Books by Saulius Geniusas
Ibidem, 2022
Although productive imagination has played a highly significant role in (post-) Kantian philosoph... more Although productive imagination has played a highly significant role in (post-) Kantian philosophy, there have been very few book-length studies explicitly dedicated to its analysis. In his new book, Saulius Geniusas develops a phenomenology of productive imagination while relying on those resources that we come across in Edmund Husserl’s, Max Scheler’s, Martin Heidegger’s, Ernst Cassirer’s, Miki Kiyoshi’s, Jean-Paul Sartre’s, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s, and Paul Ricoeur’s writings, while also engaging in present-day philosophical discussions of the imagination. Investigating the relation between imagination and embodiment, affectivity, perception, language, selfhood, and intersubjectivity, the book provides a phenomenological conception of productive imagination, which is committed to basic phenomenological principles and which is sensitive to how productive imagination has been conceptualized in the history of phenomenology.
Against such a background, Geniusas develops a new conception of productive imagination: It is a basic modality of intentionality that indirectly shapes the human experience of the world by forming the contours of action, intuition, knowledge, and understanding. It is not so much a blind and indispensable function of the soul, but an art concealed in the body, for it springs out of instincts, drives, desires, and needs. The author demonstrates in which unexpected ways phenomenology of productive imagination enriches our understanding of embodied subjectivity.
What is Pain? Descriptive Psychology, Transcendental Philosophy and Naturalism, 2021
Pagrindinis šios knygos tikslas — išspresti konceptualinę
problemą, svarbią įvairioms tyrimų srit... more Pagrindinis šios knygos tikslas — išspresti konceptualinę
problemą, svarbią įvairioms tyrimų sritims, tokioms kaip
fenomenologija, transcendentaline filosofija, skausmo filosofija, psichologija ir kognityvinis mokslas. Problema susijusi
su pagrindinės sąvokos paaiškinimu: kas yra skausmas?
Nors apie skausmą ir gausu literatūros, su kuria susiduriame
įvairiose mokslo srityse, patikimo atsakymo į šį pamatinį
klausimą neturime.
Series in Continental Thought (Ohio University Press), 2020
The Phenomenology of Pain is the first book-length investigation of its topic to appear in Englis... more The Phenomenology of Pain is the first book-length investigation of its topic to appear in English. Groundbreaking, systematic, and illuminating, it opens a dialogue between phenomenology and such disciplines as cognitive science and cultural anthropology to argue that science alone cannot clarify the nature of pain experience without incorporating a phenomenological approach. Building on this premise, it develops a novel conception of pain grounded in phenomenological principles: pain is an aversive bodily feeling with a distinct experiential quality, which can only be given in original first-hand experience, either as a feeling-sensation or as an emotion. The book crystallizes the fundamental methodological principles that underlie phenomenological research. On the basis of those principles, it offers a phenomenological clarification of the fundamental structures of pain experience and contests the common conflation of phenomenology with introspectionism. It analyzes numerous pain dissociation syndromes, brings into focus the de-personalizing and re-personalizing nature of chronic pain experience, and demonstrates what role somatization and psychologization play in pain experience. In the process, it advances Husserlian phenomenology in a direction that is not explicitly worked out in Husserl’s own writings.
Edited Volumes by Saulius Geniusas
The relationship between these two central theoretical and philosophical approaches, which we tho... more The relationship between these two central theoretical and philosophical approaches, which we thought we knew, is more complex and interesting than our standard story might suggest.
It is not always clear how hermeneutics-that is, post-Heideggerian hermeneutics as articulated by Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, and a large number of thinkers working under their influence-regards the phenomenological tradition, be it in its Husserlian or various post-Husserlian formulations. This volume inquires into this issue both in general, conceptual terms and through specific analyses into questions of ontology and metaphysics, science, language, theology, and imagination. With a substantial editors' introduction, the volume contains 15 chapters, from some of the most significant scholars in this field covering the essential questions about the history, present and future of these two disciplines.
The volume will be of interest to any philosopher or student with an interest in developing a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of contemporary hermeneutics and phenomenology.
Investigating connections between philosophical hermeneutics and neighbouring traditions of thoug... more Investigating connections between philosophical hermeneutics and neighbouring traditions of thought, this volume considers the question of how post-Heideggerian hermeneutics, as represented by Gadamer, Ricoeur and recent scholars following in their wake, relate to these traditions, both in general terms and bearing upon specific questions.
