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Developing Digital Technology at the Husserl Archives. a Report Citation: E Firenze University Press Aisthesis www.fupress.com/aisthesis Developing Digital Technology at the Husserl Archives. A Report Citation: E. Caminada (2020) Develop- ing Digital Technology at the Hus- serl Archives. A Report. Aisthesis 13(2): 79-86. doi: 10.13128/Aisthesis-12161 Emanuele Caminada Copyright: © 2020 E. Caminada. This is curator of digitalHusserl an open access, peer-reviewed article KU Leuven, Husserl-Archives (Belgium) published by Firenze University Press [email protected] (http://www.fupress.com/aisthesis) and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, Abstract. After a brief introduction to the history of the Husserl Archives I focus on which permits unrestricted use, distri- the methodological specificities in studying Husserl’s work on the basis of his manu- bution, and reproduction in any medi- scripts and of his archives. In a second step I expound on the effects that the current um, provided the original author and shift from an analogous to a hybrid analogous and digital archives is producing in the source are credited. self-understanding of the practices of our institution. Particularly, developing digital technology means that the Husserl Archives are entering a new phase in respect to Data Availability Statement: All rel- evant data are within the paper and its how archival and editorial impulses will affect the presentation of Husserl’s writings. Supporting Information files. Finally, I offer some perspectives about how the planned virtual platform («digital- Husserl»), which will give direct access to his manuscripts, is designed to promote a Competing Interests: The authors new understanding of Husserl’s specific process of philosophical writing, of his unique have declared that no competing inter- wording of thoughts1. ests exist. Keywords. Archives, digital edition, phenomenology, Husserl. I am really grateful to speak at this university where people at the right time had the right instinct, support, the courage and the generosity to provide safe-harbor for the archives of one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th-century [...] I for the first time had the privilege of visiting this archive and it is very moving. Jürgen Habermas (public lecture Democracy, Solidarity and the Europe- an Union, held in Leuven on April 26, 2013, after visiting the Husserl Archives) 1 I would like to thank the entire team of the digitalHusserl: the direc- tor of the Husserl Archives and promotor of digitalHusserl, Julia Jansen, the co-promotor Fred Truyen, the senior editor Thomas Vongehr, our innova- tion manager Roxanne Wyns and business consultant Michiel De Clerck from LIBIS, as well as the head archivist of the KU Leuven Archives, Marc Nelissen. Aisthesis. Pratiche, linguaggi e saperi dell'estetico 13(2): 79-86, 2020 ISSN 2035-8466 (online) | DOI: 10.13128/Aisthesis-12161 80 Emanuele Caminada 1. SHORT INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE 1938 it has made available manuscripts and their HISTORY OF THE ARCHIVES transcriptions for every interested international researcher. In this respect, the Belgian Franciscan, The Husserl Archives was established in 1938 philosopher and founder of the Husserl Archives, at KU Leuven with the purpose of preserving Pater Herman Leo Van Breda, was proud of keep- and publishing the writings of the German phi- ing an open-door policy: it has always been the losopher Edmund Husserl, whose 40.000 pages case that scholars were given full access upon of manuscripts were saved from Nazi Germany, request. and whose phenomenological thinking is wide- Umberto Eco, fascinated by the history of the ly acknowledged as one of the most significant Husserl Archives (as a student he attended Enzo philosophical endeavours of the 20th-century. Paci’s phenomenological seminars in Milan), con- Since it was founded, the Husserl Archives has fessed in 2007 during his last visit to the Husserl supervised the transcription and edition of more Archives that he dreamed to write a novel on its than 50 volumes of Husserl’s writings. In the so history. Former visiting scholar Bruce Bégout just far eight decades of its existence, the Husserl published such a novel: Le sauvatage (2019) nar- Archives published not only Husserl’s writings, rates the rescue of the Husserl Archives and spec- but also several auxiliary tools for historical and ulates about a Gestapo agent who malgré lui would theoretical research in phenomenology as well have been commissioned to arrest Van Breda, the as more than 230 volumes of scholarly work in manuscript smuggler, who was trying to take away phenomenology in the book series “Phaenome- from German control the illegible – and there- nologica”. fore highly suspicious – writings of a non-Aryan Geographically situated between Germa- philosopher. As we know from the details of his ny and France, the Husserl Archives in Leuven biography (Horsten [2018]), he brought the manu- (Belgium), acquired a pivotal role in the Euro- scripts to Leuven against the more prudent advice pean philosophical dialogue already in the 