# Alexander Schnell

Alexander Schnell is a German philosopher and professor at the University of Wuppertal.

## Biography

Alexander Schnell grew up in West Berlin and in Heidelberg. After taking his Abitur and Baccalauréat at the French Gymnasium in Berlin in 1989, he studied engineering at the University Paris 6 and philosophy at the University Paris 1 (where the teachings of Jean-Toussaint Desanti and Marc Richir seem to have influenced him in particular).
After spending several years abroad in Sofia (Bulgaria), where he gained his first teaching experience at the university "St. Kliment Ohridski", he took up a position in Paris as a research associate or assistant. In 2001, he received his doctorate summa cum laude under the supervision of Françoise Dastur on the topic "The Problem of Time in Husserl (1893-1918)". From 2002 to 2007 he taught as "Maitre de Conferences" at the University of Poitiers. The topic of his habilitation was: "Gestalten der Transzendentalphilosophie: Fichte, Schelling, Husserl, Heidegger" (under the supervision of Jean-François Courtine).
Between 2007 and 2016, he was "Maitre de Conferences" at the University of Paris - Sorbonne and at the same time Head of Department of Philosophy at Paris Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi (PSUAD) between 2014 and 2016. Since its foundation (2007), he has been actively involved in the Master's Mundus programme "German and French Philosophy in Europe (EuroPhilosophy)" - among other things, he was head of the intensive seminar at the University of Luxembourg and is chairman of the selection committee at the University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès. Between 2012 and 2016, he was the responsible director of the research centre "CEPCAP" at the University Paris-Sorbonne. Since 2016, he has been a university professor at the University of Wuppertal Chair of Theoretical Philosophy and Phenomenology). There he directs the Institute for Transcendental Philosophy and Phenomenology (ITP), to which the International Fichte Research Centre (IFF), the Eugen Fink Zentrum Wuppertal (EFZW), the Archive Library Post-New Kantanism and Critical Idealism of the Present (APIG), the Marc Richir Archive (MRA), the Archive for Phenomenological Research (APF) and the Centre for Principle Research (ZePF) are affiliated. He is president of the Association Internationale de Phénoménologie (A.I.P.).
Alexander Schnell has lectured regularly at the University of Paris-Sorbonne Abu Dhabi and has been a visiting professor at the University of Memphis (USA), Hōsei University (Tokyo, Japan) and University of Freiburg.

## Research work

Alexander Schnell's research ranges from Classical German Philosophy to German and French Phenomenology. He is considered a pioneer of a renewed phenomenology understood as transcendental idealism, which revives Husserl's project of a phenomenology of knowledge. Alexander Schnell's early work was historiographically oriented. He edited monographs on Husserl, Heidegger, Levinas and Richir. Since completing his habilitation (2008), he has devoted himself - among other things, in the debate with the "speculative realism" of Quentin Meillassoux - to the elaboration of his own position, which goes by the name of "generative phenomenology". This brings metaphysical and anthropological questions into focus. Whether his approaches to a phenomenological metaphysics can still be understood as "phenomenology" is disputed.
He writes his works in German and in French. Several works are available in Chinese, Italian and Romanian translation.