The traditions covered in this volume-existentialism, pragmatism, poststructuralism, Eastern philosophy, and hermeneutics itself-are all characterized by significant internal diversity, adding to the difficulty in reaching an interpretation that is at once comparative and critical. None of these traditions represent a unified system of belief; all are umbrella terms which are at once useful and imprecise, and the differences internal to each must not to be understated.
An innovative work of comparative philosophy, this volume avoids oversimplification and offers specific analyses that treat hermeneutics in relation to particular themes and key figures in each of these traditions of thought. Philosophical hermeneutics is explicitly dialogical, and it is in this spirit that the authors of this book approach their subjects, revealing the important affinities and opportunities for mutually enriching conversations which have until now been overlooked.
Although the concept of productive imagination plays a fundamental role in Kant, German Idealism,... more Although the concept of productive imagination plays a fundamental role in Kant, German Idealism, Romanticism, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics, the meaning of this central concept remains largely undetermined. The significance of productive imagination is therefore all-too-often either inflated or underrated. The articles collected in this volume trace development of productive imagination in the history of philosophy, identify the different meanings this concept has been ascribed in different philosophical frameworks, and raise the question anew concerning this concept’s philosophical significance. Special attention is given to the historical background that underlies the emergence of productive imagination in modernity (Dmitri Nikulin), to Kant’s concept of productive imagination (Alfredo Ferrarin), to the further development of this concept in Romanticism (Laura Carugati) and German Idealism (Angelica Nuzzo), Wilhelm Dilthey (Rudolf Makkreel), Jules de Gaultier (Nicolas de Warren), Ernst Cassirer and Martin Heidegger (Saulius Geniusas), and Paul Ricoeur (George Taylor).
The volume addresses the diverse ways in which productive imagination has been conceptualized in ... more The volume addresses the diverse ways in which productive imagination has been conceptualized in Kantian and post-Kantian philosophy, especially in phenomenology and hermeneutics. Besides exploring the different meanings that the concept of productive imagination has been given in Kant’s own writings, the volume explores imagination’s poetic, historical and generative dimensions as well as shows its significance for the human and social sciences; it demonstrates its relevance in the formation of political concepts as well as addresses productive imagination’s significance at the levels of pre-linguistic understanding and kinaesthetic experience.
The essays here presented focus on highly unorthodox conceptions of productive imagination, which in various ways have imploded the conceptual dualisms that pervade Kant’s philosophy: sensibility vs. understanding, phenomenon vs. noumenon, nature vs. freedom, theoretical vs. practical reason. Here productive imagination is conceived as a constitutive power that shapes the human experience of the actual world by forming the contours of action, intuition, knowledge and understanding.
Papers by Saulius Geniusas
Human Studies, 2024
Although Husserl's analyses of the unconscious are scattered throughout various writings, many of... more Although Husserl's analyses of the unconscious are scattered throughout various writings, many of which have been published in Hua III/2, Hua VI, Hua X, Hua XI, Hua XV, Hua XVII, Hua XXXIX and Experience and Judgment, nowhere else has he addressed the unconscious in such fascinating detail as in the manuscripts collected in Hua XLII. The publication of this volume has made it patently clear that the unconscious has many meanings in Husserl. A clarification of the different ways in which Husserl has spoken of the unconscious is still missing in the literature and it is much needed. With the aim of developing a taxonomy of the unconscious in Husserl, here I trace the different meanings Husserl has given to this concept and I argue that in his phenomenology, the unconscious can be understood at least in seven ways: as the horizonal unconscious, the time-constituting unconscious, the sedimented unconscious, the repressed unconscious, the absorbed unconscious, the dormant unconscious, and the instinctual unconscious. Besides articulating the essential features of each determination, I also clarify what they all share. With the aim of showing what is distinctive of Husserl's approach to the unconscious, I offer some reflections on what differentiates Husserl's phenomenology of the unconscious vis-à-vis Freud's psychoanalysis. In general, I maintain that while it is a limit problem in phenomenology, the unconscious should also be considered a central phenomenological theme, for as Husserl's reflections show, without offering a phenomenology of the unconscious, phenomenology can only operate with a preliminary and insufficient conception of consciousness.
