Edith Stein's Philosophy of Personal Becoming: On Her Theory of Values, Gender, and its Relevance for Feminist and Critical Phenomenology Restricted; Files Only
Bath, Rachel (Spring 2023)
Published
Abstract
This dissertation recuperates marginalized philosopher Edith Stein’s philosophy of personal becoming to intervene in contemporary debates in feminist and critical phenomenology. To effect this intervention, the first three chapters of the dissertation develop a three-part systematic treatment of personal becoming as it is variously figured in the thought of Edith Stein. First, I argue that we as psycho-physical individuals are formed by the world and by lived experience through various material, psychical, and spiritual forces. Our personal character is produced (and revised) by the way formation, as a set of ongoing processes, realizes the inner and outer circumstances of our lives; thus, our subjectivity is always revisable, emergent, and contingent. Second, I show that we are not passively shaped by experience but self-form according to our values and based upon what we learn about ourselves through empathic experiences with others. This self-formative activity has an ethical dimension that is fulfilled when we become our fullest selves by unfolding our souls, which provide the innate core or essence of who we are. Third, I demonstrate the role of gender and education in Stein’s account of personal becoming. I argue that while Stein’s vision of gendered development promisingly entails unfolding our gendered essence (masculine or feminine) in highly specific and personal ways throughout our lives, she compromises her account with a vision of girls’ education that encourages girls to develop so-called ‘feminine’ traits that ultimately encourage self-displacement, submissiveness to men, and complicity with the oppression of other girls and women. In the fourth and final chapter, I draw on elements from Stein’s philosophy of personal becoming to identify and ameliorate shortcomings in feminist and critical phenomenology. Feminist and critical phenomenologies both seek to produce social, cultural, and political change in individuals and in the world, but neither methodology has sufficiently addressed how individual or systematic change is affected. I argue that Stein’s understanding of motivated value change is a crucial supplement that illustrates how individuals integrate and mobilize changing social and political values. This concept may be recuperated to assist feminist and critical phenomenologies in realizing their transformative aim.
Table of Contents
Dissertation Introduction ………. 1
1. A Stylized Introduction to the Life of Edith Stein ………. 2
2. Dissertation Methods, Aims, and Contributions ………. 10
3. An Overview of the Structure of the Dissertation ………. 17
3.1. Chapter One ………. 18
3.2. Chapter Two ………. 18
3.3. Chapter Three ………. 19
3.4. Chapter Four ………. 20
Chapter 1: Forming the Psycho-Physical Subject: On the Developmental, Emergent, and Revisable Nature of Human Subjectivity ………. 22
1. Introduction ………. 22
2. Formation of the Body ………. 29
3. Formation of the Psyche: The Unfolding of the Soul and the Development of the Psyche ………. 34
4. Formation of the Psyche: The Formative Power of Values on our Experience of Reality ………. 42
5. Formation of the Psyche: The Formative Power of Values on our Personality and Character ………. 51
6. Conclusion: Formation and Stein’s Developmental Subject ………. 61
Chapter 2: Forming Oneself on the Basis of Empathy: Self-Formation and the Ethical Imperative to Become Ourselves ………. 66
1. Introduction ………. 66
2. What makes Self-Formation possible? Empathy as the Intersubjective Ground of Self-Formation ………. 68
2.1. What is Empathy? ………. 69
2.2. Empathy and Self-Knowledge ………. 77
2.3. Error and Deception in Empathy ………. 81
2.4. Empathy as the Intersubjective Ground for Self-Formation ………. 85
3. The Process of Self-Formation ………. 87
3.1. The Making of a Self ………. 88
3.2. How does the Ego shape the Self? ………. 93
3.3. Self-Formation proceeds according to Design ………. 95
3.4. An Adequate Motivational Context is required for Self-Formation ………. 96
3.5. Self-Formation should be guided by Conscience ………. 98
3.6. The Extent and Limits of Self-Formation ………. 102
4. Our Responsibility for our Self-Formation ………. 104
4.1. Pseudo-Formation as an Example of ‘Improper’ Self-Formation ………. 105
4.2. Stein’s Theological Account of Soulful Living ………. 108
4.3. Soulful Living as guided by Conscience: an argument against Full Self-Possession in Self-Formation ………. 113
5. Conclusion: Our Moral Responsibility for our Self-Formation ………. 118
Chapter 3: Feminine Becoming in Stein’s Philosophical Anthropology: The Restrictive Role of the Eve and Mary Archetypes in Feminine Education ………. 121
1. Introduction ………. 121
2. Feminist Critiques of Essentialism and Scholarly Defenses of Stein ………. 126
3. A Geopolitical and Methodological Contextualization of Stein’s Remarks on Women ………. 130
4. Stein’s Concept of Woman as a Generalized Account of Gendered Humanity ………. 139
5. Eve, the Fallen Temptress ………. 150
6. Mary, the Virgin, Mother, and Queen ………. 156
7. The Ideals of Education and (Natural) Vocation ………. 163
8. What’s the Matter with Mary? A Critique of Stein’s Concept of Feminine Education ………. 170
9. On Stein’s Betrayal of her Theory of Feminine Becoming ………. 179
Chapter 4: A Steinian Intervention in Feminist and Critical Phenomenology: On Values, Motivation, and Types ………. 183
1. Introduction ………. 183
2. Feminist and Critical Phenomenologies ………. 189
2.1. The Common Ground between Feminist and Critical Phenomenology ………. 189
2.2. Spot the Differences: Feminist and Critical Phenomenology ………. 192
2.3. The Shared Promise and Weakness of Feminist and Critical Phenomenology ………. 202
3. A Steinian Intervention in Feminist and Critical Phenomenology ………. 211
3.1. Rendering Values Visible: A Return to Al-Saji’s Description ………. 213
3.2. Motivating Change: Denaturalizing Oppressive Historical Structures ………. 219
3.3. Typifying Hesitation: Motivating Changes in Social and Political Values ………. 221
4. Chapter Conclusion: Future Directions ………. 230
Conclusion: Who is the Steinian Subject? ………. 233
Bibliography ………. 242
1. Stein’s Work (German and English) ………. 242
2. Other References and Secondary Literature ………. 243
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