Research unit


Objectivity in the Kantian tradition

In line with our interest for objectivity in the Kantian tradition, a number of researchers have pursued these questions from within the phenomenological tradition. Helena De Preester studied the problem of embodiment starting from Husserl’s phenomenology, and inspired many of us to take a closer look at his phenomenological work. Husserl’s Crisis of the European Sciences became a major source of inspiration for Gertrudis Van de Vijver, Joris Van Poucke, Filip Kolen, Jens De Vleminck and Jan De Vos. Merleau-Ponty’s theory of the flesh is a source of inspiration for the research of Jude Godwins, who studies the issue of embodiment from a combined phenomenological and African perspective. Helena De Preester currently pursues her phenomenological interest by studying detailed problems related to the body, such as deep body, phantom limbs, effects of amputation, where she adopts a fruitful “trans-perspectivist” viewpoint connecting neurosciences, arts and philosophy. Anton Froeyman starts from the work of Cassirer, Levinas and Buber to articulate a transcendentally inspired philosophy of history. Willy Coolsaet’s work finds inspiration in authors like Marx, Husserl, Heidegger, and Levinas and purports on this basis to formulate answers to current ecological and political problems.