The BSP podcast launches with two of the keynote presentations from the BSP Annual Conference in 2016: here’s the first…
Season 1 episode 1: 10 October 2016
This recording is of Felix Ó Murchadha’s keynote presentation ‘Speaking after the Phenomenon: Faith and the Passion of Being’. You can listen to this episode on the BSP’s Podbean site, and you can also find it on iTunes and all good podcasting apps by searching ‘BSP Podcast’.
Felix Ó Murchadha is a Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Galway (Ireland). A former Fulbright Scholar he has published articles, papers, books and book chapters on Phenomenology, in particular, Heidegger, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty and Levinas, philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of violence. He has recently published two monographs The Time of Revolution: Kairos and Chronos in Heidegger London: Bloomsbury, 2013) and A Phenomenology of Christian Life: Glory and Night (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013). He is presently working on a book provisionally entitled “The Fidelity of Reason and the Rationality of Faith: A Phenomenology of the Self”.
Abstract: “Phenomenology speaks not directly of phenomena but rather of the appearing of phenomena. In so speaking we move from the level of things with generic or proper names, the level of things which are present or potentially so, to the level of universal terms and that which cannot be present, that past which was never present and that future which will never be fulfilled. This situation which grounds phenomenology can be expressed in the preposition ‘after’ understood in its twofold meaning: coming later and going in pursuit. In speaking of the appearing of what appears we are speaking after the phenomenon, in particular after the ‘promise’ which every phenomenon holds. Speaking after is a desiring, which needs to be heard in a twofold manner: To desire something is to lack it, but also to have it in its excess, as that which exceeds what is present. We have then a constellation of three spheres: time (the temporality of ‘after’), desire (the dynamics of lack and excess) and language (the expression of what is in speech). This paper will discuss the relation of these three spheres to one another with respect to the mode of being of the speaking and thinking self towards things. In doing so it will make a case for understanding Phenomenology as a form of First Philosophy or Metaphysics situated between faith and reason.”
The British Society for Phenomenology’s Annual Conference took place at The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, UK during September, 2016. It gathered together philosophers, literary scholars, phenomenologists, and practitioners exploring phenomenological theory and its practical application. It covered a broad range of areas and issues including the arts, ethics, medical humanities, mental health, education, technology, feminism, politics and political governance, with contributions throwing a new light on both traditional phenomenological thinkers and the themes associated with classical phenomenology. More information about the conference can be found here.