Understanding of Intersubjectivity and Life in Theodors Celms Philosophical Works :: Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Understanding of Intersubjectivity and Life in Theodors Celms Philosophical WorksABSTRACT Theodors Celms (1893-1989), a salient Latvian philosopher, was one of Husserls exceed students. Intersubjectivity was an important understructure in the psychological reading of phenomenology when Celm turned to the problem of the transcendental I and to a living-rather than logically defined-subject. Celms concluded that Husserls phenomenology could not address the question of intersubjectivity because in the furrow of its development it merely substituted pluralistic solipsism for monistic solipsism. What is most essential in phenomenology-the process of sense (or meaning) formation-re mains hardly noticed in Celms work. Contemporary phenomenology has developed as a philosophy of new thinking-a phenomenology of life that can be applied in different ways toward solving various problems of intersubjectivity. Professor Theodors Celms (1893-1989) was the most prominent Latvian philosopher. He has published significant philosophical works in Latvian and German. His philosophical heritage is Der phnomenologische Idealismus Husserls, Riga, 1928 Vom Wesen der Philosophie, Regensburg, 1930 Lebensumgebung und Lebensprojektion, Leipzig, 1933 Subjekt und Subjektivierung. Studien ber das subjektive Sein, Riga, 1943. All these works be republished now in Germany, under the title Der phnomenologische Idealismus Husserls and andere Schriften, Verlag Peter Lang, 1993. In 1922-1925 Celms went to Germany and took up courses in philosophy conducted by Rickert and Husserl. Husserl recognized him as one of the best pupils in phenomenology. At the University of Freiburg he obtained the doctoral degree in philosophy. Later he became a research assistant in the Deutsche Literaturzeitung fr Kritik der internationalen Wissenschaft. His main philosophical book on Husserl was translated in Spain, Madrid, 1931. This work has not lost significance up to this day. Garland in New Your in 1979 recog nized it as important but no longer available book. Celms became famous as one of the deepest critics of Husserls transcendental phenomenology, who tried to find a way out of the phenomenological discrepancies.In the thirties Celms wrote reviews in German on M. Heideggers and M.Schelers philosophies and published volumes in Latvian Tagadnes problmas (The Problems of Today), Riga, 1934, and Patiesba un itums (Truth and Appearance), Riga, 1939 as well as separate articles in papers, magazines and encyclopaedias. The themes of Man, subject, life, consciousness, culture, society relate a most prominent place in T.Celms philosophical articles and lectures in the University of Latvia. At the end of the Second World War Celms emigrated to Germany, then moved to the ground forces (1949).