MYSTICAL ASPECT OF EDITH STEIN'S ANTHROPOLOGY: FROM PHENOMENOLOGY TO THOMISM

Abstract

The aim of the study is to find mystical elements in Edith Stein's anthropology as a connecting principle between phenomenology and Thomism. Relying on methodological definition of philosophical mystic, as a matching of theological and philosophical doctrines, based upon reflection on experience of ecstatic unity with the Absolute, it was shown that phenomenology is implicitly directed towards research of real structure of immediate experience which in all its limits approaches to mystical experience. Not the mind and not the faith, but will (that directs knowledge to mystical unity of immanent subject and transcendental object in finding the truth) is defining for the mystical character of Stein's creative method. Stein, being a bright representative of phenomenology, gradually disagrees with Husserl at some points: 1. Stein considers the world as an immediate contemplation on the entity that transcends the identity of being and thinking; 2. In her opinion, phenomenology neglects the ontological Absolute. As a result, there is misplace of the Absolute by structural-cognitive aims, that, in its turn, was a reason for amalgamation of onthology and epistemology, according to Stein's views. 3. Stein strives to overcome epistemological rationality and achieve a sphere of philosophical mystic where ontological object and epistemological subject are identical in the act of mystical contemplation. 4. Lack of metaphysical elements in phenomenology leads Stein to Thomism in which she potentially seeks a way out of metaphysical limits and the way which leads to the level of transpersonal states of mind. 5. Stein reproaches transcendentalism in loss of the world and she ignores the changes in Husserl's world outlook, his transcendental turn and genealogy of the trustworthy acquaintance with the world. An empathy, as a model of extrapolation of the principle (of to be get used to the experience of the Other) onto mystical act of overcoming of subject-object opposition of transpersonal content and an intuition, as a movement inside the self, an ability to complete an integral image refusing the subjectivity and bringing back generic, spiritual subject, are considered to be key-constructs of the Edith Stein's evolutionary views development on her way to philosophical mystic. At the same time, mystical does not drop out of the phenomenological series but fills it with new existential meaning. The novelty of the study is in its showing up the productive meaning of philosophical mystics in the creativity of Edith Stein, who enriched contemporary anthropology by metahistorical content of moral and existential meaning on the basis of synthesis of philosophy of mind and Thomistic metaphysics.