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Phänomenologie der Revolution. Frühe Schriften
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
248 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 6, 2026
"Die Epoche hat sich an dem Menschen vergriffen: sie versetzte ihn in eine Umwelt, gegen die er nur mit der Empörung reagieren konnte. Wollte er leben, so musste er zu der Revolution greifen, die Bände zerreissen, die ihm die Geschichte angelegt hatte."
Ganz cute.
Ganz cute.
March 16, 2022
Written in 1919 and then shelved to be reworked (which it ultimately wasn't), and then published only in 1974. The "phänomenologie" part here is that Metzger is inspired by Logische Untersuchunger in which he reads a sort of middle line between idealism and materialism, so to say - on the one hand making full account for the contingent givens, on the other hand not falling for the naturalistic skepticism concerning essences, logic and essential laws. This inspiration leads Metzger towards criticism of both worldly detached Catholicism (or, apparently, any official religion) on one hand, and Marxism - which he interprets as remaining, philosophically, on the level of economizing thought of bourgeois capitalism - on the other hand, all in favour of some Christian socialism. On one hand, all the church, state, class and educational hierarchies - as well as hierarchies between women and men, and even hierarchies between adults and children - are to be abolished, these being just detached, reified ideas which will be overcome in "die liebende Gemeinschaft". On the other hand, Marxism had a fine instinct to focus more on the economic, "bodily" ground of all ideas, too, but was wrong to get stuck in it, constructing the idea of superstructure, therefore contributing to "Auflösung der Idee" which Metzger identifies as the source of contemporary crisis (the materialism being more urgent a problem compared to idealism).
His proposed Christian socialism is decidedly utopian, but this utopia for Metzger is a reintroduction of the absolute idea back into this situation of crisis, of "Auflösung der Idee". Utopian idea of Christian socialism is to guide the revolutionary consciousness. Marxism failed, for Metzger, because, focusing on class consciousness, it lacked means to instigate the revolutionary consciousness. On the other hand, the revolutionary practice shall be intimately tied with work (and Metzger is far less critical to practical Marxist tactics), which can be properly developed only in "die liebende Gemeinschaft". As a practical proposal, he proposes organizing work in "die autonome Arbeitsgemeinschaften", which most probably has insipration in real-life Räte he saw in the revolutionary Germany at the time, following Kiel uprising. (And he himself - returing as a soldier from Eastern front in 1918 - participated in soviet in Brest-Litovsk.)
Most of the book is, however, not focused on revolutionary practice. Mostly it's about proposal for ideal society - which is partly utopian, but, interestingly, focuses on the issue of decentralization a lot, too, which brings to mind Arendt's emphasis on soviets, councils, Jeffersonian democracy - those "spaces of freedom" - in her own On Revolution. Given her own background in phenomenology - maybe phenomenology does have this decentralizing, anti-bureaucratic drive? Much, much more explaining should be done here, though.
As for revolutionary practice, there's just some homology between phenomenology and revolution, therefore the title is not completely misleading, althugh "Phänomenologie und Revolution" would be more precise. It's surprising that text such as Logische Untersuchunger should have this effect - but apparently it does, so much of European philosophy in 20th century springs from this driest of sources. The links are often extremely loose (as is the case here, too), and Husserlian phenomenology works as a springboard, a template to develop ones own ideas, but apparently Husserl opened a space which was sorely lacking at that time. To put it very simply (and necessarily imprecisely), it may go like this: after scientistic reaction to German idealism closed off many things as unworthy of even talking about - since they are to be solved by natural sciences in some far future - phenomenology allowed one to once again speak of truth, value, certainty, ideas, ethics, aesthetics, without simply raising the dead body of German idealism. It allowed one to speak of all these things as being in the world, as worldly grounded - it mustered all that often arcane terminology just so we can rally against the scientistic reductionism and confirm the most basic certainties, such as - yes, I have free choice, or yes, when I speak about object before me, I speak indeed about the object before me, there's something before me and I see it, I'm not just describing processes in my brain, etc.
For Metzger, it simply allowed him to reintroduce the idea of utopian socialism without fearing the usual scorn of the scientific Marxism (which would be leveled against him anyway, but he felt well-equipped to fend off such attacks). There's not much of actual phenomenology in doing so, which mostly works as an inspiration and reassurance.
Is any of this actually useful, though? Well, no, not really (though of course I'll probably use it to enlogate my reference list), it's dated as hell, if it ever was that relevant to begin with. It works as interesting document the intellectual milieu in a very tumultuous period of European history, but it can hardly be taken seriously as a work of political phenomenology.
