"I am happy about everything.
One can gain a science of the Cross
only if one feels the weight of the Cross
pressing down with all its force."
-St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross-
(Edith Stein)
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(This is the first part of my undergraduate thesis entitled "Edith Stein's Phenomenological Empathy". It is a thesis presented to the faculty of the Rogationist Seminary College - Adamson University last October 2003 in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the course Bachelor of Arts Major in Philosophy, approved with the grade of magna cum laude. Panelists: Sr. Lydia Paula Go Marave, MACE, PhD; Ignatius Vinzons, PhD and Rev. Fr. Eduardo Fernandez, RCJ)
(Edith Stein)
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(This is the first part of my undergraduate thesis entitled "Edith Stein's Phenomenological Empathy". It is a thesis presented to the faculty of the Rogationist Seminary College - Adamson University last October 2003 in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the course Bachelor of Arts Major in Philosophy, approved with the grade of magna cum laude. Panelists: Sr. Lydia Paula Go Marave, MACE, PhD; Ignatius Vinzons, PhD and Rev. Fr. Eduardo Fernandez, RCJ)
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EDITH STEIN'S
PHENOMENOLOGICAL EMPATHY
PHENOMENOLOGICAL EMPATHY
CHAPTER 1
1.0. Introduction
"We have to understand ourselves
before we can understand foreign feelings."
-Edith Stein-
Everyone lives in a world where one needs to relate with others. In relating with others, one has to know and understand them. But does everyone really know how or understand the people around them? How far can one's understanding of the other persons reach?
These questions about the understanding of persons imply one's prejudices, prejudgments and biases about them. One might describe a person as he appears to him. One might already have criticisms on the other person's external appearance, without even knowing the other person in itself.
Oftentimes, one projects own feelings and thoughts to others. One tries to understand the other person through empathy. This means that a person attempts to identify himself with another. He accounts for the actions of the other by one's own immediate experience of motivations and attitudes in similar circumstances as one remembers or imagines them.
In common usage, the idea of empathy refers to the emotional resonance between two people, from which each person responds in perfect sympathy to the other and each reinforces the responses of the other.
One German philosopher of the twentieth century, Edith Stein, gave more detailed discussion about empathy. Following her mentor, Edmund Husserl, Stein used phenomenology to arrive at the essence of empathy. Stein said that the problem of empathy involves "the epistemological, pure descriptive and genetic-psychological aspects which were undistinguished from one another"(1). Eventually, the problem of empathy has not yet been satisfactorily solved. It is along Stein's philosophical precepts that this work shall anchor its discussion on.
1.1. Statement of the Problem
1.3. Scope and Limitation
The researcher used the English translation of Edith Stein's Zum Problem der Einfulung, translated by Waltrud Stein, PhD. It is difficult to read in English this work of Stein, partly because of the translation. This translated work was unable to approximate concepts in the original works of Stein. Moreover, only those portions that are relevant to the investigation shall be discussed. For this reason, the reader should not expect other works of Stein to be included in this research study. However, the student-researcher will utilize such other works of Stein that might supplement methodology of argumentation.
The researcher used the secondary sources like books, articles, commentaries, interpretation, and theses from different libraries for his exposition, description and analysis.
In order to know the notion of the phenomenological empathy, the researcher used the basic phenomenological method of Edmund Husserl, namely: epoche, eidetic, and the "pure I" applying the works regarding empathy by Edith Stein. The researcher will not use the "specifics" of the phenomenological method; rather he will be using the basic or general ones. He will use Stein's regions of person as it was reflected in the regions of person of Scheler.
1.4. Methodology
1.4.1. Selection of Data
The student-researcher will look mainly into library materials and documentation related to the study; both the available primary and secondary sources (commentaries and critiques regarding Stein's work, various journalists and authors of philosophical books) shall be utilized.
1.4.2. Procedure of Presentation
This work is an expository, descriptive, and analytic type of study. As a phenomenological inquiry, it shall fall in the domain of Husserlian's phenomenological method as it searches for the way in order to understand genuinely other persons and their experiences. Moreover, the basis of its ssumptions shall rest upon the "substractive literacy of science"(4) theory, specifically the "constitution of an individual" which is subject to phenomenological empathy.
This research work shall present its investigation of data under four main divisions. First, presentation of the general influences in Stein's phenomenological empathy. Second, the exposition of Stein's phenomenological empathy under the backdrop of the phenomenological method. Third, the elucidation of Stein's analysis of the regions of person under the backdrop of Scheler's regions of person. Fourth, the evaluation of Stein's thought using Husserl's and Scheler's paradigms. In addition, the student-researcher will also analyze the strengths and weaknesses of Stein's phenomenological empathy.
Moreover, the student-researcher provided additional explanation regarding the procedure of presentation of data at the beginning of the chapters so that the readers will be facilitated accordingly.
