Entre la revelación y el olvido: una aproximación a la noción de vida en Michel Henry

Abstract

This work is developed within the context of the theological turn of French phenomenology (Janicaud), analyzing the notion of life that Michel Henry stages in the first of his works, The Essence of Manifestation. To this end, we intend to explain what the French author understands both by the alienated manifestation of phenomena in terms of representation or ontological monism, and by the self-manifestation of life that he privileges, which does not consist in placing the phenomena in the light of a conscience, as would be characteristic of the first manifestation, but in a philosophy of Night that owes nothing in the strict sense to mundane transcendence. The latter is preceded and, in any case, made possible by the former. According to Henry, there is an absolute knowledge that is not susceptible to any progress, thus founding a pathetic philosophy by which life reveals itself (Parousia) without the need for intermediaries that would alienate its intimate immediacy.

Keywords

• theological turn of french phenomenology
• pathetic philosophy
• self-revelation of life
• representation
• ontological monism
• michel henry