Returning to persons and values in pragmatic phenomenology: a response to Simon Smith’s uncharitable review

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by  J. Edward Hackett

Inscriptions
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Title: Returning to persons and values in pragmatic phenomenology: a response to Simon
Smith’s uncharitable review
Author: J. Edward Hackett
Section: Commentaries
©
Copyright 2022 Hackett.
Correspondence: J. Edward Hackett, e: [email protected].
Received: 11 October, 2021.
Accepted: 12 November, 2021.
Published: 15 January, 2022.
Howtocite: Hackett,J.Edward. “Returningtopersonsandvaluesinpragmaticphenomenology:
a response to Simon Smith’s uncharitable review.” Inscriptions 5, no. 1 (January 2022):
109-111.
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Returning to persons and values in pragmatic
phenomenology: a response to Simon Smith’s
uncharitable review
J. Edward Hackett1
In what follows, I respond to Simon Smith’s as an example of essences and how essences
review of my book. In that piece, Smith char- function in experience according to Scheler.
acterizes my writing as “sloppy” without ever Smith says colors are phenomenal properties.
engaging substantively with my book. This is Meanwhile it is well established in Scheler’s
thechargeandresponseIamdescribinginthis Formalismus as well as Manfred Frings’s com-
article. mentary on Scheler that the talk of essences is
Let’s take a look at each example and see. analogous to perceiving something like blue’s
First, let’s take a look at how Smith cites my givenness in experience. Where Smith con-
page 1. He quotes me as saying “the how of cludes abruptly that the examples do not work
values”2 when the expression from my book on the fourth page, these are common exam-
on page 1 is not that expression at all: ples used to talk about these issues in the phe-
nomenological literature. Values, like color for
Second,wecanlookatvaluesitself Scheler, have a functional existence.4 They
to see which form of phenomenol- are given in the immediacy of that experience
ogy can capture how values are and are not properties. In fact, one assump-
given. The “how of givenness” (if tion of phenomenology is that the thing-like
we were to call it that) is the man- character language reifies aspects of experienc-
ner in which a phenomenon can ing while concealing other facts of the same
be given (as it appears).3 experience. Phenomenologists desire a way of
articulating, describing, and discerning entire
The “how of givenness” is in quotation marks
experiences in phenomenological description
to emphasize that we are looking at phe-
thatsustainsanawarenesstopreventthereifica-
nomenondirectlyintheprocessofundergoing
tion of thing-like language that might conceal
experience and describing how it is that val-
how the structure of any candidate experience
ues are given in experience. It is not as Smith
manifests. 5
says “the how of values.” Is he judging me on
Given Smith’s assumptions about color per-
quotations that do not exist?
ception here, it does not seem that Smith is
Second, we get the fact that something is
workingoutwhatphenomenologycouldmean
wrong with my reference to the color blue
1 AssistantProfessoratSouthernUniversityandA&MCollegeinLouisiana.
2 SimonSmith,“ReviewofPersonsandValuesinPragmaticPhenomenology,”Inscriptions4,no. 2(July2021),220.
3J.EdwardHackett,PersonsandValuesinPragmaticPhenomenology: AnExplorationinMoralMetaphysics(Malaga,
Spain: VernonPress,2018),1.
4ManfredFrings,TheMindofMaxScheler: TheFirstComprehensiveGuideBasedontheCompleteWorks(Milwau-
kee: MarquetteUniversityPress,1997),24.
5 Hackett,PersonsandValuesinPragmaticPhenomenology,4.
January 2022 – Volume 5 109
Returning to persons and values in pragmatic phenomenology Hackett
in Scheler nor is he approaching the topic of emotions in the scholarship of Tanja Staehler.
phenomenological ontology with an eye to Maybe reviewers do not read the footnotes of
how these terms are employed within phe- books when clearly established scholarly con-
nomenology. What’s more, if there is a prob- ventions are followed and their passages are
lem with a technical term, I often include the clearly given in the text? Maybe Smith dis-
German counterpart to how that term is trans- agrees with the scholarly conventions of Hei-
lated, so if he wishes to look them up either degger scholarship regarding phenomenology
in Scheler or Heidegger scholarship, then he or the neologisms invented inside Being and
can. Ifsomeonehastroubleunderstandingthat Time,butIamclearlyusingtheterm‘mood’in
these are terms being rendered and explained this very explicit sense. I will cite another Hei-
insidephenomenologyandaroundthispassage degger scholar that appears a page later about
and before it there are clear footnotes from the point of what I am doing with this term
where in the text I am explaining these terms, ‘mood’. “As Weberman puts it, ‘we are always
thenperhapsareviewercanseethatexposition affected because although we may not always
of technical jargon goes hand and hand with be in the grip of some episodic emotion, we
attempting to understand that term within the are always in some mood since we are always
textbeingreferenced. There’snomysteryhere. affectively attuned to the world.’”7
One can disagree with that methodological as- Smith is free to disagree with both me and
sumption about phenomenology. It’s not mys- Heidegger on these points, but to insist in
teryastowhatisbeingdonehereonthefourth the book review confusion about how I em-
page or on the hundredth. ployed the term ‘mood’ is extremely dishon-
Third, he takes issue with the expression of est. I am well versed in how Iain Thomson,
‘mood.’ Smith says, “Similarly, forgetting to Parvis Emad, Bernard Boelen, David Weber-
do one thing while doing another does not ex- man, Tanja Staehler, and the translation con-
plain the notion ‘mood,’ nor does it exemplify ventionsofBeing and Time employtheseterms.
