This book explores the philosophical writings of Gerda Walther (1897¿1977). It features essays that
recover large parts of Walther¿s oeuvre in order to show her contribution to phenomenology
and philosophy. In addition, the volume contains an English translation of part of her
major work on mysticism.
The essays consider the interdisciplinary implications of Gerda Walther¿s ideas. A student
of Edmund Husserl, Edith Stein, and Alexander Pfänder, she wrote
foundational studies on the ego, community, mysticism and religion, and consciousness.
Her discussions of empathy, identification, the ego and ego-consciousness,
alterity, God, mysticism, sensation, intentionality, sociality, politics, and woman are
relevant not only to phenomenology and philosophy but also to scholars of religion, women¿s
and gender studies, sociology, political science, and psychology.
Gerda Walther was one of the important figures of the early phenomenological
movement. However, as a woman, she could not habilitate at a German
university and was, therefore, denied a position. Her complete works have yet to be
published. This ground-breaking volume not only helps readers discover a vital voice but it also demonstrates the significant contributions of women to early phenomenological thinking.
Antonio Calcagno is Professor of Philosophy at King's University College, London, Canada. He is the author of Giordano Bruno and the Logic of Coincidence (1998), Badiou and Derrida: Politics, Events and Their Time (2007), The Philosophy of Edith Stein (2007), Lived Experience from the Inside Out: Social and Political Philosophy in Edith Stein (2014). He is the editor of Edith Stein: Women, Social-Political Philosophy, Theology, Metaphysics and Public History: New Approaches and Applications (Dordrecht: Springer, 2015).
Editor's Introduction.- I. The Life and Work of Gerda Walther.- Rodney K.B. Parker: Gerda Walther (1897-1977): A Sketch of a Life.- Marina Pia Pellegrino: Gerda Walther: Searching for the Sense of Things, Following the Traces of Lived Experiences.- II. Social Ontology and the Self.- Alessandro Salice and Genki Uemura: Social Acts and Communities: Walther Between Husserl and Reinach.- Anna Maria Pezzella: On Community: Edith Stein and Gerda Walther.- Antonio Calcagno: Gerda Walther and the Possibility of a Non-Intentional We of Community.- Julia Mühl: Human Beings as Social Beings: Gerda Walther's Anthropological Approach.- Christina M. Gschwandtner: Körper, Leib, Gemüt, Seele, Geist: Conceptions of the Self in Early Phenomenology.- Manuela Massa: What is the Condition for the Members of Social Communities to Be "Real" People, According to Gerda Walther?III. Religion and Mysticism.- Gerda Walther (Translated byRodney K.B. Parker): Phenomenology of Mysticism, Introduction and Chapter 1.- Angela Ales Bello: The Sense of Mystical Experience According to Gerda Walther.- Kimberly Baltzer-Jaray: Phenomenological Approaches to the Uncanny and the Divine: Adolf Reinach and Gerda Walther on Mystical Experience.