As a Journal 6: 6-14, 2024
European Journal of Philosophy, 2024
Husserl is the philosopher who transformed the geological metaphor of sedimentation into a philos... more Husserl is the philosopher who transformed the geological metaphor of sedimentation into a philosophical concept. While tracing the development of Husserl's reflections on sedimentation, I argue that the distinctive feature of Husserl's approach lies in his preoccupation with the question concerning the origins of sedimentations. The paper demonstrates that in different frameworks of analysis, Husserl understood these origins in significantly different ways. In the works concerned with the phenomenology of time consciousness, Husserl searched for the origins of sedimentation in the field of subjective experience, and more precisely, in impressional consciousness. By contrast, in the later works concerned with history, he maintained that the origins of sedimentations lie in the field of historical past that stretches beyond the reach of individual experience. Building on the basis of these resources, I argue that the Husserlian concept of sedimentation has three distinct components of senses: static, genetic, and generative. In the static sense, sedimentations are modifications of retentions and necessary conditions of recollection. In the genetic sense, sedimentations are necessary for the formation of types, habits and moods, and as such, they shape present experiences. In the generative sense, sedimentations refer to what consciousness inherits from the historical tradition.
Human Studies, 2023
The fundamental goal of this paper is to clarify the importance of Husserl's reflections on desti... more The fundamental goal of this paper is to clarify the importance of Husserl's reflections on destiny (Schicksal) in the context of his post-WWI ethics. In the first section, I sketch Husserl's reflections on war in his private correspondence. In the second section, I show that, in his post-WWI research manuscripts on ethics, Hus-serl conceptualized various forms of meaningless suffering under the heading of destiny. One of the main questions of Husserl's post-WWI ethics can be formulated as follows: in the dark horizon of senselessness, how is an ethical life possible? In the remaining sections, I show that Husserl's reflections on this question led him to deformalize his earlier ethics and motivated him to ground his ethics of reason in an ethics of love. In the third and fourth sections, I sketch Husserl's two fundamental answers to this question, the first of which concerns his phenomenology of love, while the second one-his phenomenological metaphysics in general, and his phenomenological teleology, in particular. While for Husserl, these answers are complementary, after clarifying Husserl's view on the conflicts of values, I conclude with some reflections on the importance of not overlooking that these answers are analytically distinct.
Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 2023
The paper explores the meaning of the phenomenological concept of sedimentation in the framework ... more The paper explores the meaning of the phenomenological concept of sedimentation in the framework of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. The analysis I offer suggests that Merleau-Ponty initiates a transition from the constitutional problematic of sedimentations that we come across in Husserl's phenomenology to the analysis of existential sedimentations. Merleau-Ponty accomplishes this transformation by binding the Husserlian conception of sedimentations with the Heideggerian conception of facticity. The distinction Merleau-Ponty draws between originary sedimentations and secondary sedimentations is especially important, for it allows one to claim that Merleau-Ponty recognizes all experiences as sedimented. Against the background of this realization, I offer a reevaluation of Merleau-Ponty's cryptic remarks in the Phenomenology of Perception regarding the "original past," also described as "a past that has never been a present." I argue that these are metaphors for originary sedimentations. In place of a conclusion, I suggest that especially when the concept of sedimentation is universalized, we come to recognize its inherently paradoxical nature. In the final analysis, besides being a genetic concept, sedimentation is also a limit problem and a limit phenomenon.
HORIZON / Fenomenologicheskie issledovanija/ STUDIEN ZUR PHÄNOMENOLOGIE / STUDIES IN PHENOMENOLOGY / ÉTUDES PHÉNOMÉNOLOGIQUES, 2019
Horizon: Studies in Phenomenology, 2022
The paper is guided by three goals. First, it shows that the methodological standpoint of classic... more The paper is guided by three goals. First, it shows that the methodological standpoint of classical Husserlian phenomenology provides us with reliable tools to resist the grand narratives that proliferate during times of war. Second, it demonstrates that phenomenology provides much-needed methodological support for hermeneutically-oriented reflections on war. Third, it shows how the gruesome reality of World War One introduced a practical turn in Husserl’s phenomenology by forcing Husserl to rethink the relation between phenomenology and metaphysics. Tracing the development of phenomenological metaphysics in Husserl’s Fichte lectures (1917-1918), Kaizo articles (1923-1924) and private correspondence, the paper shows that, in response to war, Husserl deliberately chose not to engage in straightforward reflections on war, but instead to write about the prospects of peace. Reflections on cultural renewal necessitated him to rethink phenomenology as practical philosophy. The entanglement of praxis and theoria in Husserlian phenomenology relies upon the establishment of a metaphysically-grounded conceptual bond that ties reason to love and faith, which in its own turn suggests that a human being is not merely animal rationale, but also animal amans and animal religiosum. Ultimately, the possibility of cultural renewal relies upon a metaphysical broadening of Husserl’s conception of philosophy as rigorous sciences.
