kultur zu verstehen. Und das, nachdem sich Europa durch Imperialismus, Kolonialismus und in zwei Weltkriegen als der weltweit ungastlichste Kontinent erwiesen zu haben scheint! Ist in dieser Perspektive die Philosophie der Gastlichkeit als Lehre aus der europäischen Geschichte oder, im Gegenteil, als eine spezielle Form der Ignoranz ihr gegenüber zu verstehen? Kann sich Europa, so wie wir es heute vor Augen haben, die Idee der Gastlichkeit wirklich auf die eigenen Fahnen schreiben? Darf es für sich in Anspruch neh-men, als ein gastliches zu gelten? Oder wäre das der Gipfel historischer Selbstgerechtigkeit und interkultureller Arroganz obendrein? Widerstreitet die Idee der Gastlichkeit nicht jeglicher identitären Aneignung, wenn sie ursprünglich dem Anderen als dem Fremden verpflichtet ist? Dieser Band lotet diese Fragen im Ausgang von Immanuel Kant, Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas und Jacques Derrida in historischen, rechtlichen, politischen und kulturellen Perspektiven aus. Er bietet Schlüsseltexte dieser Stichwortgeber für eine zeitgemäße Kulturtheorie und -philosophie der Hospitalität und der Gastlichkeit und darüber hinaus systematisch-historische Rekonstruktionen dieser Begriffe und interdisziplinäre Analysen aktueller Praktiken der Gastlichkeit in pädagogischen, ethnologischen und religionskritischen Perspektiven. Nicht zuletzt wird Bezug genommen auf aktuelle Diskussionen um europäisches Asylrecht, um die europäische Grenz-schutzagentur FRONTEX und um die Freizügigkeit in Europa.

Das Werk des französischen Phänomenologen Jean-Luc Marion wird in diesem Buch in systematischer w... more Das Werk des französischen Phänomenologen Jean-Luc Marion wird in diesem Buch in systematischer wie kritischer Hinsicht ausgeleuchtet. Schwerpunkte sind 1. eine historisch-kritische Verortung von Marions Denken im Kontext von Descartes, Kant und der Phänomenologie; 2. eine inhaltliche Entfaltung des Programms der „Phänomenologie der Gegebenheit“ und der daraus resultierenden Implikationen für die Grundbegriffe der Phänomenologie (Welt, Subjekt, Zeit, etc.). Der Band enthält zudem zwei Texte Marions in deutscher Erstveröffentlichung.
Mit Beiträgen von Thomas Alferi, Jason W. Alvis, Lilian Alweiss, Katharina Bauer, Natalie Depraz, Peter Gaitsch, Branko Klun, Alwin Letzkus, Jean-Luc Marion, Karel Novotný, Marcus Schmücker, Claudia Serban, Emilie Tardivel und László Tengelyi.

... Handelns? Ansätze bei Hannah Arendt Verzeichnis der Beitragenden Page 9. ... entstammen. Man ... more ... Handelns? Ansätze bei Hannah Arendt Verzeichnis der Beitragenden Page 9. ... entstammen. Man denke hier etwa an Hannah Arendt, deren Werk noch immer wesentliche An-regungen für eine kritische Neubewertung der liberalen Tradition liefert. ...

Hildesheim: Olms (Europaea memoria), Jan 1, 2005

Orbis Phaenomenologicus Herausgegeben von Kah Kyung Cho (Buffalo), Yoshihiro Nitta (Tokyo) und Ha... more Orbis Phaenomenologicus Herausgegeben von Kah Kyung Cho (Buffalo), Yoshihiro Nitta (Tokyo) und Hans Rainer Sepp (Prag) Perspektiven 3 Editionsgremium Eberhard Ave-Lallemant (München), Rudolf Bernet (Leuven), Ivan Blecha (Olomouc), Alexei G. Chernyakov (St. ...

