Cologne, 12 September 1996
For those who read German, I'd like to announce a new publication:
kaum staendig noch --
Phaenomenologie der Maennlichkeit als Wersein
available without cost at the URL: http://www.webcom.com/artefact/
ABSTRACT:
A German treatise (the title translates roughly as: 'scarcely still standing:
Phenomenology of Masculinity as Who-ness') on masculinity as 'being a named
somebody'. Both masculinity and femininity are thought phenomenologically from
the standing-ness of being in a dimension of who-ness (as distinct from the
traditional metaphysical category of whatness, i.e. essence). An alternative to
philosophical feminist discourse to date is offered by proposing a shift of
location to the thinking of being. The shift enables the standard alternative of
nature (biology) on the one hand or society ('nurture', social practices,
discourse, culture, etc.) on the other to be skirted, opening up another view of
what human being could be 'in between'.
Instead of proceeding from the facticity of gender, the book asks the question
concerning the historical essencing of masculinity and femininity. Both of these
are modes of being and thus have to be investigated from the understanding of
being that has prevailed in the metaphysical tradition.
The treatise concentrates on masculinity and attempts to think it as
being-a-named-somebody. The category of who-ness is developed in contrast to the
traditional category of what-ness, i.e. essence, quidditas. The guiding thread
for this development is the standing character of the being of beings which has
been transferred in the metaphysical tradition from beings in the third person
to the first person. This translation of standing-ness to the first person is
put into question, thus revealing the insecure standing of masculinity.
The phenomenon of femininity is unfolded in the final chapters in an attempt to
find words for the scarcely disclosed dimension of the second person, which has
likewise been subsumed under the whatness of the third person in the
metaphysical tradition.
Finally, the phallus is thought as the hidden god of standingness in the Western
history of being. The phallus and the logos have been secretly in cohorts since
the Greeks.
Thanks for your attention.
Michael
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vox: (++49 221) 9520 333 fax: (++49 221) 9520 334 Dr Michael Eldred
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