Table Of ContentPatterns
of the Life-World
Northwestern University
Phenomenology 4
s t u d i e s in
Existential Philosophy
GENERAL EDITOR
John Wild
ASSOC IATE EDITOR
James M. Edie
C O N S U L T I N G EDITORS
Herbert Spiegelberg
William Earle
George A. Schrader
Maurice Natanson
Paid Ricoeur
Aron Gunvitsch
Calvin O. Schräg
Hubert L. Dreijfus
Edited by
Patterns
of the Life-World
Essays
in Honor of John W ild
JAMES M. EDIE
FRANCIS H. PARKER
CALVIN 0. SCHRÄG
Northwestern University Press
Evanston 1 9 7 0
Copyright © 1970 by Northwestern University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-113378
SBN 8101-0311-7
Manufactured in the United States of America
Contents
Preface ix
PART I The Relevance of the Tradition
1 Insight Francis H. Parker 3
2 Why Be Uncritical about the
Life-World? Henry B. Veatch 19
3 Homage to Saint Anselm Robert Jordan 40
4 Art and Philosophy John M. Anderson 62
PART II Approaches to the Life-World
5 The Phenomenon of World Robert R. Ehman 85
6 The Life-World and Its Historical
Horizon Calvin O. Schräg 107
7 The Lebenswelt as Ground and as Leib in Husserl:
Somatology, Psychology, Sociology Enzo Pad 123
8 Life-World and Structures C. A. van Peur sen 139
PART III The Individual and Society
9 The Miser Erwin W. Straus 157
10 Monetary Value and Personal
Value George Schrader 180
11 Individualisms W.L. McBride 201
12 Sartre the Individualist Wilfrid Dcsau 228
13 The Nature of Social Man Maurice Natanson 248
PART IV Subjectivity and Objectivity
14 The Problem of the Will and Philosophical
Discourse Paul Ricoeur 273
15 Structuralism and Humanism Mikel Dufrenne 290
16 The Illusion of Monolinear Time
Nathaniel Lawrence 298
17 Can Grammar Be Thought? James M. Edie 315
18 The Existentiahst Critique of Objectivity
Samuel ]. Todes and Hubert L. Dreyfus 346
Bibliography 389
Index 401
Preface
John Wild is one of America’s most distinguished phi
losophers. The contributors to this volume have sought to honor
him, each in his own way. Among the contributors there are
former students, former colleagues, and friends. The editors have
chosen the title, Patterns of the Life-World, because it succeeds
in expressing John Wild’s philosophical interests succinctly and
in a way that covers his work from the beginning of his career to
the present. Some of the contributors do not share Professor
Wild’s current interests, and in some cases there are marked dif
ferences of opinion and point of view between a particular author
and the man honored by his essay. The editors do not consider
the clearly discernible philosophical differences among the vari
ous contributors to be at all unfortunate. Quite the contrary; they
consider these differences to be illustrative of the practice of
philosophy as a project of dialogue and dialectics. This is philoso
phy as Professor Wild himself practices it, both in his teaching
and in his writing. The editors are of the mind that the most ap
propriate way in which to honor this eminent philosopher is not
by simply rehearsing his manifold accomplishments but by hon
oring that spirit of philosophy which he himself so well emulates.
John Daniel Wild was born on April io, 1902, in Chicago,
Illinois. He received his college education at the University of
Chicago, where he was awarded the Bachelor of Philosophy de
gree in 1923. In 1925 he earned the Master of Arts degree from
Harvard University. He then returned to the University of Chi
cago for doctoral study and won his Doctor of Philosophy degree
in 1926. He taught at the University of Michigan from 1926 to
1927. In 1927 he was appointed to the philosophy faculty at Har
vard University and taught there as Professor of Philosophy until
1961. In 1961 he went to Northwestern University as Chairman
of the Department of Philosophy, and, in 1963, moved to Yale
University. He has served both as vice-president (1950-51) and
as president (1960-61) of the American Philosophical Associa
tion. In 1953-54 he was president of the Metaphysical Society of
America. He founded the Society for Realistic Philosophy and
served as president from 1947 to 1950. He has been a member of
the editorial board, since 1947, of Philosophy and Phenomenologi
cal Research, and, since 1951, of Philosophy East and West.
While at Northwestern, he served as chairman of the original
committee that established the Society for Phenomenology and
Existential Philosophy in 1962, and, in the same year, he helped
launch the Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology
and Existential Philosophy of which he is the General Editor.
Twice he has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, in
1930-31 to work at the University of Freiburg in Germany, and
again in 1957-58, during which time he traveled extensively and
lectured at various universities in Germany and France. He has
held visiting professorships at the University of Chicago, the Uni
versity of Hawaii, and the University of Washington. He gave
the Mahlon Powell lectures at Indiana University in 1953.
One of the things about John Wild which impresses both
critics and friends is the breadth of his interests. He is at home
with most of the great minds of the past; he has contributed im
portant works on Plato and Aristotle, on the Medievals, on Berke
ley and Spinoza, on the existentialists and phenomenologists,
and, most recently, on William James. It is a mark both of his
peculiar philosophical temper and of his attitude toward life that
when one thinks of comparisons with other historical philoso
phers, the names that come most readily to mind are those of
Socrates and William James. For him philosophy has never been
a “game/' but always a matter of the most serious commitment.
To it he has brought not only his intellect but his personality, and
his ability to project his personal enthusiasm into what would
otherwise remain the dry bones of argument is legendary to all
those who have been associated with him either as students or as
colleagues. Wild is a seminal and adventurous thinker, always
restless, always ready to change, always impelled to take new
