Bernhard Waldenfels

Bernhard Waldenfels
Waldenfels c. 2004
Born(1934-03-17)17 March 1934
Essen, Gau Essen, Germany
Died23 January 2026(2026-01-23) (aged 91)
Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Education
Occupations
  • Philosopher
  • Academic teacher
Organizations

Bernhard Waldenfels (17 March 1934 – 23 January 2026) was a German philosopher and academic teacher. He is regarded as one of the leading phenomenologists of his era. He researched and taught at the Ruhr University Bochum from 1976 to 1999.

Based on the foundation of classical Greek philosophy, Waldenfels was influenced by Edmund Husserl's phenomenology and studied for two years in France, introducing then the ideas of French philosophers to German-speaking philosophers. Central themes of his writing are questions and answers, as well as phenomenological studies on experience, alterity, foreignness, and physicality (Leiblichkeit).

Life and career

Waldenfels was born in Essen on 17 March 1934,[1][2][3] to Bernhard and Therese Waldenfels.[4] He grew up with an elder brother, Hans.[5] He studied philosophy, psychology, classical philology, and history at the University of Bonn, in Innsbruck, and Munich. He was supported by the Studienstiftung[2] and completed his studies in Munich in 1959 with a thesis on Socratic questioning.[6] He took the Staatsexamen in Greek, Latin and history in 1960–1961.[2][4] Waldenfels studied at the Sorbonne in Paris[7] from 1960 to 1962,[2][7] with Paul Ricoeur and Maurice Merleau-Ponty,[7] who influenced him.[1] He prepared for his habilitation on a scholarship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, completing in Munich in 1967 with his Edmund Husserl–centric dissertation Das Zwischenreich des Dialogs.[6]

He taught Greek and Latin at a private school from 1966 to 1967,[4] followed by working as assistant professor and lecturer at the Munich University until 1976,[2][4] when he was called as professor of philosophy at the Ruhr University Bochum.[2] He researched and lectured there until his emeritation in 1999.[2]

Waldenfels was a publisher of the Philosophische Rundschau trade journal from 1975.[7] He was a co-founder of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für phänomenologische Forschung.[4] Many of his works were translated, into English, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish.[7] He introduced French philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Emmanuel Levinas into German-speaking fields in 1983 in the book Phänomenologie in Frankreich that became a classic, as well as Antwortregister in 1994 and Bruchlinien der Erfahrung in 2002.[2]

Waldenfels also taught as a guest in Rotterdam in 1982, at the Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme in Paris in 1984, at the New School in New York City in 1987, in Rome in 1989, in Louvain-la-Neuve in 1990, in San José, Costa Rica in 1991, in Debrecen in 1992, at the Central European University of Prague in 1993, at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1999, at the University of Vienna in 2002 and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2004.[4] In 2009 he passed his archive to the University of Freiburg, as a symbol of the tradition of the university where Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology, had taught.[3]

Personal life

Waldenfels was married to Christin Waldenfels-Goes from 1961; they had two sons.[4] His brother Hans Waldenfels was a fundamental theologian.[5]

Waldenfels died in Munich on 23 January 2026, at the age of 91.[2][6][8]

Work

Waldenfels was influenced by Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Alfred Schütz, and French philosophy especially by Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault and Emmanuel Levinas. He focused on a phenomenology that is responsive and anchored in physical experience. He translated several key works by Merleau-Ponty into German and made contemporary French philosophy better known among German-speaking philosophers. Lambert Wiesing noted that Waldenfels pointed at Merleau's systematic significance for phenomenological Bildwissenschaft (image theory), which explores the relation between making visible in images and becoming visible in perception.[9]

Central themes of his research are questions and answers, as well as phenomenological studies on experience, alterity, foreignness, and physicality. He observed the decline of order in modernity,[10] and saw the concept of the foreign (Fremde) as addressed in the context of order, or orders, the foreign proving to be the extraordinary which cannot be spoken about, thought or experienced within an order, and therefore has no place in that order.[11] Waldenfels wrote: "Dialogue is divided into discourses in Foucault's sense, each of which is subject to specific orders. The following statement therefore applies: as many orders as there are foreignnesses. The extraordinary accompanies order like a shadow."[12]

