Anthony J. Steinbock

The Phenomenology of Despair

Abstract In this paper, I investigate the experience of hope by focusing on experiences that seem to rival hope, namely, disappointment, desperation, panic, hopelessness, and despair. I explore these issues phenomenologically by examining five kinds of experiences that counter hope (or in some instances, seem to do so): first, by noting the cases in which hope simply is not operative, then by treating the significance of both desperation and pessimism, next by examining the experience of hopelessness, and finally, by treating the experience of despair. Here despair is shown to constitute the most profound challenge to hope among these experiences and to be foundational for the others, even though it is disclosed ultimately as founded in hope.

Personal Givenness and Cultural a prioris

The problem addressed in this paper concerns the constitution of culture as intercultural experience. More precisely, it concerns how, in the face of today’s emphases on intercultural relations, which are captured by the postmodern catchphrase, “multiculturalism,” is it not only possible but necessary to describe the nexus of interpersonal relations in a way that is decisive and yet not definitive.

The Distinctive Structure of the Emotions

This chapter presents a phenomenological analysis consistent with Husserlian insights on the structure of emotional life using the specific example of trust to shows how the emotions have their own complex intentional structure in general in the way that they are founded upon but not reducible to objectifying acts of judgment.

Temporality and the Point: The Origins and Crisis of Continental Philosophy

Persuaded by the perspicacious critiques carried out by such figures as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Francois Lyotard, and a host of others, many theorists belonging to that catch-all field known as “contemporary continental philosophy, ” have forcefully challenged the traditional notions of origin, foundation, the absolute, teleology, essence, etc. This tendency is felt most poignantly today in the discourse of “post-modernism.”

The origins and crisis of Continental philosophy

When contemporary continental philosophy dismisses, with the discourse of post-modernism, the role of origin, teleology, foundation, etc., it is forsaking its own style of thinking and as a consequence is no longer able to discern crises of lived-meaning or to engage in the transformation of historical life. I address this crisis by characterizing continental philosophy as a particular style of thinking, generative thinking. I then examine the meaning and origins of philosophical thinking by drawing, for strategic reasons, on Jacques Derridas essay “Cogito et histoire de la folie.” For not only has the very question of “origins” come under fire through various post-modern readings of Derrida, but Derridas own point of critique concerning Western Metaphysics depends upon a specific understanding of origin that I call origin-originating. In the final section of this paper. I interpret the crisis within continental philosophy as a forgetting the “point” of origin-originating within the generative structure of experience.

The Role of the Moral Emotions in Our Social and Political Practices

Abstract In this article, I address problems associated with ‘Modernity’ and those encountered at the impasse of post-modernity and the newly named phenomenon of ‘post-secularism’. I consider more specifically what I call ‘moral emotions’ or essentially interpersonal emotions can tell us about who we are as persons, and what they tell us about our experience and concepts of freedom, normativity, power, and critique. The moral emotions, and retrieving the evidence of the ‘heart’, point to the possibility of contributing to the social imaginary of the Modern and its post-modern variants, playing a significant role in shaping civic life and relations of power.

Introduction: Phenomenology in Japan

The very title of this collection of essays, “Phenomenology in Japan” signals an effort that might well be called an attempt at cross cultural communication or cultural interchange. It might evoke curiosity or interest: “Phenomenology in Japan!” (as if to say, “how is phenomenology being done in Japan?” or “let’s see what the Japanese have to say about phenomenology!”); or it can be met with surprise: “Phenomenology, in Japan?” (as if to inquire, “are philosophers and social scientists really occupied with phenomenology in Japan?” or “can one really speak of a ‘phenomenological movement’ in Japan?”).