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12th Jerusalem Philosophical Encounter


PHENOMENOLOGY:
BETWEEN FIRST PHILOSOPHY AND THE SCIENCES
2-4 January 2007


Recent years have seen a renewed interest in phenomenology. At least since the Second World War, the philosophical world has been divided into two rival schools of thought – the so-called analytical and the continental - which are often thought to be incommensurable. This apparently entrenched cleavage, however, seems no longer to be valid. Phenomenology, which traditionally was taken to be one of 'Continental' philosophy's main sources, has now begun to serve as a bridge between the two traditions. Indeed, though analytical philosophy has always been inspired by, and related to, the formal sciences, it is now becoming clearer that phenomenology too, especially as it was originally conceived, is not at all alien to logic, mathematics, and the exact sciences. In particular, much current work emphasizes the contribution of phenomenology to the understanding of the nature and foundations of these sciences, as well as to the philosophical basis of the newly born science of cognition.

The workshop aims to examine these new developments in phenomenology. It will look at phenomenology's relations to the specific sciences and also address the significance of those relations for phenomenology itself and for Husserl's original program of Prima Philosophia. It will inquire into the uniqueness and fruitfulness of a phenomenological approach to mathematics, logic, and the exact sciences in general. It will ask whether this contribution constitutes a revival of the Husserlian idea of phenomenology as the primary science or whether it leads to a blurring of the distinction between phenomenology and positive science altogether.

This conference will be the 12th conference in the framework of the "Jerusalem Encounters in Philosophy". This series aims to bring to Jerusalem distinguished scholars from all over the world and to create a unique opportunity for dialogue among different and sometimes opposed approaches to main topics in philosophy.


Click here to download the conference poster.