Workshop: Hedwig Conrad-Martius. Phenomenology, Ontology, Metaphysics (May 31, 2024)

This workshop is occasioned by two recent publications on the early phenomenologist Hedwig-Conrad Martius. The first English translation of her early and seminal work Metaphysical Conversations, translated by Christina Gschwandtner, as well as the release of the second revised and enlarged edition of Ronny Miron’s Hedwig Conrad-Martius. The Phenomenological Gateway to Reality. Both author and translator will be present to discuss the ideas of this original and challenging thinker, whose re-discovery is long overdue.

The Metaphysical Conversations constitutes a new direction in the oeuvre of Hedwig Conrad-Martius. After having considered ontology from a phenomenal perspective in her 1916 Zur Ontologie und Erscheinungslehre der realen Außenwelt, in this book she establishes, in the form of Socratic dialogue, many of the metaphysical topics that she would expand on in later works. These include the ontic distinctions between plant, animal and human life which are further explored as the differences between bodily and spiritual being. In this way, the themes of the Metaphysical Conversations prefigure central ideas of Conrad-Martius Realontologie, published in 1923, where ontological investigations into real and material being take on a more formal guise.

Ronny Miron’s Hedwig Conrad-Martius. The Phenomenological Gateway to Reality offers a comprehensive look at many of the key topics of Conrad-Martius’ early thinking such as the relationship between phenomenal and ontological modes of experience, an extensive discussion of Conrad-Martius’ idiosyncratic terminology and a biographical introduction situating the philosopher within the Phenomenological Movement. Ronny Miron has been full professor at Bar-Ilan University since 2016.

The event takes place in-person at the conference room in Technologiepark 21, 33100 Paderborn, Germany, as well as via Zoom link.

Both in-person visitors and Zoom attendees are requested to register at: phenomenology@historyofwomenphilosophers.org

The workshop is organized by Daniel Neumann, Center for the History of Women Philosphers and Scientists, Paderborn University and Simona Bertolini, University of Parma.

The event is hosted by the Center for the History of Women Philosphers and Scientists, Paderborn University, directed by Prof. Ruth E. Hagengruber.

Find the full program on the workshop webpage.