The Philosophy of Edith Stein: From Phenomenology to Metaphysics

Description

Many interested reader will have put aside a work by Edith Stein due to its seeming inaccessibility, with the awareness that there was something important there for a future occasion. This collection of essays attempts to provide an idea of what this important something might be and give a key to the reading of Stein’s various works. It is divided into two parts reflecting Stein’s development. The first part, «Phenomenology», deals with those features of Stein’s work that set it apart from that of other phenomenologists, notably Husserl. The second part is entitled «Metaphysics», although Stein the phenomenologist would, like Husserl, initially have shied away from this designation. However, as Stein gradually understood the importance of the Christian faith for completing the phenomenological project of founding the sciences, and accepted it as indispensable for a philosophical view of the whole, her «attempt at an ascent to the meaning of being» can legitimately be called metaphysics, even as it also constitutes a fundamental criticism of Aristotle and Aquinas. Cover Contents Acknowledgements Glossary Chronology of Stein’s Works List of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Edith Stein as a European Philosopher Part I: Phenomenology Chapter 2. The Constitution of the Body Chapter 3. Motivation and Value Chapter 4. The Motivated Constitution of the State Chapter 5. An Analysis of Human Dignity pace Stein Chapter 6. The Formation of Christian Europe Part II. Metaphysics Chapter 7. Education of the Human Person Chapter 8. Woman Chapter 9. Phenomenology and Thomism Chapter 10. Beginning to Read Finite and Eternal Being Chapter 11. Heidegger and the Meaning of Being Chapter 12. A Steinian Approach to Dementia Conclusion Bibliography Index of Names Index of Terms