There's, however, also a letter attached from Husserl, whom Metzger sent his manuscript in 1919. Husserl finds intellectual affinity between Metzger's ideas and his phenomenology, he approves of this sort of "extension" of formerly apolitical phenomenology into politics. Husserl himself was following the revolutions closely at that point, and he had already renounced at that point his pre-War nationalist positions. It also seems that Husserl was actually inspired by Metzger in return, there are echoes of Metzger's "die liebende Gemeinschaft" in Husserl's Kaizo articles and in his late ethics.
In the letter, Husserl also calls capitalism "the mortal enemy" - "die Totfeind ist allem »Kapitalismus«". Then he thanks Metzger for developing the ideas from LU, but suggests that Metzger also buys his new book.
His proposed Christian socialism is decidedly utopian, but this utopia for Metzger is a reintroduction of the absolute idea back into this situation of crisis, of "Auflösung der Idee". Utopian idea of Christian socialism is to guide the revolutionary consciousness. Marxism failed, for Metzger, because, focusing on class consciousness, it lacked means to instigate the revolutionary consciousness. On the other hand, the revolutionary practice shall be intimately tied with work (and Metzger is far less critical to practical Marxist tactics), which can be properly developed only in "die liebende Gemeinschaft". As a practical proposal, he proposes organizing work in "die autonome Arbeitsgemeinschaften", which most probably has insipration in real-life Räte he saw in the revolutionary Germany at the time, following Kiel uprising. (And he himself - returing as a soldier from Eastern front in 1918 - participated in soviet in Brest-Litovsk.)
Most of the book is, however, not focused on revolutionary practice. Mostly it's about proposal for ideal society - which is partly utopian, but, interestingly, focuses on the issue of decentralization a lot, too, which brings to mind Arendt's emphasis on soviets, councils, Jeffersonian democracy - those "spaces of freedom" - in her own On Revolution. Given her own background in phenomenology - maybe phenomenology does have this decentralizing, anti-bureaucratic drive? Much, much more explaining should be done here, though.
As for revolutionary practice, there's just some homology between phenomenology and revolution, therefore the title is not completely misleading, althugh "Phänomenologie und Revolution" would be more precise. It's surprising that text such as Logische Untersuchunger should have this effect - but apparently it does, so much of European philosophy in 20th century springs from this driest of sources. The links are often extremely loose (as is the case here, too), and Husserlian phenomenology works as a springboard, a template to develop ones own ideas, but apparently Husserl opened a space which was sorely lacking at that time. To put it very simply (and necessarily imprecisely), it may go like this: after scientistic reaction to German idealism closed off many things as unworthy of even talking about - since they are to be solved by natural sciences in some far future - phenomenology allowed one to once again speak of truth, value, certainty, ideas, ethics, aesthetics, without simply raising the dead body of German idealism. It allowed one to speak of all these things as being in the world, as worldly grounded - it mustered all that often arcane terminology just so we can rally against the scientistic reductionism and confirm the most basic certainties, such as - yes, I have free choice, or yes, when I speak about object before me, I speak indeed about the object before me, there's something before me and I see it, I'm not just describing processes in my brain, etc.
For Metzger, it simply allowed him to reintroduce the idea of utopian socialism without fearing the usual scorn of the scientific Marxism (which would be leveled against him anyway, but he felt well-equipped to fend off such attacks). There's not much of actual phenomenology in doing so, which mostly works as an inspiration and reassurance.
Is any of this actually useful, though? Well, no, not really (though of course I'll probably use it to enlogate my reference list), it's dated as hell, if it ever was that relevant to begin with. It works as interesting document the intellectual milieu in a very tumultuous period of European history, but it can hardly be taken seriously as a work of political phenomenology.
There's, however, also a letter attached from Husserl, whom Metzger sent his manuscript in 1919. Husserl finds intellectual affinity between Metzger's ideas and his phenomenology, he approves of this sort of "extension" of formerly apolitical phenomenology into politics. Husserl himself was following the revolutions closely at that point, and he had already renounced at that point his pre-War nationalist positions. It also seems that Husserl was actually inspired by Metzger in return, there are echoes of Metzger's "die liebende Gemeinschaft" in Husserl's Kaizo articles and in his late ethics.
In the letter, Husserl also calls capitalism "the mortal enemy" - "die Totfeind ist allem »Kapitalismus«". Then he thanks Metzger for developing the ideas from LU, but suggests that Metzger also buys his new book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews