Rethinking Facticity

Examines the historical context and contemporary relevance of facticity.

The concept of facticity has undergone crucial transformations over the last century in hermeneutics and phenomenology, but it has not yet received the attention that it warrants. Following a suggestion by Merleau-Ponty that philosophy is not about essences but rather the facticity of existence, prominent philosophers examine the significance of facticity in its historical context and reflect on its contemporary relevance. Focusing on the works of Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Lacan, and Fanon, among others, they trace its significance from life-philosophy to contemporary European thought and explore its philosophical implications. The following questions are addressed: What thoughts of experience, of subjectivity, of finitude, of nature, of the body, of racial and sexual difference does facticity provoke? What thinking of language, of history, of birth and death, of our ethical being-in-the-world does it mobilize? Exploring these questions, the contributors offer new interpretations of facticity.

“Rarely have I read a collection so rich in implicit intersection and contestation, and thus so able to stimulate fresh thought.” — John T. Lysaker, author of You Must Change Your Life: Poetry, Philosophy, and the Birth of Sense

“This fine collection shows that Heidegger’s work does open many rich paths for engaging experience. Each essay contributes to a dialogue between today’s driving concerns in continental philosophy and Heidegger’s thought. Furthermore, the volume shows how facticity can be given new and constructive impulses for today’s philosophical work.” — Alejandro A. Vallega, author of Heidegger and the Issue of Space: Thinking on Exilic Grounds

Contributors include Giorgio Agamben, Robert Bernasconi, Ed Casey, Bernard Flynn, Namita Goswami, Patricia Huntington, Theodore Kisiel, Jean-Luc Nancy, Eric Sean Nelson, David Pettigrew, François Raffoul, Jacob Rogozinski, Gregory Schufreider, Anthony J. Steinbock, and Rudi Visker.