Der Forderung, sich im Denken den Herausforderungen auszusetzen, die gegenwärtig immer dringliche... more Der Forderung, sich im Denken den Herausforderungen auszusetzen, die gegenwärtig immer dringlicher und bedrängender werden, scheint im Bereich einer Phänomenologie, die sich mit ihrem eigenen methodischen Status beschäftigt, nur schwer Rechnung ...

Folgt man der mit dem Begriff des »Postfaktischen« verbundenen Zeitdiagnose, so befinden wir uns ... more Folgt man der mit dem Begriff des »Postfaktischen« verbundenen Zeitdiagnose, so befinden wir uns in einem Zeitalter, in dem wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse durch »gefühlte Wahrheiten« und Tatsachen durch »alternative Fakten« ersetzt werden. Gleichzeitig zeigt sich – im Zuge der fortschreitenden Digitalisierung und des Aufkommens neuer Informationstechnologien – eine breite gesellschaftliche Entwicklung hin zu einer Herrschaft des faktisch Gegebenen im Sinne nackter Daten (Big Data), die scheinbar abseits jeder lebensweltlichen Verankerung das soziale Leben einer umfassenden Algorithmisierung und Berechenbarkeit unterwerfen. Angesichts dieser ambivalenten und spannungsreichen Gemengelage im Kontext der gegenwärtigen " Wahrheitskrise " fragt die Tagung nach den spezifischen Einsatzpunkten, Perspektivierungen und Einsichten, die phänomenologische Ansätze für Fragen des Gegebenen und des Faktischen sowie der Faktizität und der Evidenzerzeugung zu liefern vermögen. Im Zentrum steht dabei das Problem des Verhältnisses zwischen wissenschaftlichen Tatsachen und soziopolitischen Realitäten sowie kulturellen Lebenswelten, das nicht zuletzt im Zuge der Globalisierung von Informationsflüssen und den damit einhergehenden interkulturellen Verflechtungen heute an Dringlichkeit gewinnt. Bei diesen Fragen handelt es sich in der Tat um Kerngebiete der Phänomenologie. Denn in ihrer gesamten Geschichte – von Husserls Diktum »Zu den Sachen selbst!« und seiner Kritik am Positivismus resp. Psychologismus über Heideggers Abgrenzung der Wahrheit als aletheia von Formen faktischer Richtigkeit sowie seiner »Ding«-Analyse, Arendts Überlegungen zu Politik und Wahrheit sowie Levinasʼ These vom Vorrang der Gerechtigkeit gegenüber der Objektivität bis hin zu Marions Analysen des Gegebenen und Waldenfels' Denken der »Bruchlinien der Erfahrung« – erweisen sich Fragen des Gegebenen, des Faktischen und der Faktizität, der Evidenz, der Objektivität und der Wahrheit als phänomenologische Grundprobleme. Dabei ist es vor dem Hintergrund des Tagungsthemas ein besonderes Anliegen, neben dem Aspekt deskriptiver Methodik vor allem das sach-kritische und zugleich eröffnende und »aufweisende« Potential phänomenologischer Forschung in den Fokus der Aufmerksamkeit zu rücken. Die Tagung diskutiert das Problemfeld mit internationalen GastrednerInnen sowie in zwölf thematischen Sektionen, auf die sich alle interessierten WissenschafterInnen bewerben können. Tagungssprachen sind Deutsch und Englisch sowie ggf. Französisch. Die Sektionen III, V und XII werden in englischer Sprache gehalten.

