Leben als kreatives Antworten

This dissertation is an investigation of temporality and time in
light of Bernhard Waldenfels’ responsive phenomenology. Both
intentionality, a classical concept in the phenomenolgy of Husserl,
and responsivity, a concept developed by Waldenfels, are approaches
to the riddle of time. Time is the main concern of metaphysical and
religious discourse and must be taken into account in every
consideraton of freedom. The dissertation consists of three main
parts, which are divided into 49 chapters. In the First Part,
“Otherness and Corporeality,” I analyze Waldenfels’ specific
approach to the rethinking of the self by highlighting the
experience of the other/the alien. The experience of the other
makes a conclusive self-identification impossible. Due to its
response to the demand of the other in the broadest sense, a self
is generated. The self and the other co-originate, which is always
a process and brings to light the significance of the sentient or
lived body of a self. The sentient body, in which intentional
consciousness is situated and embodied, is the “primal memory” and
is therefore intrinsically related to an ultimate revelation of
intentionality as the basic working principle of consciousness;
this leads to consciousness’ being enclosed in and a slave to its
own intentional stucture. With this as background, I understand
Waldenfels’ demonstration of and emphasis on responsivity as an
insight into freedom despite the fundamental intentionality of
consciousness. In Part Two, “Temporality and Responsivity,” I set
forth the profundity of the concept of responsivity with regard to
temporality. Responsivity implies a freedom that necessarily takes
the basic temporality of existence into account. In my discussion I
touch on the analyses of consciousness found in modern biological
psychology and traditional Buddhism. I stress that both
intentionality and responsivity are based on temporality, which is
the source not only of enslavement, but also of freedom. With Part
Three, “Temporality and Responsivity as Related to the Problem of
Religious Dialog,” I approach the topic of the religious in the
lifeworld. The religious is rooted in everyday life in the
lifeworld. The basis for religious dialog is not the scriptures of
world culture, which are necessarily characterized by specific
intentional structures. Everyday life, thanks to its temporality,
is full of inexhaustible possibilities. A responsive life is of
itself religious because it is open to the creativity of reality.