THOMAS M. SEEBOHM
Thomas M. Seebohm
My time as a teacher at the New School was short and it was late, 1980–82, but I knew the significance of the New School already as a student and then as an assistant at the University of Mainz. To know Alfred Schutz’s Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt: Eine Einleitung in der verstehende Soziologie of 1932 was an essential part in my studies in my first minor, sociology and especially ethno-sociology, with Wilhelm E. Mühlmann. Aron Gurwitsch’s Phänomenologie der Thematik und des reinen Ich (1929) was essential for the literature in my dissertation on Husserl. At this time the department of philosophy under Gerhard Funke was one of the few centers for the study of Husserl’s phenomenology in Germany, and his students knew that the New School was the center of phenomenological studies in the United States. Aron Gurwitsch was a guest professor in Mainz while I was an assistant there. I and my colleagues not only listened to him in his seminars but also had very vivid individual conversations with him. Gerhard Funke was later a guest professor at the New School when I was teaching in the United States at Pennsylvania State University (PSU).
After my appointment at PSU, I looked for other scholars interested in phenomenology. At PSU there was Joseph Kockelmans, but his main interest was Heidegger. Nevertheless, he and first of all Lester Embree, then still at Duquesne University, introduced me to the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP), the Husserl Circle, and then the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, Inc. (CARP). At conferences, I met others interested in phenomenology. Most of them came from the New School or had connections with other scholars who received their training at the New School.
What I have learned in those decades from the masters of the New School and my friends with a background there was of decisive significance for the development of my own research. My interpretation and evaluation of Husserl and his phenomenology in Germany was influenced by a Kantian and, in general, idealistic background. I learned in the United States that this was a limited approach for the understanding of Husserl and the potential of phenomenology. This could have dawned on me in my early studies of Schutz and Gurwitsch, but that was not the case. I learned it later in discussions with scholars in phenomenology from the New School. Secondly, I learned that the interpretation of Husserl’s writings is not sufficient to cover Husserl’s vision of future phenomenological research. The assumption that 95 percent of philosophical investigations should be interpretations of the works of famous philosophers was the disease of German philosophy in the time of my studies, and it still dominates some philosophical societies, publishers, and journals in Germany. What I learned in the new environment and from the examples of Gurwitsch and Schutz was that the first task of the phenomenologist is ongoing phenomenological research, and that Husserl himself set up this goal for phenomenological research.
Finally, I learned to feel very comfortable and happy in the relaxed but nevertheless challenging atmosphere of American academic life. At conferences and in discussions, all were equal and no big shot ever brushed away questions with remarks like “first read my book(s),” “this is sophistry,” or “be a philosopher and not a philosophy professor.” (I know who said these things and when, but I will remain silent about that.) The most exciting experience in my short time as a teacher in the New School was the exchange with a very special group of students. This is to bear nothing against the very gifted graduate students at Penn State, but the students of the New School surprised me with their enthusiasm, engagement, and their background, which was shaped by the cultural life of a very special big city. To learn about this environment from my colleagues, especially from the chairman of the department at my time at the New School, Reiner Schurmann, was also a new experience. I was and I am very thankful for the opportunity to be an active member of the philosophical faculty of the New School.