CfA | Essences and Ideas: Metaphysics and Religion in Early Phenomenology| 28-30 April 2022 | The North American Society for Early Phenomenology | Dominican University College, Ottawa, Ontario |

Rodney Parker is organizing an Conference on Essences and Ideas: Metaphysics and Religion in Early Phenomenology. Rodney Parker was a post-doc in the Center’s project on Women in Early Phenomenology. He is a specialist on the history of the phenomenological movement. He was Research Coordinator at the Center from August to December 2018. He did a great interview with Ingrid Vendrell Ferran on Else Voigtländer. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4XGOkO8-dU&t=2s

Further information on the conference and the Call for abstracts can be found below

Extended deadline for submissions is February 20th, 2022

Keynote Speakers: Crina Gschwandtner (Fordham University)

Phenomenology developed with an attendant metaphysics that is highly informed by concepts shared with religion. Dichotomies such as empirical and a priori, finite and infinite, temporal and atemporal, essence and idea, mundane and divine, material and immaterial, subsistence and existence, non-being and being (along with others), are constitutive of early phenomenology’s methods and tenets. While Husserl envisioned phenomenology as “metaphysically neutral” and attempted to keep his personal religious views separate from his scientific work, figures such as Stein and Scheler did not hide the fact that their metaphysical and religious views informed their investigations. Brentano and members of his school were deeply influenced by Aristotelian metaphysics, and this legacy can be seen in the works of Reinach and Ingarden. The presence of Platonism in early phenomenology and the implications of phenomenological idealism remain topics of debate. This conference will explore the metaphysical currents within early phenomenology, as well as the role that religious convictions played in their development.

As always, we encourage submissions dealing with the thought of the full spectrum of early phenomenologists (including Edmund Husserl, Franz Brentano, Carl Stumpf, Theodor Lipps, Alexander Pfänder, Max Scheler, Moritz Geiger, Hedwig Conrad-Martius, Eugen Fink, Roman Ingarden, Edith Stein, Dietrich Von Hildebrand, Adolf Reinach, Maximilian Beck, Jean Hering, Henri Bergson, Emmanuel Levinas, et al.) as well as figures who were in conversation with the early phenomenological movement.

We especially encourage submissions from individuals who identify as members of groups currently underrepresented in philosophy and academia more generally. Abstracts should be 400-600 words and include a short bibliography. Abstracts must be prepared for blind review and sent to Charlene Elsby (celsby@ingarden.org).