Research Colloquium | Sebastian Luft | Toward an Ontology of Social Communities

Date: Monday, November 10, 2025
Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location: Technologiepark 8, Room TP8.1.46, 33098 Paderborn

The Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists is pleased to announce the next session of its regular Research Colloquium, featuring Prof. Dr. Sebastian Luft (Paderborn University).

In this session, Prof. Luft will present the newly published volume Gerda Walther. Toward an Ontology of Social Communities: With an Appendix on the Phenomenology of Social Communities (De Gruyter, 2025), co-translated and edited with Rodney K. B. Parker (King’s University College, Western University, Canada).

Originally published in 1922 in Edmund Husserl’s Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung, Gerda Walther’s study stands as a seminal work of early phenomenology. It explores the ontology of social communities through the lens of first-person experience, analyzing what it means to be part of a community – how collective experiences are constituted, how individuals and communities interrelate, and how unifications within and between communities emerge.

Walther’s reflections laid important groundwork for later discussions in phenomenology, intersubjectivity, and social ontology, influencing thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, and Stein. Her phenomenological approach to the social world continues to resonate in contemporary social theory, cognitive science, and ontology.

This new English edition is part of our De Gruyter book series „Women Philosophers Heritage Collection“.

Reference:
Luft, S. & Parker, R. (2025). Gerda Walther. Toward an Ontology of Social Communities: With an Appendix on the Phenomenology of Social Communities. De Gruyter.

Everyone is welcome to attend!