## Major works

Monographs
* La déduction transcendantale des catégories de Kant. Interprétation phénoménologique. Vrin, Paris 2022, ISBN 978-2-7116-3079-0.
* Zeit, Einbildung, Ich. Phänomenologische Interpretation von Kants "Kategorien-Deduktion". Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2022, ISBN 978-3-465-04600-4.[2]
* Der frühe Derrida und die Phänomenologie. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2021, ISBN 978-3-465-04573-1.[3]
* Le clignotement de l'être (= Le bel aujourd'hui). Hermann, Paris 2021, ISBN 979-10-370-0823-7.
* Die phänomenologische Metaphysik Marc Richirs. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2020, ISBN 978-3-465-04553-3.
* Phénoménalisation et transcendance. La métaphysique phénomenologique de Marc Richir (= Mémoires des Annales de Phénoménologie. vol. 16). Association Internationale de Phénoménologie, Dixmont 2020, ISBN 978-2-916484-16-7.
* Seinsschwingungen (= Philosophische Untersuchungen 50). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-16-159692-6.[4]
* Qu'est-ce que la phénoménologie transcendantale? (= «Krisis»). J. Millon, Grenoble 2020, ISBN 978-2-84137-375-8.[5][6]
* Was ist Phänomenologie?. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2019, ISBN 978-3-465-04377-5.[7][8]
* Wirklichkeitsbilder (= Philosophische Untersuchungen 40). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-16-154174-2.
* La déhiscence du sens (= Le bel aujourd'hui). Hermann, Paris 2015, ISBN 978-2-7056-9032-8.
* L'effondrement de la nécessité (= «Krisis»). J. Millon, Grenoble 2015, ISBN 978-2-84137-313-0.
* Qu'est-ce que le phénomène? (= Chemins philosophiques). Vrin, Paris 2014, ISBN 978-2-7116-2561-1.
* En voie du réel (= Le bel aujourd'hui). Hermann, Paris 2013, ISBN 978-2-7056-8718-2.
* Hinaus. Entwürfe zu einer phänomenologischen Metaphysik und Anthropologie (= Orbis Phaenomenologicus. vol. 24). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8260-4532-5. Review by Mark Thomas.[9]
* Le sens se faisant. Marc Richir et la refondation de la phénoménologie transcendantale (= Ousia. Band 66). Ousia, Brüssel 2011, ISBN 978-2-87060-159-4. (pref. by Guy van Kerckhoven)
* En face de l’extériorité. Levinas et la question de la subjectivité (= Bibliothèque d’Histoire de la Philosophie). Vrin, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-7116-2323-5.
* En deçà du sujet. Du temps dans la philosophie transcendantale allemande (= Epiméthée). PUF, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-13-058094-2.
* Réflexion et spéculation. L’idéalisme transcendantal chez Fichte et Schelling (= «Krisis»). J. Millon, Grenoble 2009, ISBN 978-2-84137-251-5.[10]
* Husserl et les fondements de la phénoménologie constructive (= «Krisis»). J. Millon, Grenoble 2007, ISBN 978-2-84137-206-5. Review Peter Gaitsch.[11]
* De l’existence ouverte au monde fini. Heidegger 1925–1930 (= Bibliothèque d’Histoire de la Philosophie). Vrin, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-7116-1792-0.[12]
* Temps et Phénomène. La phénoménologie husserlienne du temps (1893–1918) (= Europæa Memoria/Studien. Band 35). Olms, Hildesheim 2004, ISBN 3-487-12798-9 (Dissertation, University Paris 12, 2001)
* La Genèse de l’apparaître. Études phénoménologiques sur le statut de l’intentionnalité (= Mémoires des Annales de Phénoménologie. vol. 5). APP, Beauvais 2004, ISBN 2-9518226-6-9.
Editions (publisher, co-editor or co-worker) (selection)
* with Guillaume Ferrer, Sylvaine Gourdain, Nicolas Garrera-Tolbert: Phänomenologie und spekulativer Realismus. Phenomenology and Speculative Realism. Phénoménologie et réalisme spéculatif. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2021.
* with Danielle Cohen-Lévinas: Levinas lecteur de Heidegger. Vrin, Paris 2021.[13]
* with Hartmut Traub und Christoph Asmuth: Fichte im Streit. Festschrift für Wolfgang Janke. Würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann 2018.
* Lire les Beiträge zur Philosophie de Heidegger. Paris, Hermann 2017.
* with Danielle Cohen-Lévinas: Relire Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l’essence d’Emmanuel Levinas. Paris, Vrin 2016.
* with Augustin Dumont: Einbildungskraft und Reflexion. Imagination et réflexion. Neuere philosophische Untersuchungen zu Novalis. Recherches philosophiques récentes sur Novalis. Berlin, Münster usw., LIT-Verlag 2016.
* with Danielle Cohen-Lévinas: Relire Totalité et infini d'Emmanuel Levinas. Vrin, Paris 2015.
* with Gilles Marmasse: Comment fonder la philosophie? L’idéalisme allemand et la question du principe premier. CNRS-éditions, Paris 2014, ISBN 978-2-271-07715-8.[14][15]
* with Karel Novotny and Laszló Tengelyi: La Phénoménologie comme philosophie première (= Mémoires des Annales de Phénoménologie. Band 10). APP, Amiens 2011, ISBN 978-80-7007-347-6.
* with Jean-Christophe Goddard: L’Être et le phénomène. La Doctrine de la Science de 1804 de J.G. Fichte = Sein und Erscheinung. Die Wissenschaftslehre 1804 J.G. Fichtes (= Bibliothèque d'histoire de la philosophie). Vrin, Paris 2009, ISBN 978-2-7116-2212-2.
* with Pierre Kerszberg and Antonino Mazzù: L’Œuvre du phénomène. Mélanges de philosophie offerts à Marc Richir. Ousia, Brüssel 2009, ISBN 978-2-87060-148-8.
* with Ion Copoeru: Recherches phénoménologiques actuelles en Roumanie et en France (= Europæa Memoria/Studien. Band 51). Olms, Hildesheim 2006, ISBN 3-487-13263-X.
Further reading La phénoménologie transcendantale aujourd'hui. Autour du "Clignotement de l'être" d'Alexander Schnell. Paris, Hermann 2023, ISBN 9791037028983.