In this paper, we propose to analyze the phenomenon of Christian prayer by way of combining two d... more In this paper, we propose to analyze the phenomenon of Christian prayer by way of combining two different analytical frameworks. We start by applying Schutz’s theories of “intersubjectivity,” “inner time,” “politheticality,” and “multiple realities,” and then proceed by drawing on the ideas and insights of linguistic philosophers, notably, Wittgenstein’s “language-game,” Austin’s “speech act,” and Evans’s “logic of self-involvement.” In conjoining these accounts, we wish to demonstrate how their combination sheds new light on understanding the phenomenon of prayer. Prayer is a complex phenomenon that involves two major dimensions: the private and the social, as Matthew (6: 6) and Acts (1: 14), respectively, demonstrate. Schutz’s study of the phenomenon of “inner time” and the “polithetical” structure of consciousness, at both the subjective and intersubjective level, provides a useful lens to analyze these two dimensions. In addition, prayer, in following a specific set of rules, can also be considered as a specific, i.e., religious “language-game.” In the last analysis, however, we propose to analyze prayer (and, finally, religion) within the Schutzian framework of “multiple realities,” “enclaves,” and “symbolic appresentation,” which permits accessing the “religious finite province of meaning” in the very midst of the paramount reality of everyday life. In a nutshell, we claim that Christian prayer is a practice of constructing and living within a “religious province of meaning” in the everyday world; it is a practice that revolves around self-involving language-activities such as praising, confessing, thanksgiving, or requesting to God, which enable the praying subject to transfigure the language of everydayness and “see through” (Schutz) the world of everyday life in order to let it appear in a different light, e.g., the light of grace, gift, and salvation.

This article elaborates a relational paradigm for doing phenomenology of violence. In a first ste... more This article elaborates a relational paradigm for doing phenomenology of violence. In a first step, the author explores how the constitution of sense is intrinsically related to our embodiment and inter-corporality. Secondly, he addresses several problems that keep a traditional phenomenological account from confronting violence head on. In a third step, he accordingly proceeds to demonstrate how a relational conception of sense and constitution can be used to pave the path for an integrative understanding of the bodily and symbolic constituents of violence. In the fourth part, the paper provides an exemplification of the outlined conception with regard to a concrete phenomenon of violence, i.e., slapping in its various forms and contextually bound significations. In a fifth and final section, the author addresses the overall consequences of these reflections, thereby identifying the main characteristics of a relational phenomenology of violence.

This paper claims that Jan Patočka’s phenomenological philosophy harbors a yet unfathomed potenti... more This paper claims that Jan Patočka’s phenomenological philosophy harbors a yet unfathomed potential to elaborate a strong notion of personal selfhood. In order to arrive at such a notion, the author proposes to link Patočka’s "a-subjective phenomenology" with his theory of the „movement of human existence." The author contends that Patočka—in integrating the a-subjective account and its focus on the horizontal „transcendentality of the world" with the description of the vertical movement and articulation of the "natural world"—offers a viable framework to rethink human selfhood and individuality in a non-foundational way. By way of integrating a variety of fundamental phenomena --i.e., human affectivity, struggle (polemos), and transcendence-- that challenge the foundational role of reason in our traditional accounts of selfhood, Patočka’s account is claimed to open a major, yet untravelled path for phenomenological anthropology.

In this paper I seek to establish some basic patterns for confronting violence on phenomenologica... more In this paper I seek to establish some basic patterns for confronting violence on phenomenological terrain, esp. by way of adopting JL Marion's concept of saturation to confront this specific phenomenon.

Published in Gondek, H.-D., Klass, T. N., and L. Tengelyi (eds.), Phänomenologie der Sinnereignisse, Munich: Fink 2011, pp. 340-360

In this introductory paper I attempt to displace the discourse on the gift from some major interp... more In this introductory paper I attempt to displace the discourse on the gift from some major interpretations in order to rethink the gift in terms of its inherently diachronic, bleated, and irreducibly ambiguous "constitution." In this context, I will critically examine both Derrida's deconstructive focus on the gift's purity and the "aporia" this entails, and the recent discussion of the so-called "primacy of givenness" in phenomenology of religion. This criticism will be supplemented by an exploration of the responsive co-constitution of the gift that I find anticipated in Hénaff's sociological and anthropological treatment of the issue. In refuting ontological, ethical, and theological over-determinations of the institution of the gift, I, hence, opt for reassessing the irreducible ambiguities of the gift that appear in a relational perspective, i.e., a perspective which acknowledges the ambiguous truth of the gift in terms of a "gift of the other." Rethinking the gift in these terms, however, results in avowing the most basic ambiguity that situates the gift in-between the economy of self-abandonment and the sacrificial logics of securing a "true other."

