Advancing Phenomenology

Philip Blosser and Thomas Nenon The essays in the volume were assembled in honor of Lester Embree, who celebrated his 70th birthday on January 9, 2008. A preview of this volume was presented to Professor Embree at a reception sponsored by the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology that was held in his honor at the 2008 meeting of the Husserl Circle at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The title Advancing Phenomenology is purposely ambiguous. On the one hand, these essays document the progress that phenomenology as an ongoing and vibrant movement has made in the period of over a century since its inception. They ill- trate the advance of phenomenology both in terms of the range of topics represented in this volume and in terms of the disciplinary and geographical diversity of the scholars who have contributed to it. The topics range from scholarly appropriations of past achievements in phenomenology, to concrete phenomenological investi- tions into ethics, gender, and environmental philosophy, as well as phenomenolo- cal reflections on the foundations of disciplines outside philosophy such as psychology, history, the social sciences, and archeology. The contributors come both from philosophy departments and from a number disciplines outside of philosophy such as sociology, psychology, and archeology; and they come from all around the world - from North America, from Western and Eastern Europe, from Latin America, and from several different countries in Asia.

Philip Blosser is Professor of Philosophy at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. Born in China and raised in Japan, he is a graduate of Sophia University in Tokyo and with Master's degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary (Religious Studies) Villanova University (Philosophy), and a PhD from Duquesne University (Philosophy). He previously taught at Duquesne University, Lenoir-Rhyne University, and Harlaxton College in England. His publications include numerous articles as well as books, including Japanese and Western Phenomenology (1993), Scheler's Critique of Kant's Ethics (1995), Of Friendship: Philosophic Selections on a Perennial Concern, co-edited with Marshell Carl Bradley (2nd ed., 2002). At present he is working on a book on the phenomenology of the moral conscience. Thomas Nenon (PhD, University of Freiburg) is Professor of Philosophy and Vice Provost for Assessment, Institutional Research, and Reporting at the University of Memphis. He worked as an editor at the Husserl-Archives and instructor at the University of Freiburg before coming to University of Memphis. His teaching and research interests include Husserl, Heidegger, Kant and German Idealism, Hermeneutics, and the philosophy of the social sciences and has published numerous articles in those areas as well as the book Objektivität und endliche Erkenntnis (Freiburg: Alber, 1986) and as co-editor (along with Hans Rainer Sepp) volumes XXV and XXVII of the Husserliana. He has served as review editor for Husserl Studies, as a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, and as Director of the Center for the Humanities. His current research interests include Husserl's theories of personhood and subjectivity and Kant and Hegel's practical philosophy.