Title

Return to Radical Immanence: A Comparative Study of Phenomenology of Life East and West  

Author

Chen, Wing-cheuk  

Genre

Article  

Pages

1~20  

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese  

Key words

Michel Henry, Liu Zongzhou/Liu Jishan, Phenomenology of life, Auto-affection  

Abstract

    In claiming that life is auto-affection, Michel Henry introduced a phenomenology of life. This signifies a critical reaction to Husserl's transcendental phenomenology and Heidegger's phenomenology of Being. According to Henry, classical phenomenology is imprisoned in ontological monism. He argued that it is only by returning to radical immanence that such a limitation can be overcome. By disclosing the essential affinity between Henry's and Liu Zongzhou's philosophy, this paper aims to show that Liu can be understood as a phenomenologist of life in Henry's sense. Nevertheless, in contrast to Henry's founding of the phenomenology of life upon Christianity, Liu provides a non-theological alternative. In addition, Henry's account for the possibility of selfhood might suffer from the lack of phenomenological evidence. Such a difficulty can be blocked by Liu's stressing the essential link between pure feeling and will.