Dass die moderne Tendenz zur Entsakralisierung im Zuge ihrer Transformierung in universalistische... more Dass die moderne Tendenz zur Entsakralisierung im Zuge ihrer Transformierung in universalistische Diskurse der „Rettung des Anderen“ selbst Züge eines unbedingten Anspruchs annimmt, der seine eigene Gewaltsamkeit im Zeichen der unverständlichen, oft religiös konnotierten Gewalt des Anderen ausblendet, zeigt Michael Staudigl in seiner Analyse der Diskurse über die Zerstörung der Buddha-Statuen im afghanischen Bamiyan.

This essay explores the practical significance of Michel Henry’s “material phenomenology.” Commen... more This essay explores the practical significance of Michel Henry’s “material phenomenology.” Commencing with an exposition of his most basic philosophical intuition, i.e., his insight that transcendental affectivity is the primordial mode of revelation of our selfhood, the essay then brings to light how this intuition also establishes our relation to both the world and others. Animated by a radical form of the phenomenological reduction, Henry’s material phenomenology brackets the exterior world in a bid to reach the concrete interior transcendental experience at the base of all exteriority. The essay argues that this “counter reduction,” designed as a practical orientation to the world, suspends all traditional parameters of onto(theo)logical individuation in order to rethink subjectivity in terms of its transcendental corporeality, i.e., in terms of the invisible display of “affective flesh.” The development of this “metaphysics of the individual” anchors his “practical philosophy” as he developed it—under shifting accents—throughout his oeuvre. In particular, the essay brings into focus Henry’s reflections on modernity, the industry of mass culture and their “barbaric” movements. The essay briefly puts these cultural and political areas of Henry’s of thinking into contact with his late “theological turn,” i.e., his Christological account of Life and the (inter)subjective self-realization to which it gives rise.

Continental Philosophy Review, Jan 1, 2012

Phenomenologies of Violence, Oct 2013

Eine entscheidende Möglichkeit der Philosophie besteht darin, Alltägliches unalltäglich erschein... more Eine entscheidende Möglichkeit der Philosophie besteht darin, Alltägliches unalltäglich erscheinen zu lassen, um es dadurch besser verstehen zu können. Die Zeit etwa ist ein klassischer Topos einer solchen Herangehensweise: "Was ist also 'Zeit'? Wenn niemand mich danach fragt, weiß ich es; will ich einem Fragenden es erklären, weiß ich es nicht." (Augustinus, Conf. XI, 14) Das Erstaunen, das Augustinus an dieser bekannten Stelle seiner Confessiones angesichts der Zeit zum Ausdruck brachte, stellt sich auch angesichts der Gewalt ein, zumindest dann, wenn man einmal beginnt, näher über sie — das "Undenkbare" Arendt zufolge — nachzudenken. Denn ihre verstörende Fremdheit ist nur die andere Blattseite einer verschwiegenen Vertrautheit und eines alltäglichen Umgangs mit ihr – und nicht zuletzt mit ihren Erzählungen, ihren Bildern und Diskursen. Diese machen uns in der Tat zunächst und zumeist glauben, wir wüssten, was Gewalt ist, selbst dann, wenn wir sie weder leibhaftig erlitten, verübt oder miterlebt und bezeugt haben. Und in der Tat, es ist ein Faktum, dass wir aufgrund unserer unabweisbaren Verletzlichkeit ein Vorverständnis vielfältiger Gewalt haben, selbst wenn wir sie nie als solche leibhaftig erlebt oder explizit über sie reflektiert haben. Die Gewalt polarisiert zudem — denn aufgrund des genannten Vorverständnisses sind wir alle in gewisser Weise Spezialisten der Gewalt und ihrer Auslegung. Alltäglich besehen ist es in der Tat auch so, dass zunächst und zumeist immer schon klar ist, was als Gewalt gilt — was hingegen nicht. Die Gewalt wird dabei in ihrer Ereignishaftigkeit, Widersetzlichkeit, Destruktivität etc. immer schon sinnhaft integriert — ansonsten könnten wir mit ihrem Trauma gar nicht zurande kommen. Alarmismus angesichts ihres Ereignisses weicht dadurch rasch Indifferenz und in der Tat bedarf es auch solcher, möchte man angesichts vielfältiger Gewalt nicht der Überforderung anheim fallen — was unmittelbar den Griff zur Gegen-Gewalt als Lösung nahelegt. Ich denke mithin, dass uns ein Erstaunen oder eher noch Erschrecken angesichts der Gewalt und ihrer Ambivalenz, d.h. angesichts ihrer vielen Gesichter, ihrer wandelbaren Formen, ihrer Ereignishaftigkeit und Außerordentlichkeit, die vielfach von ihrer Normalisierung und Anoymisierung nicht zu trennen sind, gut zu Gesicht stünde, insbesondere dann, wenn die Diskurse, in denen wir über sie handeln, uns klare Definitionen dessen anbieten, was Gewalt ist. Denn allzu eindeutige oder genauer vereinseitigende Definitionen, die uns bei der Jagd nach ihren Ursachen behilflich sein sollen, überspringen die Facetten dieses Phänomens wohl auch allzu rasch. Sie tendieren dazu, nicht danach zu fragen, wie das "Faktum der Gewalt" sich zeigt, wie Gewalt sich als Gewalt artikuliert und ausgedrückt wird, oder eben nicht — d.h. wie Gewalt möglicherweise als Gewalt verkannt oder gar aktiv neutralisiert wird. Damit aber gerät das wahre Phänomen, die Interdependenz oder, wie man heute öfter sagt, Relationalität verschiedener Gewaltformen, gänzlich aus dem Blick.