Gestalt Theory, 2017
Summary This paper develops a phenomenological approach to the concept of pain, which highlights ... more Summary This paper develops a phenomenological approach to the concept of pain, which highlights the main presuppositions that underlie pain research undertaken both in the natural and in the sociohistorical sciences. My argument is composed of four steps: (1) only if pain is a stratified experience can it become a legitimate theme in both natural and sociohistorical sciences; (2) the phenomenological method is supremely well suited to disclose the different strata of pain experience; (3) the phenomenological account offered here identifies three fundamental levels that make up the texture of pain experience: pain can be conceived as a prereflective experience, as an object of affective reflection, or as an object of cognitive reflection; and (4) such a stratified account clarifies how pain can be a subject matter in the natural and sociohistorical sciences. Arguably, the natural and sociohistorical sciences address pain at different levels of its manifestation. While the natural sc...
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Books by Saulius Geniusas
Against such a background, Geniusas develops a new conception of productive imagination: It is a basic modality of intentionality that indirectly shapes the human experience of the world by forming the contours of action, intuition, knowledge, and understanding. It is not so much a blind and indispensable function of the soul, but an art concealed in the body, for it springs out of instincts, drives, desires, and needs. The author demonstrates in which unexpected ways phenomenology of productive imagination enriches our understanding of embodied subjectivity.
problemą, svarbią įvairioms tyrimų sritims, tokioms kaip
fenomenologija, transcendentaline filosofija, skausmo filosofija, psichologija ir kognityvinis mokslas. Problema susijusi
su pagrindinės sąvokos paaiškinimu: kas yra skausmas?
Nors apie skausmą ir gausu literatūros, su kuria susiduriame
įvairiose mokslo srityse, patikimo atsakymo į šį pamatinį
klausimą neturime.
Edited Volumes by Saulius Geniusas
It is not always clear how hermeneutics-that is, post-Heideggerian hermeneutics as articulated by Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, and a large number of thinkers working under their influence-regards the phenomenological tradition, be it in its Husserlian or various post-Husserlian formulations. This volume inquires into this issue both in general, conceptual terms and through specific analyses into questions of ontology and metaphysics, science, language, theology, and imagination. With a substantial editors' introduction, the volume contains 15 chapters, from some of the most significant scholars in this field covering the essential questions about the history, present and future of these two disciplines.
The volume will be of interest to any philosopher or student with an interest in developing a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of contemporary hermeneutics and phenomenology.
The traditions covered in this volume-existentialism, pragmatism, poststructuralism, Eastern philosophy, and hermeneutics itself-are all characterized by significant internal diversity, adding to the difficulty in reaching an interpretation that is at once comparative and critical. None of these traditions represent a unified system of belief; all are umbrella terms which are at once useful and imprecise, and the differences internal to each must not to be understated.
An innovative work of comparative philosophy, this volume avoids oversimplification and offers specific analyses that treat hermeneutics in relation to particular themes and key figures in each of these traditions of thought. Philosophical hermeneutics is explicitly dialogical, and it is in this spirit that the authors of this book approach their subjects, revealing the important affinities and opportunities for mutually enriching conversations which have until now been overlooked.
The essays here presented focus on highly unorthodox conceptions of productive imagination, which in various ways have imploded the conceptual dualisms that pervade Kant’s philosophy: sensibility vs. understanding, phenomenon vs. noumenon, nature vs. freedom, theoretical vs. practical reason. Here productive imagination is conceived as a constitutive power that shapes the human experience of the actual world by forming the contours of action, intuition, knowledge and understanding.
Papers by Saulius Geniusas
Against such a background, Geniusas develops a new conception of productive imagination: It is a basic modality of intentionality that indirectly shapes the human experience of the world by forming the contours of action, intuition, knowledge, and understanding. It is not so much a blind and indispensable function of the soul, but an art concealed in the body, for it springs out of instincts, drives, desires, and needs. The author demonstrates in which unexpected ways phenomenology of productive imagination enriches our understanding of embodied subjectivity.
problemą, svarbią įvairioms tyrimų sritims, tokioms kaip
fenomenologija, transcendentaline filosofija, skausmo filosofija, psichologija ir kognityvinis mokslas. Problema susijusi
su pagrindinės sąvokos paaiškinimu: kas yra skausmas?
Nors apie skausmą ir gausu literatūros, su kuria susiduriame
įvairiose mokslo srityse, patikimo atsakymo į šį pamatinį
klausimą neturime.
It is not always clear how hermeneutics-that is, post-Heideggerian hermeneutics as articulated by Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, and a large number of thinkers working under their influence-regards the phenomenological tradition, be it in its Husserlian or various post-Husserlian formulations. This volume inquires into this issue both in general, conceptual terms and through specific analyses into questions of ontology and metaphysics, science, language, theology, and imagination. With a substantial editors' introduction, the volume contains 15 chapters, from some of the most significant scholars in this field covering the essential questions about the history, present and future of these two disciplines.
