01.12.2023
In: Annuario filosofico, 38 (2022), 77-101.
Beim vorliegenden Text handelt es sich um die überarbeitete Fassung meiner Antrittsvorlesung vom 25. Januar 2023 als Professor für Philosophie und Dialog mit der Gegenwartskultur an der Kölner Hochschule für Katholische Theologie.
Abstract
The “Wende” as Law of Thought and of Time-Consciousness
The term "Wende” should not only be reduced to a purely cultural-historical category of interpretation for the division of time. Exceeding this notion the article intends to determine “Wende” as a mental process of conversio. The “Wende” points to the thought process of intelligere, i.e. reason as a synthetic faculty, while the “Kehre” is an interpretive figure of reflectere, of understanding (comprehendere / cogitare) as an analytical faculty. Exemplarily, this qualitative change of the way of thinking is analysed in two paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) with the theme of the “Conversion of Saul”. This should point out the qualitative change of Paul’s point of view, whose thinking goes beyond the binary logic (A or B) necessary for the “Kehre”. Finally, based on Edmund Husserl’s analysis of time-consciousness, the ontological background of the “Wende” is found in the Event (Ereignis), which entails a new definition of ontology.
Keywords: Wende, Kehre, Reason and Understanding, Conversion, Caravag- gio, Event, Husserl, Heidegger.