1.5. Definition of Terms
In order to assist the reader in understanding some of the significant terms which shall be often used in this research work, certain explanations of their particular usage follow:
Consciousness - is the "sum total of man's conscious activities at any given moment of his life"(5).
Empathy - is a "kind of act of perceiving. It is the expereince of foreign consciousness in general, irrespective of this kind of the experiencing subject or whose consciousness is experienced"(6).
Essence - is that by which a thing is what it is.
Givenness - "It is always 'here' while other objects are always 'there'"(7).
Other I - "It is a unified object inseparably joining together the conscious unity of an 'I' and a physical body in such a way that each of them takes on a new character"(8).
Primordial - the expereince of the "now"(9) or the present experience.
Pure I - "as the otherwise indescribable, qualityless subject of experience"(10).
Soul - "one basic experience given to us which, together with its persistent attributes, become apparent in our experiences as identical 'bearer' of them"(11).
Stream of consciousness - it is characterized as "it itself and no other with a nature peculiar it, results in a good sense of precisely limited individuality"(12).
(Note: The student-researcher shall provide additional clarification of other significant terms as the need arises concomitant with the development of the analysis.)
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Edith Stein, On the Problem of Empathy (Washington: ICS Publication, 1989). p.1.
(2) D.L.C. Maclachlan, Philosophy of Perception (New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc., 1989), p.69. The doctrine that nothing exists except oneself and the ideas directly experienced. In the solipsism one certainly does not admit the existence of his one's own body, which is in the same position as all other bodies, and one does not subscribe to the absurd theory that the universe is constituted by his body floating in empty space.
(3) The student-researcher refers to Chapter VIII, Recommendation, of this work.
(4) This could be seen or reflected at the Chapter V, The Regions of Person, of this work.
(5) J. Zwaenepoel, Phenomenological Psychology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983), p. 112.
(6) Stein, p. 11, 1989.
(7) Ibid., p. 42.
(8) Ibid., p. 56.
(9) Ibid., p. 8.
(10) Ibid., p. 38.
(11) Ibid., p. 40.
(12) Ibid., p. 39.
One German philosopher of the twentieth century, Edith Stein, gave more detailed discussion about empathy. Following her mentor, Edmund Husserl, Stein used phenomenology to arrive at the essence of empathy. Stein said that the problem of empathy involves "the epistemological, pure descriptive and genetic-psychological aspects which were undistinguished from one another"(1). Eventually, the problem of empathy has not yet been satisfactorily solved. It is along Stein's philosophical precepts that this work shall anchor its discussion on.
1.1. Statement of the Problem
Edmund Husserl introduced the problem of empathy in phenomenology, especially in the first volume of Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology. His assistant, Edith Stein, later on discussed the problem of empathy to clear Husserl's name from the accusation of "solipsism"(2).
This research study aims to prove that Edith Stein failed to provide the personalization of the Husserlian "pure I". The student-researcher will discuss the phenomenological empathy by elucidating his thinking by:
1.1.1. Exposing the general influences in the phenomenological empathy of Edith Stein.
1.1.2. Considering the persons who have significantly influenced Stein's formulation of her concept of empathy.
1.1.3. Presenting Stein's phenomenological empathy under the backdrop of Edmund Husserl's phenomenological method.
1.1.4. Presenting Stein's regions of person taken at the notion of person in Max Scheler's notion of person.
1.1.5. Analysis of Stein's formulation of the phenomenological empathy.
1.2. Significance of the Study
The important reasons for doing this research work are:
First, the student-researcher hopes that by understanding the other person through empathy, that the reader may able to appreciate better others in spite of one's subjective understanding.
Second, the researcher hopes that this work will serve as his aid not only in understanding the other person through phenomenological empathy, but as a fundamental to his philosophical thinking and to the development of his personality and relationship to other persons.
Last, the contribution of this work lies in its attempt to explicate and to introduce the phenomenological empathy as necessary for understanding other persons. In addition, the student-researcher will open the philosophical inquiry regarding Stein's phenomenology and its "implications"(3).
This research study aims to prove that Edith Stein failed to provide the personalization of the Husserlian "pure I". The student-researcher will discuss the phenomenological empathy by elucidating his thinking by:
1.1.1. Exposing the general influences in the phenomenological empathy of Edith Stein.
1.1.2. Considering the persons who have significantly influenced Stein's formulation of her concept of empathy.
1.1.3. Presenting Stein's phenomenological empathy under the backdrop of Edmund Husserl's phenomenological method.
1.1.4. Presenting Stein's regions of person taken at the notion of person in Max Scheler's notion of person.
1.1.5. Analysis of Stein's formulation of the phenomenological empathy.
1.2. Significance of the Study
The important reasons for doing this research work are:
First, the student-researcher hopes that by understanding the other person through empathy, that the reader may able to appreciate better others in spite of one's subjective understanding.
