Eugen Fink (; 11 December 1905 – 25 July 1975) was a German
philosopher
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
.
Biography
Fink was born in 1905 as the son of a government official in Germany. He spent his first school years with an uncle who was a
Catholic priest
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' refe ...
. Fink attended a grammar school in
Konstanz
Konstanz ( , , , ), traditionally known as Constance in English, is a college town, university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the Baden-Württemberg state of south Germany. The city ho ...
where he succeeded with his extraordinary memory. After his graduation exam in 1925, he studied
philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
history
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
,
German language
German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...
and
economics
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
, initially at Münster and Berlin and then at Freiburg with
Edmund Husserl
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology.
In his early work, he elaborated critiques of histori ...
.
Philosophy
As Husserl's assistant from 1928, he was a representative of
Phenomenology (philosophy)
Phenomenology is a philosophical study and movement largely associated with the early 20th century that seeks to Subjectivity_and_objectivity_(philosophy), objectively investigate the nature of subjective, consciousness, conscious experience. I ...
and at the same time he became familiar with the philosophy of
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...
. From early on, Fink was critical recipient of their positions, thereby developing his own approach as a philosophical "cosmology". He approached the problem of
Being
Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of an entity is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one do ...
as a manifestation of the cosmic movement of worldliness with man being a participant in this movement. Fink called the philosophical problems pre-questions, that are never ready-made problems with predetermined factors such as in natural sciences but have to be created in a genuine act of philosophical reflexion.
Works
* ''Vom Wesen des Enthusiasmus'', Freiburg 1947
* ''Zur ontologischen Frühgeschichte von Raum - Zeit - Bewegung'', Den Haag 1957
* ''Alles und Nichts'', Den Haag 1959
* ''Spiel als Weltsymbol'', Stuttgart 1960
* ''Nietzsches Philosophie'', Stuttgart 1960
* ''Metaphysik und Tod'', Stuttgart 1969
* ''Heraklit. Seminar mit Martin Heidegger'', Frankfurt/Main 1970
* ''Erziehungswissenschaft und Lebenslehre'', Freiburg 1970
* ''Natur, Freiheit, Welt : Philosophie der Erziehung'', Wuerzburg, 1992
* ''Sein und Mensch. Vom Wesen der ontologischen Erfahrung'', Freiburg 1977
* ''Grundfragen der systematischen Pädagogik'', Freiburg 1978
* ''Grundphänomene des menschlichen Daseins'', Freiburg 1979
* ''Grundfragen der antiken Philosophie'', Würzburg 1985
* ''VI. Cartesianische Meditation. I: Die Idee einer Transzendentalen Methodenlehre'' Dordrecht 1988
* ''Welt und Endlichkeit'', Würzburg 1990
* ''Hegel'', Frankfurt 2006
* ''Eugen Fink Gesamtausgabe'' edited by Cathrin Nielsen and Hans Rainer Sepp in collaboration with Franz-Anton Schwarz, Freiburg: Alber, 2006-
* Published volumes:
** Vol. 1. ''Nähe und Distanz. Studien zur Phänomenologie'' (2011);
** Vol. 3.1 ''Die Doktorarbeit und erste Assistenzjahre bei Husserl'' (2006);
** Vol. 3.3 ''Grammata: zu Husserls Krisis-Schriften, Dorothy Ott-Seminare, Interpretationen zu Kant und Hegel, Notizen zu Gesprächen im Umkreis der Freiburger Phänomenologie.'' (2011);
** Vol. 7 ''Spiel als Weltsymbol'' (2010);
** Vol. 13 ''Epilegomena zu I. Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft'' (2010).
English translations
* ''Fashion: Seductive Play.'' Eds. Stefano Marino and Giovanni Matteucci. Translated by Christopher Turner and Ian Alexander Moore. London: Bloomsbury Press, 2023.
* ''Play as Symbol of the World. And Other Writings.'' Translated with an introduction by Ian Alexander Moore and Christopher Turner. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016.
* ''Sixth Cartesian meditation. The Idea of a Transcendental Theory of Method'' with textual notations by Edmund Husserl. Translated with an introduction by Ronald Bruzina, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995
* ''Nietzsche's Philosophy'' translated by Goetz Richter London, New York: Continuum, 2003
* ''Heraclitus Seminar''. with Martin Heidegger, (Winter semester 1966/1967 at Freiburg University), Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1993
* Cairns, Dorion, ''Conversations with Husserl and Fink''. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976
* "Oasis of Happiness: Thoughts toward an Ontology of Play". Translated by Ian Alexander Moore and Christopher Turner. ''Purlieu: A Philosophical Journal'' 1, no. 4 (2012), pp. 20–42.
References
* Ronald Bruzina, ''Edmund Husserl & Eugen Fink: Beginnings and Ends in Phenomenology 1928-1938'', New Haven: Yale University Press, 200
* Stuart Elden, "Eugen Fink and the Question of the World", ''Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy'' 2008;5:48-5
External links
*
Eugen-Fink-Archiv*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fink, Eugen
1905 births
1975 deaths
20th-century German non-fiction writers
20th-century German philosophers
Critical theorists
German epistemologists
German male non-fiction writers
German male writers
Idealists
Ontologists
People from Konstanz
People from the Grand Duchy of Baden
Phenomenologists
Philosophers of economics
German philosophers of education
German philosophers of history
German philosophers of mind