2020 – 2022: “I was there.” Laying the Foundations for a Comprehensive Phenomenology of Testimony

ABSTRACT

The underlying premise of our project is that only a phenomenology which is open to historical hermeneutics and which develops its analyses in the horizon of a philosophical anthropology of the subject is able to capture adequately, i.e. comprehensively and thoroughly, the fundamental structures of the experience of testimony and to account for the new dimension of subjectivity that this experience reveals (a dimension whose manifestations range from self-institution to absolute self-dispossession). It is precisely the specific nature of the phenomenon and experience of testimony which calls for such an approach, which combines phenomenological, hermeneutical and philosophic-anthropological directions of research.

Thus, a phenomenological approach describing the structures and sequences which are constitutive for the experience of testimony according to the guiding concepts of intersubjectivity and embodiment would be incomplete if it would not take into account both the historical inscription of this experience and its potential to make history.

Finally, the experience of testimony, through its ascending and regressive modalizations which go from body, speech to writing and back, reveals a new articulation of the “I”: the subject capable of giving testimony, of attesting through his/her own being, for the others, the truth of a past event, a subject whose condition is determined by the interplay between memory and history, by an existential fragility and by a fallible knowledge. Therefore, in order to fulfill the goal of our project, that is to lay the foundations for a comprehensive phenomenological theory of testimony, we will develop a threefold approach, combining the eidetic description, the interpretation and the philosophical reflection.

PROJECT INFO

  • Project director: Dr. Paul MARINESCU
  • Project title: “I was there.” Laying the Foundations for a Comprehensive Phenomenology of Testimony.
  • Project code: PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-2056
  • Contract no.: TE 122/ 2020
  • Program: Research projects to stimulate young independent teams (TE)
  • Financed by: UEFISCDI
  • Period of Time: October 2020 – September 2022
  • Funding: 431.812 lei

RESEARCH TEAM

Current team:

EVENTS

2022

  • International Conference: The Phenomenology of Testimony: From Inner Truth to Shared World, Nijmegen (Netherlands), 22 – 23 September 2022. Organized by the Center for Contemporary European Philosophy of Radboud University, Nijmegen, in cooperation with the Alexandru Dragomir Institute of Philosophy of the Romanian Phenomenological Society, Bucharest. Organizing committee: Gert-Jan van der Heiden, Paul Marinescu.

Speakers: Lovisa Andén, Jeffrey Andrew Barash, Ileana Borțun, Roland Breeur, Cristian Ciocan, Cătălina Condruz, Wout Cornelissen, Pascal Delhom, Paul Marinescu, Aoife McInerney, Gert-Jan van der Heiden, Sanem Yazicioglu. For the Conference Programme see [here].

2021

  • The National Colloquium of the Romanian Society for Phenomenology, The Experience of Testimony: Truth, Memory, Identity. Phenomenological Approaches [Experiența mărturiei: adevăr, memorie, identitate. Abordări fenomenologice]. 15–16 December 2021 (online). For the Conference Programme see [here].

Speakers: Cristian Ciocan, Ileana Borțun, George Bondor, Elvira Groza, Paul Marinescu, Cătălina Condruz, Cristina Cristea, Alexandru Bejinariu, Delia Popa.

Extended Deadline: January 30, 2021.
Email address: submissions@phenomenology.ro
Guidelines: https://zetabooks.com/library/journals/studia-phaenomenologica/

During October 2020–September 2022 (period extended to November 2022), the following results were obtained within our project of research:

 

