Phenomenology has long presented itself as a method capable of freeing thought from unexamined assumptions. Through the epoché, it seeks to suspend habitual beliefs and theoretical prejudices in order to return to experience as it is originally given. This aspiration has often been interpreted as offering powerful resources for ideology critique, especially when ideology is understood as the naturalization of historically and socially conditioned meanings.
However, critical, political, and Marxist phenomenologies have shown how power relations, social structures, and historical narratives shape the very field of appearing. From this perspective, phenomenology cannot claim neutrality but must interrogate ist own embeddedness within ideological formations. At the same time, external critiques—most notably from Marxism and Critical Theory—have argued that phenomenology risks functioning as an ideological philosophy.
Damian Nussbaumer will partake at the workshop with a contribution on "The Dialectic of Reification. Reification as a Critical Concept in Merleau-Ponty and Adorno".
When and Where?
Organized by: Marco Cavallaro (University of Cologne), Jesus Guillermo Ferrer Ortega (University of Wuppertal), and Sara Dameno (University of Cologne)
The Limits of Critique: Phenomenology and Ideology | Italian Phenomenology