The essence of feeling. A hermeneutic-critical dialogue with M. Scheler and M. Henry

Abstract

Drawing on a hermeneutic-critical dialogue first with M. Scheler’s position and then with M. Henry’s stance, this article attempts a phenomenological analysis of feelings as intentional acts. First, it explores the essence of feeling as a strict correlation between the self-affectivity experienced by the lived body (subjective correlate) and the pathetic character of the world (objective correlate).This relationship is characterized according to a twofold reversion of the intentional direction that holds between both correlates. Second, the notion of “capability of taking interest in” is introduced as an originary transcendental condition of possibility for feelings.