Waldenfels wrote about theory of dialogue, the experienced "life world," structures of behavior, normativity, and order after a "shattering of the world" when the idea of a universal or fundamental order is lost.[13] In his 2022 book Globality, Locality, Digitality. Challenges of Phenomenology., he noted: ""Flirting with an endless 'not yet" obscures our view of everything non-technical, which does not negate the technical, but goes beyond technical know-how, beginning with what happens to us, surprises us, frightens us and hurts us, and which only unfolds its effect in our responses. In doing so, we encounter 'black holes of everyday life' for which there are no technical fillers."[14]

Publications

The archive of works by Waldenfels is held by the University of Freiburg.[4] Most of his works were published by Suhrkamp, first in Frankfurt, later in Berlin.[4][1]

His works include:[15]

  • Das sokratische Fragen, Meisenheim: A. Hain 1961
  • Das Zwischenreich des Dialogs. Sozialphilosophische Untersuchungen in Anschluß an E. Husserl, Den Haag: M. Nijhoff 1971 (Japanese. 1986)
  • Der Spielraum des Verhaltens, Suhrkamp 1980 (in Japanese 1987)
  • Phänomenologie in Frankreich, Suhrkamp 1983
  • In den Netzen der Lebenswelt, Suhrkamp 1985, 1994 (in Serbo-Croatian 1991)
  • Ordnung im Zwielicht, Suhrkamp 1987 (in English by David J. Parent: Order in the Twilight, 1996)[16]: 68 [13]
  • Der Stachel des Fremden, Suhrkamp 1990, 1998 (in Slovene and Czech 1998)
  • Einführung in die Phänomenologie, Fink 1992 (in Spanish 1997, Korean 1998, Ukrainian 2002)
  • Antwortregister (Response Register),[16]: 68  Suhrkamp 1994
  • Deutsch-Französische Gedankengänge, Suhrkamp 1995
  • Topographie des Fremden – Studien zur Phänomenologie des Fremden 1, Suhrkamp 1997 (in Polish 2002, Ukrainian 2004, French 2009)
  • Grenzen der Normalisierung – Studien zur Phänomenologie des Fremden 2, Suhrkamp 1998 (in Hungarian 2006)
  • Sinnesschwellen – Studien zur Phänomenologie des Fremden 3, Suhrkamp 1999
  • Vielstimmigkeit der Rede – Studien zur Phänomenologie des Fremden 4, Suhrkamp 1999
  • Das leibliche Selbst. Vorlesungen zur Phänomenologie des Leibes. edited by Regula Giuliani. Suhrkamp, 2000 (in Japanese 2004)
  • Verfremdung der Moderne, Wallstein 2001
  • Bruchlinien der Erfahrung, Suhrkamp 2002
  • Spiegel, Spur und Blick. Zur Genese des Bildes, Salon Verlag 2003
  • Findigkeit des Körpers, Norderstedt: Books on Demand 2004
  • Phänomenologie der Aufmerksamkeit (Phenomenology of Attention),[16]: 69  Suhrkamp 2004
  • Idiome des Denkens. Deutsch-Französische Gedankengänge II, Suhrkamp (2005)
  • The Question of the Other (2007), based on lectures by Waldenfels at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.[16]: 68 
  • Grundmotive einer Phänomenologie des Fremden, Suhrkamp 2006 (in Polish 2009, English 2011, Phenomenology of the Alien: Basic Concepts, translated by A. Kozin and T. Stähler)[16]: 68 
  • Schattenrisse der Moral, Suhrkamp 2006
  • Philosophisches Tagebuch. Aus der Werkstatt des Denkens 1980–2005, Fink 2008.
  • Ortsverschiebungen, Zeitverschiebungen: Modi leibhaftiger Erfahrung (Displacements of place and time: Modes of embodied experience),[16]: 69  Suhrkamp 2009.
  • Sinne und Künste im Wechselspiel: Modi ästhetischer Erfahrung, Suhrkamp 2010.
  • Hyperphänomene: Modi hyperbolischer Erfahrung, Suhrkamp 2012.
  • Sozialität und Alterität: Modi sozialer Erfahrung. Suhrkamp 2015.
  • Platon: Zwischen Logos und Pathos. Suhrkamp 2017.
  • Erfahrung, die zur Sprache drängt. Studien zur Psychoanalyse und Psychotherapie aus phänomenologischer Sicht. Suhrkamp 2019.
  • Reisetagebuch eines Phänomenologen: Aus den Jahren 1978–2019. Ergon Verlag, Baden-Baden 2020.
  • Globalität, Lokalität, Digitalität. Herausforderungen der Phänomenologie. Suhrkamp 2022.