The so-called “return of religion”, new spiritual imaginaries, and the vexed realities of religio... more The so-called “return of religion”, new spiritual imaginaries, and the vexed realities of religious violence pose a true challenge to philosophical thought. But even in the context of recent debates concerning “post-secularism”, with Habermas as their prominent forerunner, religious experience is again subjected to the ideal of its ultimate translatability into the normative fabrics of discursivized reason, thus sacrificing those experiences (and their societal significance) to their reducible cognitive opacity. The attempt, thus, to address the phenomenon of religion beyond the traditional dichotomy of myth and Enlightenment still points at an open desideratum for contemporary philosophy of religion.
Viewed against this background, I propose a novel paradigm for developing such a philosophy in terms of the phenomenology of religion. To achieve this task, however, calls upon us to critically reassess phenomenology of religion as we know it today. This requires first of all a deconstructive move that critically confronts our understanding of phenomenology of religion and its shortcomings in order to retain and transform those among its elements that can help to arrive at a more adequate understanding of the very phenomenon. Accordingly, I hypothesize that a genuine phenomenological account of religion has to avoid two major pitfalls: on the one hand, we have to avoid the “quest for the always more original” (the wholly other in Lévinas, auto-affection in Henry, or the pure call in Marion) which amounts, as Janicaud’s criticism of the “theological turn” warns us, to an attenuation of lived experience and a theological highjacking of phenomenology; but on the other hand we also need to overcome a purely hermeneutic account of religion which revolves around the interpretations and interpretive traditions of religious experience and the way they (re)enact the religious (Ricoeur).
Both accounts, to my understanding, are deficient: whereas the first attempts to confront the givenness of the absolute at the cost of intentional adequation and interpretive plurality, the second sacrifices the absoluteness of its foundational experiences for the world of their textual givenness. Both accounts, however, are also aware of these deficits: Marion, e.g. has finally attempted to reconcile his phenomenology of givenness with a hermeneutical dimension; and the later Ricoeur has developed his work on religion in the direction of a “carnal hermeneutics”. Given this, I hypothesize that their respective insights into the intertwining of experience and interpretation offer key elements to arrive at an integrated account of religion.
After providing an introductory sketch of the two positions, I will present their innovative but yet unplumbed potentials in a second part, and will then develop my vision of an integrated phenomenology of religion by following the guiding thread of this intertwining. This will lead me to stress the inherent intersubjectivity, embodiment and symbolicity of religious experience; in light of this I will demonstrate that the experience of transcendence that functions at the heart of religious systems of knowledge does not relate at all to some metaphysical quality but is enacted poietically in concrete liturgies of “making transcendence together”.