Summary of activities. Throughout the five stages of the research project, namely a) the introductory phase; b) the experience of witnessing: phenomenological perspectives; c) witnessing and the construction of the past: a hermeneutic approach; d) reflections on the identity of the witnessing subject; d) the concluding stage, the four members aimed at exploring the two dimensions of the hermeneutic phenomenology of witnessing: description and interpretation. Phenomenological descriptions of the experience of testimony, from embodiment to the intersubjective dimension, have been intertwined with hermeneutic reflections on testimony as a mediating structure between the past as an object of memory and the historical past. The goal of this combined approach was to determine the dialogical structure of testimony, particularly in the act of attesting the reality of a past event before another person. This way, the premise underlying the research was confirmed, that only a phenomenology open to historical hermeneutics broadening its analysis within the horizon of a philosophical anthropology of the subject is capable of comprehensively capturing the fundamental structures of the experience of testimony and accounting for the new dimension of subjectivity that this experience reveals (from self-position to absolute self-dispossession). Within this framework, each member considered several thematic sequences: Identifying and investigating in the works of Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas, Hannah Arendt, Jean-Luc Marion and others, the relevant contexts that can support a comprehensive approach to witnessing and testimony that is commensurate with the complexity of this experience. Framing the phenomenon of testimony within the category of a hermeneutic and ethical singularity. Developing and deepening the questions raised by relating witness and (collective) identity. Analyzing how testimony appears in three distinct contexts of meaning: juridical, historiographical and at their confluence, as in the case of testimonies concerning recent humanitarian disasters, which inevitably carry a strong ethical-political significance. Outlining an existential phenomenology of testimony. Examining the phenomenon of testimony from epistemological and psychoanalytical perspectives. Identifying the main meanings of the notions of witness and testimony in Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy, starting with his 1972 article, “L’herméneutique du témoignage”, continuing with his works from the 90s (“Emmanuel Lévinas, penseur du témoignage”, Oneself as Another, Living Up to Death), and concluding with his later oeuvre, Memory, History, Forgetting (2000). Analyzing the main contexts in the work of Emmanuel Levinas where he discusses the phenomenon of testimony, a special emphasis being placed on his two major works, Totality and Infinity (1964) and Other than Being or Beyond Essence (1971). Exploring the two directions the phenomenological analysis of the testimony carries out in Levinas’ work: “the third as witness” and “the testimony as an an-archic form of the subject (the infinite and the other)”. Examining the status of the witness starting from Arendt’s conception of judging, in order to establish the position of the witness in relation to the event that s/he is witnessing. Hannah Arendt’s works: The Crisis in Culture. Its Social and its Political Significance (1961), Truth and Politics (1967), Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy (1970). Investigating the status of testimony in relation to the tense dynamics between action and work, which results in two major forms of testimony: spoken testimony and written testimony (together with other forms of material testimony, such as art: statues, paintings). Hannah Arendt’s works: The Human Condition (1958), Culture and Politics (1958), Labor, Work, Action (1964). Exploration Jean-Luc Marion’s theory of the gifted (l’adonné), in order to clarify the role and the status of the gifted as witness, within his phenomenological of givenness.

Results:

I/ Editing issue XXI of Studia Phaenomenologica academic journal (indexed Web of Science)

“Testimony cannot be placed in the panoply of the classical themes of phenomenology, alongside consciousness, intentionality, intersubjectivity, temporality, embodiment, or affectivity. However, it is not completely absent: the question of testimony has a subtle presence in this field of  research, as it permeates phenomena that are related to the existential foundation of knowledge, to the relationship between selfhood and otherness, and to the understanding of the past. Among the phenomena capturing the meanings of testimony we count especially truth and attestation, event and history, communication and language, identity and subjectivity, absolute and infinity, event and experience, evil and justice.”

  • Paul Marinescu & Cristian Ciocan (eds.), “From Witnessing to Testimony”, Studia Phaenomenologica XXI (2021): 11-242. ISBN: 978-606-697-148-5.

Contributors: Gert-Jan van der Heiden, Yasuhiko Sugimura, Jean-Philippe Pierron, Dorothée Legrand, Cassandra Falke, Lovisa Andén, Michele Averchi, Rodolphe Olcèse, Francesca Peruzzotti, Rafael Pérez Baquerro. https://zetabooks.com/all-titles/studia-phaenomenologica-volume-21-2021-from-witnessing-to-testimony/

II/ Articles

  • Cristian Ciocan, “xxx”, paper accepted for publication, Laval théologique et philosophique (Web of Science indexed).
  • Paul Marinescu, “xxx”, paper submitted to XXX (Web of Science indexed), revisions required, under review.
  • Ileana Borțun, “xxx”, paper submitted to XXX (Web of Science indexed), revisions required, under review.
  • Cătălina Condruz, “xxx”, paper submitted to XXX (Web of Science indexed), revisions required, under review.

III/ Books

Collective volume of studies in preparation

  • Gert-Jan van der Heiden & Paul Marinescu (editors): The Phenomenology of Testimony: From Inner Truth to Shared World, Brill Publishers, Studies in Contemporary Phenomenology series, (in preparation, 2023/2024).

IV/ Chapters in collective volume

  • Paul Marinescu: “On Testimony and Trace: An Approach to the Ontological Vehemence of the Past”. In: Gert-Jan van der Heiden & Paul Marinescu (eds.), The Phenomenology of Testimony: From Inner Truth to Shared World, Brill Publishers, Studies in Contemporary Phenomenology series, 2023/2024.
  • Cristian Ciocan: “The Temporality of Witnessing”. In: Gert-Jan van der Heiden & Paul Marinescu (eds.), The Phenomenology of Testimony: From Inner Truth to Shared World, Brill Publishers, Studies in Contemporary Phenomenology series, 2023/2024.
  • Ileana Borțun: “Arendt on Witnessing and Bearing Witness”. In: Gert-Jan van der Heiden & Paul Marinescu (eds.), The Phenomenology of Testimony: From Inner Truth to Shared World, Brill Publishers, Studies in Contemporary Phenomenology series, 2023/2024.
  • Cătălina Condruz: “Self-Reflection as a Testimonial Act”. In: Gert-Jan van der Heiden & Paul Marinescu (eds.), The Phenomenology of Testimony: From Inner Truth to Shared World, Brill Publishers, Studies in Contemporary Phenomenology series, 2023/2024.

