Gerda Walther’s Phenomenology of Sociality, Psychology, and Religion

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. The Life and Work of Gerda Walther

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Gerda Walther (1897–1977): A Sketch of a Life

      • Rodney K. B. Parker

      Pages 3-9

   3. Gerda Walther: Searching for the Sense of Things, Following the Traces of Lived Experiences

      • Marina Pia Pellegrino

      Pages 11-24

3. Social Ontology and the Self

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25

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   2. Social Acts and Communities: Walther Between Husserl and Reinach

      • Alessandro Salice, Genki Uemura

      Pages 27-46

   3. On Community: Edith Stein and Gerda Walther

      • Anna Maria Pezzella

      Pages 47-56

   4. Gerda Walther and the Possibility of a Non-intentional We of Community

      • Antonio Calcagno

      Pages 57-70

   5. Human Beings as Social Beings: Gerda Walther’s Anthropological Approach

      • Julia Mühl

      Pages 71-84

   6. Körper, Leib, Gemüt, Seele, Geist: Conceptions of the Self in Early Phenomenology

      • Christina M. Gschwandtner

      Pages 85-99

   7. What Is the Condition for the Members of Social Communities to Be “Real” People According to Gerda Walther?

      • Manuela Massa

      Pages 101-111

4. Religion and Mysticism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 113-113

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   2. Phenomenology of Mysticism, Introduction and Chapter One

      • Rodney K. B. Parker

      Pages 115-133

   3. The Sense of Mystical Experience According to Gerda Walther

      • Angela Ales Bello

      Pages 135-147

   4. Phenomenological Approaches to the Uncanny and the Divine: Adolf Reinach and Gerda Walther on Mystical Experience

      • Kimberly Baltzer-Jaray

      Pages 149-167

5. Back Matter

   Pages 169-171

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This book explores the philosophical writings of Gerda Walther (1897–1977). It features essays that

recover large parts of Walther’s oeuvre in order to show her contribution to phenomenology

and philosophy. In addition, the volume contains an English translation of part of her

major work on mysticism.

The essays consider the interdisciplinary implications of Gerda Walther’s ideas. A student 

of Edmund Husserl, Edith Stein, and Alexander Pfänder, she wrote

foundational studies on the ego, community, mysticism and religion, and consciousness.

Her discussions of empathy, identification, the ego and ego-consciousness,

alterity, God, mysticism, sensation, intentionality, sociality, politics, and woman are

relevant not only to phenomenology and philosophy but also to scholars of religion, women’s 

and gender studies, sociology, political science, and psychology.

Gerda Walther was one of the important figures of the early phenomenological

movement. However, as a woman, she could not habilitate at a German

university and was, therefore, denied a position. Her complete works have yet to be

published. This ground-breaking volume not only helps readers discover a vital voice but it 

also demonstrates the significant contributions of women to early phenomenological thinking.

• Ego and Ego Ego-Consciousness
• Empathy and Identification
• Mysticism and Religion
• History of Women in Philosophy
• Gerda Walther
• Women’s and gender studies
• Edith Stein
• Phenomenology of Mysticism
• Social Ontology and the Self
• Edmund Husserl
• Alexander Pfänder
• early phenomenological movement

“I recommend this book as an introduction for the English-reading academic philosopher to Gerda Walther’s thought. … I look forward to reading much more work on Gerda Walther.” (Charlene Elsby, Symposium, c-scp.org, July 07, 2019)

• Department of Philosophy, King’s University College, London, Canada

  Antonio Calcagno

Antonio Calcagno is Professor of Philosophy at King’s University College, London, Canada. He is the author of Giordano Bruno and the Logic of Coincidence (1998), Badiou and Derrida: Politics, Events and Their Time (2007), The Philosophy of Edith Stein (2007), Lived Experience from the Inside Out: Social and Political Philosophy in Edith Stein (2014). He is the editor of Edith Stein: Women, Social-Political Philosophy, Theology, Metaphysics and Public History: New Approaches and Applications (Dordrecht: Springer, 2015).

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