La pensée de la vie dans la phénoménologie de Michel Henry

Abstract

The Self-comprehension of Life in Michel Henry’s Phenomenology

Rationalism is perceived by some philosophers as a tearing of the being of man and a mutilation of his true nature. Meanwhile, the philosophy of life of the nineteenth century aims to go beyond it. In the second half of the twentieth century, Michel Henry takes on the project of these philosophers showing that individual life should be understood both as absolute and as something destined to a transformation by means of culture and art. When he tackles the problem of the relationship between life and thought, Henry points out to the primordial character of life in relation to the latter term, but also in relation to the world itself. World is not understood starting from the notion of being-in-the-world as classical phenomenology does, but on the basis of the experience of art. Thought itself is not devoid of its power to seize life in its very essence, as far as human life is engaged in a continuous becoming, in a process of growth and in self-knowledge. Finally, we aim to show what the self-comprehension of life in Henry’s phenomenology could be.

Keywords: phenomenology, philosophy of life, thought, art, poetry