The volume will be of interest to any philosopher or student with an interest in developing a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of contemporary hermeneutics and phenomenology.
The traditions covered in this volume-existentialism, pragmatism, poststructuralism, Eastern philosophy, and hermeneutics itself-are all characterized by significant internal diversity, adding to the difficulty in reaching an interpretation that is at once comparative and critical. None of these traditions represent a unified system of belief; all are umbrella terms which are at once useful and imprecise, and the differences internal to each must not to be understated.
An innovative work of comparative philosophy, this volume avoids oversimplification and offers specific analyses that treat hermeneutics in relation to particular themes and key figures in each of these traditions of thought. Philosophical hermeneutics is explicitly dialogical, and it is in this spirit that the authors of this book approach their subjects, revealing the important affinities and opportunities for mutually enriching conversations which have until now been overlooked.
The essays here presented focus on highly unorthodox conceptions of productive imagination, which in various ways have imploded the conceptual dualisms that pervade Kant’s philosophy: sensibility vs. understanding, phenomenon vs. noumenon, nature vs. freedom, theoretical vs. practical reason. Here productive imagination is conceived as a constitutive power that shapes the human experience of the actual world by forming the contours of action, intuition, knowledge and understanding.
Although the concept of productive imagination plays a fundamental role in Kant, German Idealism, Romanticism, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics, the meaning of this central concept remains largely undetermined. The significance of productive imagination is therefore all-too-often either inflated or underrated. The articles collected in this volume trace the development of productive imagination through the history of philosophy, identify the different meanings this concept has been ascribed in different philosophical frameworks, and raise the question anew concerning this concept's philosophical significance. How has the concept of productive imagination been developed in post-Kantian philosophy? This important and innovative volume explores this question, with particular focus on hermeneutics, phenomenology and neo-Kantianism. The essays in this collection demonstrate that imagination is productive not only because it fabricates non-existent objects, but also because it shapes human experience and co-determines the meaning of the experienced world. "The Productive Imagination" offers both a thematic and a historical overview of productive imagination understood as Kant originally wanted us to understand it.
"Stretching the Limits of Productive Imagination" addresses the diverse ways in which productive imagination has been conceptualized in Kantian and post-Kantian philosophy, especially in phenomenology and hermeneutics. Besides exploring the different meanings that the concept of productive imagination has been given in Kant’s own writings, the volume explores imagination’s poetic, historical and generative dimensions as well as shows its significance for the human and social sciences; it demonstrates its relevance in the formation of political concepts as well as addresses productive imagination’s significance at the levels of pre-linguistic understanding and kinaesthetic experience.
The essays here presented focus on highly unorthodox conceptions of productive imagination, which in various ways have imploded the conceptual dualisms that pervade Kant’s philosophy: sensibility vs. understanding, phenomenon vs. noumenon, nature vs. freedom, theoretical vs. practical reason. Here productive imagination is conceived as a constitutive power that shapes the human experience of the actual world by forming the contours of action, intuition, knowledge and understanding.
This is a blog about two books edited by Saulius Geniusas (one co-edited with Dimitri Nikulin) as part of the Social Imaginaries book series.
Ariela Battán Horenstein. Fenomenología del Dolor (Presentación). Phenomenology of pain (Brief presentation).
Agustín Serrano de Haro. El Largo Presente del Dolor Físico. Cinco leyes de la temporalidad adolorida. The Long Present of Physical Pain. Five Laws of Sorrowed Temporality.
Ariela Battán Horenstein e Luís António Umbelino. Fenomenología del Cuerpo y Análisis del Dolor. Entrevista a Agustín Serrano de Haro. Phenomenology of the Body and Analysis of Pain. An Interview with Agustín Serrano de Haro.
Saulius Geniusas. Más Allá del Naturalismo y del Constructivismo Social. La Function de la Fenomenología en la Investigación sobre el Dolor. Beyond Naturalism and Social Constructivism: the Role of Phenomenology in Pain Research.
António Zirión Quijano. Cuerpo y Afectividad en Los Estudios acerca de la Estructura de La Conciencia de Husseri. Body and Affectivity in the Studies about the Structure of Consciousness of Husseri.
Joan González Guardiola. Phenomenology of Vertigo and Dizziness.
Iván Ortega Rodríguez. El Dolor en los Escritos Patočka de los años 40. Intencionalidad Negativa y Experiencia del Mal. The Pain in the Writing of Patočka of the 40’s. Negative Intentionality and the Experience of Evil.