Beginning from the program for phenomenology set forth in Edmund Husserl's The Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Ian H. Angus investigates the crisis of reason in a contemporary context. In Groundwork of Phenomenological Marxism: Crisis, Body, World, Angus connects the late work of Marx to human motility, natural fecundity (excess), and ecology. Angus's overall conception of phenomenology is Socratic in that it is concerned with the presuppositions and application of knowledge-forms to their lifeworld grounding. He argues that the crisis produced by the formalization of reason creates an inability to foster differentiated community as expected by both Husserl and Marx and that the formalization of human motility by the regime of value reveals the ontological productivity of natural fecundity (excess) and shows the priority of ecology as the contemporary exemplary science. Husserl's idea of Europe as the home for philosophy is surpassed. Angus further argues that the contemporary task for Socratic phenomenology is in the epochal confrontation between planetary technology and place-based Indigeneity. He demonstrates that community and labor depend upon natural fecundity (excess) and locates their realization in the dialogue between civilizational-cultural lifeworlds, especially with respect to their ecological formation and access to transcendentality. This book lays out the fundamental concepts of a systematic phenomenological Marxian philosophy.
Ian H. Angus is professor emeritus of humanities at Simon Fraser University.
Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Part One: Phenomenology and the Crisis of Modern Reason Introduction: Modern Reason, Crisis, Meaning and Value Chapter 1 - Overview of the Crisis Part Two: Objectivism and the Crisis of Value Chapter 2 - Modern Science and the Problem of Objectivism Chapter 3 - Galilean Science and the One-Dimensional Lifeworld Chapter 4 - The Institution of Digital Culture Chapter 5 - Representation and the Crisis of Value Concluding Remark to Part Two Part Three: The Living Body and Ontology of Labor Chapter 6 - Science and the Lifeworld Chapter 7 - Ontology of Labor and the Inception of Culture Chapter 8 - The Regime of Value Chapter 9 - Technology in Living Labor Chapter 10 - Nature and the Source of Value Concluding Remark to Part Three Part Four: Transcendentality and the Constitution of Worlds Chapter 11 - The Paradox of Subjectivity and the Transcendental Field Chapter 12 - Limits of Europe and the Planetary Event Chapter 13 - America and Philosophy: Planetary Technology and Place-Based Indigeneity Chapter 14 - Philosophy as Autobiography: A Thankful Critic Chapter 15 - Excess and Nothing Concluding Remark to Part Four Part Five: Self-Responsibility of Humanity as Teleologically Given in Transcendental Phenomenology Chapter 16 - Self-Responsibility for Humanity and for Oneself Bibliography Detailed Table of Contents
"Groundwork of Phenomenological Marxism is an extraordinary tour de force. The passionate and relentlessly erudite scholarship that unfolds on these pages is at once staggeringly wide and impressively deep. Through meticulous yet critical reinterpretations of Husserl and Marx, Ian Angus establishes a systematic parallel that gives an unprecedented boost to phenomenological Marxism as a project of radical critique, and on this basis goes on to develop a powerful and auspicious new philosophical framework for confronting the global crises of the twenty-first century. Angus' book is an achievement of the highest importance that will inspire many readers for years to come." -- Bryan Smyth, University of Mississippi
