Orginal Article

The Invisible and the Secret: Of a Phenomenology of the Inapparent

  • François Raffoul
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  • Department of Philosophy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA

Published date: 15 Sep 2016

Copyright

2016 Higher Education Press and Brill

Abstract

I consider in this article Heidegger’s late characterization of phenomenology as a “phenomenology of the inapparent.” Phenomenology is traditionally considered to be a thought of presence, assigned to a phenomenon that is identified with the present being, or with an object for consciousness. The phenomenon would be synonymous with presence itself, with what manifests itself in a presence. However, I will suggest in the following pages that phenomenology is haunted by the presence of a certain unappearing dimension, a claim that was made by Heidegger in his last seminar in 1973, when he characterized the most proper sense of phenomenology as a “phenomenology of the inapparent.” I attempt to show in what sense for Heidegger the “inapparent” plays in phenomenality and in phenomenology, and to then consider (drawing from Levinas and Derrida) its ethical import.

Cite this article

François Raffoul . The Invisible and the Secret: Of a Phenomenology of the Inapparent[J]. Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 2016 , 11(3) : 395 -414 . DOI: 10.3868/s030-005-016-0029-4

Outlines

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