The future of phenomenology

Thomas Langan

pp. 1-15

in: Smith (ed), Phenomenology in perspective, Berlin, Springer, 1970

Abstract

Philosophy is the most human of the sciences because its vocation coincides with that of intellectuality as such. It seeks to illumine the way through life by inquiring into "the sense of it all." The philosopher is the human being who supposedly makes the most concerted effort to use his rational powers to discern "the way" as well as we are able. Rather than to flee the implications of what we are doing, instead of interrogating our acts incessantly, asking why we do what we do, what grounds there are in experience for our hopes, and whether we are making the best use of our capabilities to attain our ends, it is inevitable that the philosopher be in a constant state of anguish over the question of the well-being of the philosophical enterprise itself.