Second, the researcher hopes that this work will serve as his aid not only in understanding the other person through phenomenological empathy, but as a fundamental to his philosophical thinking and to the development of his personality and relationship to other persons.
Last, the contribution of this work lies in its attempt to explicate and to introduce the phenomenological empathy as necessary for understanding other persons. In addition, the student-researcher will open the philosophical inquiry regarding Stein's phenomenology and its "implications"(3).
1.3. Scope and Limitation
The researcher used the English translation of Edith Stein's Zum Problem der Einfulung, translated by Waltrud Stein, PhD. It is difficult to read in English this work of Stein, partly because of the translation. This translated work was unable to approximate concepts in the original works of Stein. Moreover, only those portions that are relevant to the investigation shall be discussed. For this reason, the reader should not expect other works of Stein to be included in this research study. However, the student-researcher will utilize such other works of Stein that might supplement methodology of argumentation.
The researcher used the secondary sources like books, articles, commentaries, interpretation, and theses from different libraries for his exposition, description and analysis.
In order to know the notion of the phenomenological empathy, the researcher used the basic phenomenological method of Edmund Husserl, namely: epoche, eidetic, and the "pure I" applying the works regarding empathy by Edith Stein. The researcher will not use the "specifics" of the phenomenological method; rather he will be using the basic or general ones. He will use Stein's regions of person as it was reflected in the regions of person of Scheler.
1.4. Methodology
1.4.1. Selection of Data
The student-researcher will look mainly into library materials and documentation related to the study; both the available primary and secondary sources (commentaries and critiques regarding Stein's work, various journalists and authors of philosophical books) shall be utilized.
1.4.2. Procedure of Presentation
This work is an expository, descriptive, and analytic type of study. As a phenomenological inquiry, it shall fall in the domain of Husserlian's phenomenological method as it searches for the way in order to understand genuinely other persons and their experiences. Moreover, the basis of its ssumptions shall rest upon the "substractive literacy of science"(4) theory, specifically the "constitution of an individual" which is subject to phenomenological empathy.
This research work shall present its investigation of data under four main divisions. First, presentation of the general influences in Stein's phenomenological empathy. Second, the exposition of Stein's phenomenological empathy under the backdrop of the phenomenological method. Third, the elucidation of Stein's analysis of the regions of person under the backdrop of Scheler's regions of person. Fourth, the evaluation of Stein's thought using Husserl's and Scheler's paradigms. In addition, the student-researcher will also analyze the strengths and weaknesses of Stein's phenomenological empathy.
Moreover, the student-researcher provided additional explanation regarding the procedure of presentation of data at the beginning of the chapters so that the readers will be facilitated accordingly.
1.5. Definition of Terms
In order to assist the reader in understanding some of the significant terms which shall be often used in this research work, certain explanations of their particular usage follow:
Consciousness - is the "sum total of man's conscious activities at any given moment of his life"(5).
Empathy - is a "kind of act of perceiving. It is the expereince of foreign consciousness in general, irrespective of this kind of the experiencing subject or whose consciousness is experienced"(6).
Essence - is that by which a thing is what it is.
Givenness - "It is always 'here' while other objects are always 'there'"(7).
Other I - "It is a unified object inseparably joining together the conscious unity of an 'I' and a physical body in such a way that each of them takes on a new character"(8).
Primordial - the expereince of the "now"(9) or the present experience.
Pure I - "as the otherwise indescribable, qualityless subject of experience"(10).
Soul - "one basic experience given to us which, together with its persistent attributes, become apparent in our experiences as identical 'bearer' of them"(11).
Stream of consciousness - it is characterized as "it itself and no other with a nature peculiar it, results in a good sense of precisely limited individuality"(12).
(Note: The student-researcher shall provide additional clarification of other significant terms as the need arises concomitant with the development of the analysis.)
____________________
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Edith Stein, On the Problem of Empathy (Washington: ICS Publication, 1989). p.1.
(2) D.L.C. Maclachlan, Philosophy of Perception (New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc., 1989), p.69. The doctrine that nothing exists except oneself and the ideas directly experienced. In the solipsism one certainly does not admit the existence of his one's own body, which is in the same position as all other bodies, and one does not subscribe to the absurd theory that the universe is constituted by his body floating in empty space.
(3) The student-researcher refers to Chapter VIII, Recommendation, of this work.
(4) This could be seen or reflected at the Chapter V, The Regions of Person, of this work.
(5) J. Zwaenepoel, Phenomenological Psychology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983), p. 112.
(6) Stein, p. 11, 1989.
(7) Ibid., p. 42.
(8) Ibid., p. 56.
(9) Ibid., p. 8.
(10) Ibid., p. 38.
(11) Ibid., p. 40.
(12) Ibid., p. 39.
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