Contributions to Phenomenology 105 Thomas Nenon Editor Thomas Seebohm on the Foundations of the Sciences An Analysis and Critical Appraisal Contributions to Phenomenology In Cooperation with The Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology Volume 105 Series Editors Nicolas de Warren, Department of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA Ted Toadvine, Department of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA Editorial Board Lilian Alweiss, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland Elizabeth Behnke, Ferndale, WA, USA Rudolf Bernet, Husserl Archive, KU Leuven, Belgium David Carr, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA Chan-Fai Cheung, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong James Dodd, New School University, New York, USA Lester Embree, Florida Atlantic University, Florida, USA Alfredo Ferrarin, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy Burt Hopkins, University of Lille, Lille, France José Huertas-Jourda, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada Kwok-Ying Lau, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong Nam-In Lee, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of) Dieter Lohmar, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany William R. McKenna, Miami University, Ohio, USA Algis Mickunas, Ohio University, Ohio, USA J.N. Mohanty, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA Dermot Moran, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland Junichi Murata, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Thomas Nenon, The University of Memphis, Memphis, USA Thomas M. Seebohm, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, Germany Gail Soffer, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy Anthony Steinbock, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA Shigeru Taguchi, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan Dan Zahavi, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Richard M. Zaner, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA Scope The purpose of the series is to serve as a vehicle for the pursuit of phenomenological research across a broad spectrum, including cross-over developments with other fields of inquiry such as the social sciences and cognitive science. Since its establishment in 1987, Contributions to Phenomenology has published more than 100 titles on diverse themes of phenomenological philosophy. In addition to welcoming monographs and collections of papers in established areas of scholarship, the series encourages original work in phenomenology. The breadth and depth of the Series reflects the rich and varied significance of phenomenological thinking for seminal questions of human inquiry as well as the increasingly international reach of phenomenological research. All books to be published in this Series will be fully peer-reviewed before final acceptance. The series is published in cooperation with The Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5811 Thomas Nenon Editor Thomas Seebohm on the Foundations of the Sciences An Analysis and Critical Appraisal Editor Thomas Nenon Department of Philosophy University of Memphis Memphis, TN, USA ISSN 0923-9545 ISSN 2215-1915 (electronic) Contributions to Phenomenology ISBN 978-3-030-23660-1 ISBN 978-3-030-23661-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23661-8 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Dedicated to the memory of Lester Embree (1928–2017), tireless disciple and ambassador of phenomenology as a living tradition Preface This volume includes papers originally presented at a symposium on Thomas Seebohm’s History as a Science and the System of the Sciences that was sponsored by the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, organized by Lester Embree and held in Memphis, TN, on March 18–19, 2016. It was the last of many conferences he organized over the years. It also includes several additional contribu- tions by authors who were not able to attend the conference. The task of editing and publishing it fell to the local organizer Thomas Nenon who is grateful to Lester for his idea for the conference and his efforts in making the conference and this volume possible. Memphis, TN, USA Thomas Nenon vii Introduction The papers contained in this volume represent the first and up until now only com- prehensive effort at a critical analysis and explication of the work of Thomas Seebohm, one of Germany’s (and America’s) leading phenomenologists and herme- neuticists of the second half of the twentieth century. It focuses especially upon his final work, History as a Science and the System of the Sciences, published in 2015, as the culmination and summary of his work in historical and phenomenological investigations into the foundations, nature, and limits of modern sciences, including not just history but the Geisteswissenschaften more generally, along with the social and cultural and natural sciences as well. The essays in this volume reflect that range. They include essays describing his basic approach and insights in that work and in Hermeneutics: Method and Methodology1 from 2004. Several of them draw explicit comparisons to other important figures whose work covers similar ground. These include Dilthey, Gadamer, Husserl, and Schutz but also some others whose work is less well-known to most philosophers, such as mathematician Leopold Kronecker and social scientist Felix Kaufmann. All these essays help illustrate Seebohm’s unique contributions and situate him in larger discussions within twentieth-­century hermeneutics and philosophy of science. Other essays are also dedicated to an analysis of Seebohm’s positions on questions about the foundations and methodologies of specific sciences or areas of science such as history, the humanities, the social sciences, or the natural sciences (particularly physics). The net result is an in-depth study and a helpful overview of Seebohm’s general approach and his specific views on various areas of modern science. One reason why this is important is that Seebohm’s project of providing a systematic phenomenological analysis of the philosophy of modern science and the sciences as a whole is an important desideratum within the phenomenological tradition and one that he has pursued in more depth and breadth than perhaps any other thinker within that tradi- tion. As such, his work is of interest not just as a matter of historical scholarship but also and above all as an important contribution to phenomenology and to the 1 Other earlier book-length studies in this area also include Seebohm (1972) and (1977). ix x Introduction ­philosophy of science and the sciences as such, one that deserves attention by schol- ars from any philosophical tradition and from scholars within these areas who are interested in thinking about the foundations of their disciplines. A few brief remarks to Seebohm himself and his work are perhaps in order before turning to the essays in this volume. Thomas Seebohm, born in 1934 in Gleiwitz in Upper Silesia (now part of Poland), was one of Germany’s premier phenomenolo- gists. His interests and expertise extended well beyond phenomenology in the nar- row sense, to hermeneutics, formal logic, and analytic philosophy as well. Of course, as this volume amply documents, he was interested in the theory and phi- losophy of a whole range of scientific disciplines from the natural and social sci- ences to formal sciences and the human sciences, with a special interest in the philosophy of history. In addition to his philosophical interests, he was also a recog- nized authority on Slavic literature and history as well, especially medieval Russian philosophy and culture. Before beginning his university studies, he had learned a trade (cabin-making). Having studied philosophy, Slavic languages and literatures, and sociology in Hamburg, Bonn, and Saarbrücken, he completed studies in 1960 in Mainz under the famous Kant scholar and hermeneuticist Gerhard Funke, with a dissertation Die Bedingungen der Möglichkeit der Transzendentalphilosophie: Edmund Husserls transcendental-phänomenologischer Ansatz, dargestellt im Anschluss an seine Kant-Kritik (The conditions of the possibility of transcendental philosophy: Edmund Husserl’s transcendental-phenomenological assessment, presented in connection