PERM UNIVERSITY HERALD. SERIES “PHILOSOPHY. PSYCHOLOGY. SOCIOLOGY”

VESTNIK PERMSKOGO UNIVERSITETA. SERIYA FILOSOFIA PSIKHOLOGIYA SOTSIOLOGIYA

DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2018-3-337-345

Augustine’s «Confessions» and transcendental-phenomenological reflection

Darya S. Khomutova
Senior Lecturer of the Department of Philosophy and Law

Perm National Research Polytechnic University,
29, Komsomolskiy av., Perm, 614990, Russia;
e-mail: ohiko.dar@gmail.com
ORCID: 0000-0002-6263-6376

The article reveals the philosophical method of Augustine Aurelius and the phenomenological methodology of Edmund Husserl in a comparative perspective. The author analyzes literature showing scientific interest in the comparative analysis of texts by Augustin and E. Husserl, and demonstrates the difference of approaches to the historical and philosophical study of the relationship between Augustine’s philosophy the E. Husserl’s phenomenology. This difference is based, on the one hand, on the method used to compare the philosophical concepts, on the other hand, on the emphasis made on the speculative position of the interpreted author. The interpretation of Augustine’s text from the phenomenological perspective reveals the description of the immanent sphere made by the medieval philosopher and clarifies the phenomenological description of E. Husserl’s time. It is shown that their methods of describing reality and procedures of operation with experience have common forms. The article shows the correspondence between the «confession» practice described by Augustine and the experience of phenomenological description carried out in the state of «epoché», since the process of «confession» involves «self-gathering» within the time series. This process is identical to the transcendental-phenomenological reflection and different from the natural reflection, which splits the subject into several ego-structures. Using this parallel, we can talk about the substantive proximity of the concepts «inner man» and transcendental ego, as well as «outer man» and man of «natural attitude». These theses are based on the analysis of Augustine’s «Confessions» (chapters X and XI) and the text of «Cartesian Reflections» by E. Husserl. In addition, the author based on the ideas of J. Derrida from the book «Voice and Phenomenon», which greatly helped to clarify the construction of the phenomenological ego and compare the descriptions of Augustine and E. Husserl.

Keywords: Augustine, Husserl, phenomenology, phenomenological project, phenomenological reduction, epoché, transcendental ego, confession, transcendental-phenomenological reflection, natural attitude.

References

Augustine of Hippo. (2006). Ispoved [Confession]. Minsk: Harvest Publ., 335 p.

Augustini. (2018). Confession. Available at: http://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/latinconf/10.html (accessed 01.07.18).

Barreau, H. (2004). Living-Time and Lived Time: Rereading St. Augustine. KronoScope. Vol. 4, iss, 1, pp. 39–68. DOI: 10.1163/1568524041269331.

Biebighauser, J.O. (2012). Augustine and the Phenomenological Tradition: Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. URL: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12725/1/augustine_and_the_phenomenological_tradition_july_2012.pdf (accessed 12.07.2018).

Derrida, J. (1999). Golos i fenomen: per. s fr. [Speech and Phenomena. Trans. From French]. Saint Petersburg: Aleteya Publ., 208 p.

Freud, Z. (2013). O vospominaniyakh detstva i vospominaniyakh, sluzhaschikh prikrytiem [Childhood and Concealing Memories]. Psikhopatologiya obydennoy zhizni. Per. s nem. [The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. Trans. from Ger.]. Saint Petersburg: Azbuka Publ., pp. 47–48.

Herrmann von F.W. (2008). Augustine and the Phenomenological Question Of Time. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 232 p.

Husserl, E. (2006). Kartezianskie razmyshleniia, per. s nem. [Cartesian meditations. Trans from Ger.]. Saint Petersburg: Nauka Publ., 315 p.

Husserl, E. (1994). Lektsii po fenomenologii vnutrennego soznaniya vremeni. per. s nem. [On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time. Trans. From Ger.]. Moscow, 163 p.

Jung, C.G. (2009). Soznanie i bessoznatelnoe. Per. s nem. [On the Psychology of the Unconscious. Trans. From ger.]. Moscow: Akademicheskiy proekt Publ., 188 p.

Kelly, R.M. (2009). Quand l’esprit «dit» le temps: la conscience du temps chez Aristote, Augustin et Husserl [When the spirit «says» time: the consciousness of time in Aristotle, Augustin and Husserl]. No. 9: L’autre Husserl. Available at: https://journals.openedition.org/methodos/2243 (accessed 12.07.2018). DOI: 10.4000/methodos.2243.

Khomutova (Sobyanina), D.S. (2014). Deskriptsiya i interpretatsiya: metodologicheskie voprosy fenomenologii [Description And Interpretation: Methodological Problems Of Phenomenology]. Vestnik PNIPU. Kultura. Istoriya. Filosofiya. Pravo [Bulletin of PNRPU. Culture. History. Philosophy. Law]. No. 1, pp. 94–99.

Ledeneva, E.V. (2009). «Fenomenologiya vnutrennego soznaniya vremeni» v istoriko-filosofskom kontekste [Phenomenology of Inner-Time Consciousness in historical and philosophical context]. Credo new. No. 2. Available at: http://credonew.ru/content/view/807/61/ (accessed 12.07.2018).

Litvin, T.V. (2013). Vremya, vospriyatie, voobrazhenie. Fenomenologicheskie shtudii po probleme vremeni u Avgustina, Kanta, Gusserlya [Time, perception, imagination. Phenomenological studies on the problem of time by Augustine, Kant, Husserl]. Saint Petersburg: Gumanitarnaya akademiya Publ., 208 p.

Peres, S.P. (2011). A reflexão como método de conhecimento psicologico em Agostinho e Husserl: Tese de Doutorado [Reflection as a method of knowledge of the psychological in Augustine and Husserl: Doctoral thesis]. Available at: http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/59/59137/tde-21102013-155054/pt-br.php (accessed 12.07.2018). DOI: 10.11606/t.59.2011.tde-21102013-155054.

Rivera, J. (2013). Figuring the Porous Self: St. Augustine and Phenomenology of Temporality. Modern Theology. Vol. 29(1), pp. 83–103. DOI: 10.1111/moth.12005.

Rokityanskii, V. (tr.) (2011). O Dare: Diskussiya mezhdu Zhakom Derrida i Zhan-Lyukom Marionom [On the Gift: A Discussion between Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion]. Logos. No. 3, pp. 144–171.

Seron, D. (2005). La Référence à Augustin chez Husserl [The reference to Augustine at Husserl]. Philosophique [Philosophical]. Vol. 8, pp. 61–65. DOI: 10.4000/philosophique.98.

Yampolskaya, A.V. (2012). Proschenie mezhdu darom i obmenom: antipelagianskaya polemika Avgustina v kontekste filosofii XX veka [The Pardon Is Gift Or Change? Augustine’s Antipelagianism In The 20th Century Philosophy]. Artikult. No. 7. Available at: http://articult.rsuh.ru/upload/articult/journal_content/007/ARTICULT-07_(3-2012,P.1-18)-Yampolskaya.pdf (accessed 12.07.2018).

Received 01.08.2018

For citation:

Khomutova D.S. Augustine’s «Confessions» and transcendental-phenomenological reflection // Perm University Herald. Series «Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology». 2018. Iss. 3. P. 337–345. DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2018-3-337-345