the way in which ‘[t]hrough mood, Dasein is These authors are referenced in and around
always brought before itself’ (74). Unless, that the pages Smith is citing. Part of the problem
is, ‘mood’ is being used as yet another unex- maybethattheseconventionsareidiosyncratic
plained technical term.”6 On page 71, I have a to Heideggerian phenomenology, but for a re-
section titled “Befindlichkeit in Section 29 and viewer to not see that given this section of my
30 of Being and Time” that contains the refer- book is impossible.
enced passage by Smith. This section explains Smith is also similarly disingenuous with
what the experience of attunement is in Being respect to using the term ‘person.’ My re-
and Time. There are clear footnotes referenc- peated usage of this term and not some per-
ingthesesectionsofthebookunderdiscussion sonal pronoun of ‘he’ or ‘she’ reflects that I
andalsokeepinginreferencetotheMacquarie spentanentirebookinformingthereaderthat
and Robinson translation in which the neol- the project of a moral phenomenology from
ogism Heidegger invented – Befindlichkeit – Scheler is that the term person is understood
is translated as both attunement and mood. I phenomenologically just like Heidegger’s Da-
even reference how other Heidegger schol- sein or Husserl’s transcendental subject. The
ars have translated this as “fundamental mood” term ‘person’ cannot be objectivized as it is
to contrast against everyday understanding of the source of meaning for Scheler and while
6 Smith,“ReviewofPersonsandValuesinPragmaticPhenomenology,”221.
7 DavidWebermanascitedinHackett,PersonsandValuesinPragmaticPhenomenology,75.
110 January 2022 – Volume 5
Hackett Returning to persons and values in pragmatic phenomenology
cultural moments on the news we are told do that make up what he calls the structure of
objectivize persons, the book was in principle care. Scheler invents the ordo amoris and value-
about constructing a moral metaphysics using qualitiesandfeelingacts. Ifanalyticphilosophy
the resources Scheler has on offer. Again, cer- were adequate to thematize moral experience
tainly Smith is free to disagree with me and no ethical phenomenologist would have to in-
Scheler, but to say that I am somehow using vent neologisms to describe aspects of moral
thing-like language with how I use the term experience that remain hidden. Like Scheler
‘person’issomethingIclearlydonotdo. “Each and Levinas, I think that other philosophical
respective phenomenological thinker has had traditions are inadequate to their treatment of
a term for human life revealed through phe- whatgetsconcealedinmoralexperience. Some
nomenological analysis: Dasein for Heidegger, neologisms and difference in method should
transcendental subjectivity in Husserl, and for be expected.
Scheler, the term is person.”8 I do not think In conclusion, Smith misquotes me once in
Smith got that far into my book. His citations thereviewforsomethingthatdoesn’tappearin
only go to about p. 80. the book. Next, he attacks usages of the terms
Icouldgoon. Whatwehavehereisnotthat ‘person’ and ‘mood’ arguing they should be
I published my book to be published rather understood how he regards them rather than
thanread,Ijustdidn’tthinksomeonewhopaid seeing these terms are employed inside phe-
noattentiontophenomenologywouldtakeen- nomenology.9 The fact that I present refer-
tire passages out of context and not be charita- ences to those same passages here10 Smith did
ble tothe point of ignoring entire conventions not care to learn about these authors. When
of a philosophical tradition they clearly do not I am explaining a concept internal to a text,
inhabit regularly. Like many commentators Smithmisrepresentsexpositionofaconceptfor
who extoll only one interpretive possibility for someunarguedassumptionhethinksyou,dear
philosophical language, Smith ignores that the reader, should adopt about it. He’d rather ig-
point of phenomenological language is to cre- nore the hermeneutic realities that good cross-
ate an awareness about how the relation be- over philosophy requires and view my work
tween acts of consciousness and their intended myopicallyfromanuncharitablevantagepoint
correlatemanifestinexperiencing. Alongthese of what he uncritically accepts as the only way
lines, Heidegger invents the four existentiales to do philosophy.
8 Ibid.,90.
9Toreviewmybookin2021threeyearslaterandtonotinvestigatewhetherornotmyunderstandingofthese
conceptshavechangedisjustoddtome.Ihavedevelopedtheconceptofpersoninmuchmoreexactingdetailina
newpiecebeyondmybook. Seemy“Thebecomingofthepersonalsphere: aproposedframeworkforPersonalist
PhilosophicalAnthropology”inAppraisal12,nos. 1and2(SpringandAutumn2020),https://www.britishperson-
alistforum.org.uk/121–2-j-edward-hackett.html. Usuallygoodscholarswillinquireintowhetherornotascholar
haschangedtheirmindsinphilosophicalliteratureiftheyaretoreviewabookfromthreeyearsago.
10Thereaderwillhavetosettleforfootnotes,ascommentariesinthisjournalissubjecttostrictlengthrestrictions.
ReaderswhoareinterestedinaverylengthyanddevelopedresponsewhereIciteinexactingdetaileverymistake
that Smith made can e-mail me at [email protected] for those references. In this shorter response, I am
highlightingthemostegregiousmistakes. Idonothavetimetoreferencethetechnicaltermofparticipatory
realismandSmith’squipsagainstthattermhereeither.
January 2022 – Volume 5 111
©
Copyright 2022 Hackett.
Correspondence: J. Edward Hackett, e: [email protected].
Received: 11 October, 2021.
Accepted: 12 November, 2021.
Howtocite: Hackett,J.Edward. “Returningtopersonsandvaluesinpragmaticphenomenology:
a response to Simon Smith’s uncharitable review.” Inscriptions 5, no. 1 (January 2022):
109-111.