Renewal: Essays on Early Phenomenological Ethics

This book offers insight into early phenomenological ethics and its continuing relevance for contemporary ethical issues. It brings together a wide range of seasoned and up-and-coming scholars on the phenomenology of key figures in early phenomenological ethics on a diverse set of topics ranging from historical scholarship to applied ethics. It is the first to focus specifically on how early phenomenologists answer the specifically ethical question of how we should live, as opposed to focusing only on axiology and/or meta-ethics. Rather than seeking the moral law in detached reason, the early phenomenologists saw the questions of ethics as deeply connected with the lived experience of other persons, the moral beauty of the virtues, the reasons of the heart, and, above all, the experience of love. For all of them, crisis was the spur of ethical thought in early phenomenology and bringing renewal its telos.

The first part of the volume focuses on the history of ethical thought in the early phenomenological movement, focusing on the questions of what is unique in early phenomenological ethical thought and how it can be brought in relation to earlier and subsequent movements. The second part of the volume will showcase how this path is still worth taking in the face of our own contemporary ethical crises in the 21st century. It appeals to students, researchers and professionals.