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "On the Passing of Bernhard Waldenfels" (in German). Suhrkamp Verlag. 25 January 2026. Retrieved 3 March 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Der Philosoph Bernhard Waldenfels starb am 23. Januar". Ruhr University Bochum (in German). 30 January 2026. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  3. ^ a b "Bernhard Waldenfels-Archiv" (in German). University of Freiburg. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Bernhard Waldenfels-Archiv" (in German). University of Freiburg. 2026. Retrieved 2 March 2026.
  5. ^ a b Vellguth, Klaus (2023). "In memoriam / Theologie und Glaube sind stets kontextuell / Ein Nachruf auf Hans Waldenfels SJ" (PDF). Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft und Missionswissenschaft (in German). Waldenfels-Born-Stiftung. pp. 412–417. Retrieved 2 March 2026.
  6. ^ a b c Därmann, Iris (30 January 2026). "Bruchlinien der Erfahrung – Zum Tod des Philosophen Bernhard Waldenfels". Philosophie Magazin (in German). Retrieved 6 February 2026.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Bernhard Waldenfels". Chinese University of Hong Kong. 2004. Retrieved 3 March 2026.
  8. ^ Geyer, Christian (27 January 2026). "Die schwarzen Löcher des Alltags". FAZ (in German). Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  9. ^ Lambert Wiesing: Bild, in: Wörterbuch der phänomenologischen Begriffe. edited by Helmuth Vetter with Klaus Ebner and Ulrike Kadi, Hamburg: Meiner (reprint) 2020 (2004).
  10. ^ Teller, Katalin (16 August 2006). "Warum Musil in Bernhard Waldenfels' Phänomenologie des Fremden? : eine Skizze". Trans (in German). Vol. 16. pp. 1–6. ISSN 1560-182X. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
  11. ^ Waldenfels, Bernhard: Ordnung im Zwielicht. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1987 (engl. 1996)
  12. ^ Waldenfels, Bernhard: Topographie des Fremden. Studien zur Phänomenologie des Fremden I. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 33
  13. ^ a b "Order in the Twilight". Ohio University Press. 1996. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  14. ^ Waldenfels, Bernhard (2022). Globalität, Lokalität, Digitalität: Herausforderungen der Phänomenologie. Suhrkamp Verlag. p. 183.
  15. ^ "Literatur zu Bernhard Waldenfels" (PDF). Husserl-Archiv Freiburg. Retrieved 2 March 2026.
  16. ^ a b c d e f Friesen, Norm (2014). "Phenomenology & Practice". FAZ. 7 (2): 68–77. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  17. ^ "Universität Rostock verleiht Ehrendoktorwürde an den Philosophen Bernhard Waldenfels". University of Rostock (in German). Archived from the original on 8 July 2015.

Further reading

  • Dallmayr, Fred: On Bernhard Waldenfels, in: Social Research 56 (1989), pp. 681–712
  • Vernunft im Zeichen des Fremden. Zur Philosophie von Bernhard Waldenfels, eds. Matthias Fischer, Hans-Dieter Gondek, Burkhard Liebsch. Suhrkamp, 2001
  • Philosophie der Responsivität. Festschrift für Bernhard Waldenfels zum 70. Geburtstag, eds. Kathrin Busch, Iris Därmann, Antje Kapust. Wilhelm Fink, 2007
  • Responsive Phänomenologie. Ein Gang durch die Philosophie von Bernhard Waldenfels. eds. Huth, Martin, Peter Lang. 2008
  • The Pathos of the Alien: on the Philosophy of Bernhard Waldenfels, eds. Ferdinando G. Menga, Etica & Politica, vol. XIII, No. 1 (2011):
  • Steinmann, Jan Juhani: Exzess und Selbst. Hyperphänomenologische Bewegungen nach Waldenfels, Cuviller, Göttingen 2021

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