Immanence And Transcendence:Two Types Of Phenomenalities In Michel Henrv

The purpose of Michel Henry's phenomenological approach is "to locate,to exhume,and to think another history of philosophy,irreducible to the 'history of metaphysics' elaborated by Heidegger".According to his radical phenomenological analysis,classical metaphysics and historical phenomenology ignore the ultimate and primordial phenomenality which is the ontological foundation of all phenomenon for a long time.Henry calls classical metaphysics and historical phenomenology the ontological monism because they consider phenomenological distance as the unique ontological foundation.For ontological monism,transcendence is the unique mode of appearing not only for all phenomenon but also for transcendence itself.Henry provides a thorough critique of ontological monism through the analysis of classical metaphysics' view about the ontological foundation of consciousness and being,Husserlian comprehension of transcendence as unique mode of appearing for consciousness itself and Heideggerian concept of the horizon of being.For them,that transcendence displays the horizon of transcendence of being identifies with transcendence manifests itself originally.But Henry emphasizes that transcendence which manifests itself originally should be the precondition of the horizon of transcendence of being's appearing.That transcendence displays the horizon of transcendence of being is the mode of appearing for the horizon itself and the horizon achieves its own ontological reality through it.But for transcendence itself,there should be a more original mode of appearing for achieving its own pure ontological reality.Ontological monism confuses transcendence's original appearing with the horizon of transcendence's appearing.More exactly,they substitute the horizon of transcendence's appearing with transcendence's original appearing.As the precondition of the horizon of transcendence's appearing,transcendence itself should not manifest itself through the horizon.It manifests itself by an original mode of appearing without the horizon.That means the ultimate Essence of manifestation excludes transcendence.The Essence of manifestation is the absolute immanence.Henry's researches on the Cartesian cogito,Schopenhauer's concept of will and Freud's concept of unconscious constitute the genealogy of immanence.Despite of their apparent differences,all of them describe a radical internality which excludes externality in the sense of phenomenality.But all of them lack radical ontological determination of immanence.As a successor,Henry considers his phenomenology as an illustration of radical ontological determination of immanence.Immanence is the ontological structure of the Essence of appearing.The Essence affects itself by itself.Henry calls original appearing "immediate" because it experiences itself by itself without any mediation.Henry calls this type of original appearing "passive" because the Essence relates to itself inevitably and insurmountably.Henry calls this type of original appearing "invisible" because the Essence never shows itself in the visible horizon."That which is felt without the intermediary of any sense whatsoever is in its Essence affectivity".Affectivity is the ontological determination of the Essence of appearing.The Essence has to experience itself and to be experienced by itself.Auto-affection is not only the pure phenomenological material of the original appearing but also its internal structure.The Essence of original appearing is self-sufficient.