In recent decades, there has been an increasing recognition among historians and political scient... more In recent decades, there has been an increasing recognition among historians and political scientists concerning the advent of new configurations of warfare, commonly referred to as the New Wars. This concept registers a pervasive transformation in warfare that decisively breaks with traditional understandings of war: On the one hand, the implementation of advanced technological means promises an almost clinical precision, invisibility and perfectibility of warfare as such. Drones that are steered by computers over long distances, robots and cyborgs that could take over essential parts of future warfare, or the technological armament and upgrade of the human body—all these issues raise questions that exceed the classical categories of human agency, responsibility and sovereignty. On the other hand, the new wars indicate the proliferation of " dirty " warfare as the " new normalcy " : mutilations, mass rape, hunger camps, ethnic cleansing and genocidal violence were already widespread practices in the World Wars and/or the colonial wars—their massive return, however, adds an unprecedented quality and urgency to the related questions of racism, sexism and " atavistic " violence. The most troublesome insight in this regard might be that modernity does not necessarily mean the overcoming of such practices but, to some extent, adds to their proliferation and acceleration. The main aim of the workshop will be to explore these two seemingly divergent, yet closely interrelated phenomena. By examining the role of the " new wars " with regard to recent developments in technology, law, and its broader moral and societal interpretations, the workshop tries to open the field for a systematic study of these phenomena. This will include contributions from various disciplines such as cultural anthropology, sociology, political science, social psychology, history, or peace studies, relating these findings to the fundamental question of how the " new wars " affect today's understanding of the human condition. As a result, it will question all too one-sided moralist interpretations of the " new wars " in global media and instead try to define their special role in a world violently torn between the promises of globalization and the uncertainties of local identities.

http://www.teof.uni-lj.si/?mod=aktualno&action=viewOne&ID=5157

FWF-Video Präsentation: Michael Staudigl forscht im Bereich Philosophie an der Universität Wien... more FWF-Video Präsentation:

Michael Staudigl forscht im Bereich Philosophie an der Universität Wien. Mit Unterstützung des Wissenschaftsfonds FWF widmet er sich aktuellen Fragen zu Religion aus philosophischer Sicht, wie etwa dem Phänomen der religiösen Gewalt. Dabei unternimmt der Wissenschafter eine Neubewertung der Religion und zeigt ihre Bedeutung für die moderne Gesellschaft auf.

Philosophische Gewaltforschung muss reflektieren, wie ihre theoretischen Einsichten sich zu den p... more Philosophische Gewaltforschung muss reflektieren, wie ihre theoretischen Einsichten sich zu den praktischen Herausforderungen empirischer Forschung verhalten. Arbeitet sie sich an der Faktizität des Phänomens ab, oder betreibt sie theoretische Selbstvergewisserung im Medium dessen, was traditionell als ihr Anderes verstanden wurde - d.h. im Medium der Gewalt? Der Vortrag wird dieser Frage in Bezug auf kollektive Gewalt nachspüren. Dazu skizziere ich zunächst Grundlagen einer Phänomenologie kollektiver Gewalt. Zweitens diskutiere ich die These einer "Poietik der Gewalt", die es nahelegt, die Eigendynamik kollektiver Gewalt im Zeichen ihrer produktiven sozialtechnologischen Funktionen zu bedenken. Abschließend gehe ich der Frage nach, was aus diesen Einsichten für das Selbstverständnis der Gewaltforschung folgt.