V/ Communications at international conferences

VI/ Communications at national colloquium

Presentation of 4 papers at the National Colloquium of the Romanian Society for Phenomenology, held online “Experiența mărturiei. Adevăr, memorie, identitate. Abordări fenomenologice [The experience of testimony. Truth, memory, identity. Phenomenological approaches]”, 15-16 December 2021.

  • Paul Marinescu: “Mărturia ca structură de tranziție” (16 December 2021)
  • Cristian Ciocan: “Mărturia ca fenomen existențial” (15 December 2021)
  • Ileana Borțun: “« Ai văzut? » Rolul mărturiei în constituirea realității” (15 December 2021)
  • Cătălina Condruz: “Evenimentul (re)nașterii în cazul terapiei psihanalitice. Celălalt ca martor al propriei deveniri” (16 decembrie 2021).

Website: https://phenomenology.ro/experienta-marturiei-adevar-memorie-identitate-15-16-decembrie-2021-online-zoom/

VII/ Organization of an international conference and a national colloquium

Speakers: Cristian Ciocan (Romanian Society for Phenomenology), Ileana Borțun (Romanian Society for Phenomenology), George Bondor (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University from Iassy), Elvira Groza (Mihai Eminescu National College, Oradea), Paul Marinescu (Romanian Society for Phenomenology), Cătălina Condruz (Romanian Society for Phenomenology), Cristina Cristea (University of Bucharest), Alexandru Bejinariu (Romanian Society for Phenomenology), Delia Popa (Villanova University)

Speakers: Lovisa Andén (Södertorn University), Jeffrey Andrew Barash (University of Picardie Jules Verne), Ileana Borțun [online presentation] (The Alexandru Dragomir Institute of Philosophy of the Romanian Society for Phenomenology), Roland Breeur (KU Leuven), Cristian Ciocan (The Alexandru Dragomir Institute of Philosophy of the Romanian Society for Phenomenology), Cătălina Condruz (The Alexandru Dragomir Institute of Philosophy of the Romanian Society for Phenomenology), Wout Cornelissen (Radboud University), Pascal Delhom (Europa-University Flensburg), Paul Marinescu (The Alexandru Dragomir Institute of Philosophy of the Romanian Society for Phenomenology), Aoife McInerney (Radboud University), Gert-Jan van der Heiden (Radboud University), Sanem Yazicioglu (Istanbul University).

2022

  • Cristian Ciocan: Witnessing as an Existential Phenomenon, in: Laval théologique et philosophique (Web of Science) (accepted for publication);

  • Gert-Jan van der Heiden & Paul Marinescu (eds.): The Phenomenology of Testimony: From Inner Truth to Shared World, Brill Publishers, Studies in Contemporary Phenomenology series, 2023 (under review);

  • Paul Marinescu: On Testimony and Trace: An Approach to the Ontological Vehemence of the Past, in: Gert-Jan van der Heiden & Paul Marinescu (eds.), The Phenomenology of Testimony: From Inner Truth to Shared World, Brill Publishers, Studies in Contemporary Phenomenology series, 2023 (under review);

  • Ileana Borțun: Arendt on Witnessing and Bearing Witness, in: Gert-Jan van der Heiden & Paul Marinescu (eds.), The Phenomenology of Testimony: From Inner Truth to Shared World, Brill Publishers, Studies in Contemporary Phenomenology series, 2023 (under review);

  • Cătălina Condruz, Self-Reflection as a Testimonial Act, in: Gert-Jan van der Heiden & Paul Marinescu (eds.), The Phenomenology of Testimony: From Inner Truth to Shared World, Brill Publishers, Studies in Contemporary Phenomenology series, 2023 (under review);

  • Paul Marinescu: “XXX”, submitted for publication at “xxx” (Web of Science) (under review);
  • Ileana Borțun: “XXX”, submitted for publication at „xxx” (Web of Science) (under review);
  • Cătălina Condruz: “XXX”, submitted for publication at „xxx” (Web of Science) (under review).

2021

    2022

    2021