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  • © 2010

The Concept of Passivity in Husserl's Phenomenology

Authors:

  • The vast and fast growing secondary literature on Husserl in English has tended to overlook the problem of passivity
  • Claims that passivity makes it such that the sphere of ownness is always already alterated or infiltrated by alienness
  • Makes the controversial claim that Husserl’s apparent ethical voluntarism conceals his more nuanced account of ethical life which, instead of conflating passivity with inertia, servitude or impotence, conceives of it as responsitivity to a plurality of values
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Contributions to Phenomenology (CTPH, volume 60)

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxiii
  2. Passivity and Self-temporalization

    • Victor Biceaga
    Pages 1-16
  3. Originary Passivity

    • Victor Biceaga
    Pages 17-41
  4. Secondary Passivity

    • Victor Biceaga
    Pages 43-66
  5. Passivity and Crisis

    • Victor Biceaga
    Pages 67-93
  6. Passivity and Alterity

    • Victor Biceaga
    Pages 95-127
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 129-135

About this book

Building upon Husserl’s challenge to oppositions such as those between form and content and between constituting and constituted, The Concept of Passivity in Husserl’s Phenomenology construes activity and passivity not as reciprocally exclusive terms but as mutually dependent moments of acts of consciousness. The book outlines the contribution of passivity to the constitution of phenomena as diverse as temporal syntheses, perceptual associations, memory fulfillment and cross-cultural communication. The detailed study of the phenomena of affection, forgetting, habitus and translation sets out a distinction between three meanings of passivity: receptivity, sedimentation or inactuality and alienation. Husserl’s texts are interpreted as defending the idea that cultural crises are not brought to a close by replacing passivity with activity but by having more of both.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Toronto, Canada

    Victor Biceaga

About the author

Victor Biceaga is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Nipissing University, North Bay, Canada

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access