Studia phaenomenologica 17(2017), 428-432 DOI: 10.5840/studphaen20171723

Review appeared in Continental Philosophy Review 48(2015): 383-389

Soziologische Revue, 2017

Sammelbesprechung von Jörg Baberowski, Räume der Gewalt. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer 2015, 26... more Sammelbesprechung von
Jörg Baberowski, Räume der Gewalt. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer 2015, 263 S., gb., 19,99 €
Daniel Bultmann, Bürgerkriegstheorien. Konstanz/München: UVK 2015, 260 S., gb., 36,00 €
Stefan Deißler, Eigendynamische Bürgerkriege. Von der Persistenz und Endlichkeit innerstaatlicher Gewaltkonflikte. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition 2016, 367 S., gb., 35,00 €
Claudia Equit / Axel Groenemeyer / Holger Schmidt(Hrsg.), Situationen der Gewalt. Weinheim/München: Beltz Juventa 2016, 409 S., kt., 39,95 €
Axel T. Paul / Benjamin Schwalb (Hrsg.), Gewaltmassen. Über Eigendynamik und Selbstorganisation kollektiver Gewalt. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition 2015, 414 S., gb., 35,00 €
Michael Staudigl (Hrsg.), Gesichter der Gewalt. Beiträge aus phänomenologischer Sicht. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink 2014, 396 S., gb., 51,00 €
Michael Staudigl, Phänomenologie der Gewalt. Heidelberg: Springer 2015, 294 S., gb., 99,99 €
Dierk Walter, Organisierte Gewalt in der europäischen Expansion. Gestalt und Logik des Imperialkrieges. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition 2014, 413 S., gb., 32,00 €
Daniel Ziegler / Marco Gerster / Steffen Krämer(Eds.), Framing Excessive Violence. Discourse and Dynamics. London: Palgrave Macmillan 2015, 263 S., gb., 85,50 €

"Es gibt eine lange Tradition in der politischen Theorie und normativen Sozialphilosophie, die si... more "Es gibt eine lange Tradition in der politischen Theorie und normativen Sozialphilosophie, die sich von Hannah Arendt bis zu Thomas Hobbes zurückverfolgen lässt, in der Gewalt als Ausdruck eines anomischen, sinnlosen und die politische Ordnung bedrohenden Phänomens in den Blick kommt. Gegen diese Konzeptionalisierung von Gewalt als destruktiver Kraft wendet sich Michael Staudigl in seiner Wiener Habilitationsschrift Phänomenologie der Gewalt, indem er die These vertritt, dass es nicht angemessen sei, Gewalt nur als Mangel oder Defizienz zu denken. Gewalt sei vielmehr ein „irreduzibles soziales Phänomen“ (7) und müsse in ihrer eigenen sozialen Sinnhaftigkeit erschlossen werden. Staudigl beruft sich dabei explizit auf jene aktuellen Forschungsansätze, die sich mit Phänomenen „negativer Sozialität“ (6) beschäftigen und diese in ihrem eigenen Recht erfassen wollen. Er versteht Gewalt entsprechend als ein Phänomen, das sich in einer Vielzahl von Ausdrucksformen realisiert und dennoch durch einen gemeinsamen „Erfahrungssinn“ (150) in seiner Einheit fassbar werden kann. Von der Freilegung dieses Sinns erhofft er sich auch Rückschlüsse darauf, wie Sozialität und Subjek- tivität zu fassen sind, wenn wir Gewalt als sozial unaufhebbar denken." ( K. Meyer, first paragraph)

Continental Philosophy Review, 2017

"This book is a rounded well-informed study of violence, especially from a hermeneutical and soci... more "This book is a rounded well-informed study of violence, especially from a hermeneutical and social-studies perspective. It is relevant to peace studies. It raises key issues about the phenomenology of the person, of violence, of the foundations of ethics. Although it tends to skirt normative phenomenological, eidetic as well as moral issues they are always insistently on the edge of the rich discussions philosophical-hermeneutical issues and contemporary writings on these matters." (J. Hart)

Studia Phaenomenologica, 2019

PhaenEx 13.2., 2020

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