1940s, of his supervisors, who were concerned about the when Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Alfred Schütz, financial sustainability of Van Breda’s vision of Aron Gurwitsch, Paul Ricoeur, Emanuel Levinas, founding an international research center in Phe- Jacques Derrida, and many others came to the nomenology. Nevertheless, in part no doubt won Archives as young visiting scholars and profited over by the diplomacy and charm of the young from the study of Husserl’s texts. More recent- Franciscan, they endorsed his efforts and support- ly, internationally renowned scholars, such as ed his projects. Anthony Steinbock and Dan Zahavi (to name a As a crowning of his endeavours, we can con- few), have done extensive research here. Further- sider the grant that Van Breda Van Breda was able more, the Archives are also a small philosophical to obtain from the UNESCO. After intensive net- attraction for scholars and students from vari- working during the war, in 1949 he prepared an ous academic disciplines as well as the interested application to the UNESCO with support letters public. Recently, Charles Taylor, Jürgen Haber- by reknowned philosophers such as Jean Wahl, mas, and Carlo Ginzburg paid a visit to the Hus- Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Emmanuel Lévinas, Hel- serl Archives. Although we are aware of the risks muth Plessner, Paul Ricoeur, Alfred Schütz and of “heritagization”, we are very glad to welcome Frederic J. J. Buytendijk. In contrast with Nazi ide- guests in the Husserlkamer, a small, representa- ology, they stressed Husserl’s relevance for a global tive seminar room where we exhibit Husserl’s humanism, and for Germany’s re-education and philosophical library, a small picture gallery, and democratization. The application’s success enabled his private desk. However, the core mission of the the begin of the Husserliana and put phenomenol- Archives is the preservation and advancement of ogy at the center of post-war intellectual life. Husserl’s philosophical project and ideas. Since Developing Digital Technology at the Husserl Archives. A Report 81 2. ON HUSSERL´S WORDING OF THOUGHTS Husserl, and this form of writing served as an experimental laboratory of his phenomenological Considering the specificities of Husserl’s work- research. Therefore, the relevance of the archival ing method on the basis of his manuscripts and practice for the making and for the assessment of archives, one quickly realizes that his philosophy Husserl’s philosophy cannot be overstated: it is an cannot be studied without taking into account his integral part of his way of thinking. research manuscripts or, as one of the most prom- He wrote on loose leaf papers which he col- inent editors of Husserl’s manuscripts, Rudolf lected in folders and often moved and reassem- Boehm, called them, his «research reports or pro- bled from folders, to folders, assigning them page tocols» (Forschungsaufzeichnungen). The handling numbers, sometimes cryptic signatures and often of Husserl’s own manuscript pages is essential for adding new page numbers and new signatures. gaining insights into his philosophical style, in The Husserl Archives in Leuven preserves the respect to method, content, and medium of his original manuscripts in the order that Van Breda philosophy. and his assistants found them when he moved the The phenomenological method is devoted to Archives from Freiburg to Leuven in 1938. After the careful description of the differentiating struc- 1933, it was Husserl himself who, with the help of tures of the acts as well as objects of experience his personal assistants, prepared his own archives with the help of so-called «phenomenological having as a model the Brentano Archives that reductions» and thought experiments. This experi- his old friend Masaryk founded, and desperately mental character of phenomenological reflection dreaming of an international research center dedi- is visible in Husserl’s prolific writings: continuous cated to the philosophical project of phenomenol- attempts to record his mental experiments, con- ogy (Luft 2004). ducted, proofed, and varied repeatedly in order However, despite of its name and explicit mis- to get ever clearer insights into both invariant and sion, the focus of the Husserl Archives lay more variable structures of experience. Husserl report- on editing Husserl’s writings than on, strictly ed his experiments with a particular fast writ- speaking, “archiving” them. The manuscripts were ing script, called Gabelsberger shorthand, which usually handled carefully, but were considered was at the time of his youth a common German more as research tools rather than as precious his- shorthand system for about 4 millions writers. The torical documents. From a philosophical perspec- same or similar systems were employed also by tive, their value consists in their ideal content, and other scholars (e.g., Stumpf, Wundt, Schrödinger, their keepers and users at the Husserl Archives Gödel and Schmitt, to name a few). Due to this were (and still are) trained philosophers, not long out-dated script of Husserl’s writings, the archivists.
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