Patricia Meindl

• Presentation
• Research outputs

Since January 2018 I am working on a PhD project which investigates the relation between second-personal engagements and collective intentionality, supervised by Prof. Dan Zahavi. I hold a BA and a MA in Philosophy from the University of Graz (Austria) as well as a MA in Continental Philosophy from University College Dublin (Ireland). 

Current research

The aim of my PhD project is to investigate the significance of early phenomenological accounts of sociality for the contemporary understanding of we-experiences: How can we adequately describe experiences of togetherness and define the conditions under which the ‘we’ emerges? While the current research has already benefited greatly from a re-discovery of classical phenomenological theories of social reality (e.g. Husserl, Scheler, Stein, Walther), the resources offered by the phenomenological movement are by no means exhausted. My project seeks to introduce a new perspective on our understanding of we-experiences by drawing on (a) the work of lesser well-known phenomenologists from the Munich and Göttinger Circles (most notably D. von Hildebrand, T. Litt, S. Frank, and K. Stavenhagen). 

In particular, my project explores the following issues: 

• Does the ‘we’ arise on the basis of an I-Thou relation, as Husserl asserts, or does it constitute an entirely different type of relation, as von Hildebrand claims?
• Can we conceive the I-Thou relation as a relation of recognition or ‘Achtung’? What is the role of ‘Achtung’ or solidarity for the constitution of communities?
• Are shared values necessary for the constitution of a ‘we’? 
• Can the step from the ‘I’ to the ‘we’ be established through a purely dyadic relation? What is the role of the third person in the formation of a ‘we’?

This PhD project is part of the larger project "You and We: Second-Person Engagement and Collective Intentionality", directed by Dan Zahavi and funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Teaching

Fall 2018: MA-course ‘Empathy and Interpersonal Understanding’ (together with Felipe León)

I am also supervising BA- and MA-theses in areas related to my research, i.e. classical phenomenology, social philosophy, social ontology. Please do not hesitate to contact me for supervision inquiries.