Jakub Kowalewski’s essay for the Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, published online in advance of the print edition.
Jakub Kowalewski – ‘Time and the Unity of Absolute Consciousness’: JBSP (Originally published online: 14 September 2020).
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to defend the thesis, found across the works of Edmund Husserl, that the most fundamental level of subjectivity – the so-called absolute consciousness – is given in time as an immediate unity. In order to do so, I first consider Martin Hägglund’s critique of the Husserlian absolute consciousness. My subsequent answer to Hägglund has two parts: firstly, I argue that Hägglund’s own account of subjectivity is contradictory; secondly, I offer a model of absolute consciousness impervious to Hägglund’s critique. Drawing on Husserl’s “Bernau Manuscripts,” I demonstrate that time is, in fact, compatible with the notions of immediacy and unity, and that a correct account of the Husserlian absolute consciousness recognizes the latter to be given as a temporally differentiated immediate unity.
Full article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2020.1819166
Jakub Kowalewski, Department of Theology, Religion and Philosophy, University of Winchester, Winchester, UK
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