kaum ständig noch
(barely still standing)
Phenomenology of Masculinity
Michael Eldred
artefact
text and translation
Abstract (in English)
This treatise is available in book form from 
Verlag Dr. Josef H. Röll, Dettelbach, Germany under the title
Phänomenologie der Männlichkeit - kaum ständig noch,
266 pp., 1999 Hardback ISBN 3-89754-137-8. DEM58.00 = €29.65
Synopsis
A German
treatise on masculinity as 'being a named somebody'. Both masculinity and
femininity are thought phenomenologically from the standing-ness of
being in a dimension of who-ness
(as distinct from the traditional metaphysical category of whatness, i.e.
essence). An alternative to philosophical feminist discourse to date is
offered by proposing a shift of location to the thinking of being.
Such a shift enables the standard alternative of nature (biology, genetics,
etc.) on the one hand or society ('nurture', social practices, discourse,
culture, etc.) on the other to be skirted, opening up another view of what
human being could be 'in between'.
Abstract
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Does the thinking of being have something to offer to feminist discourse?
This treatise is based on the premise that it does. Instead of proceeding
from the facticity of gender, it asks the question concerning the historical
essencing of masculinity and femininity. Both of these are modes of being
and thus have to be investigated from the understanding of being that has
prevailed in the metaphysical tradition.
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The treatise concentrates on masculinity and attempts to think it as being-a-named-somebody.
The category of who-ness is developed in contrast to the traditional
category of what-ness, i.e. essence, quidditas. The guiding thread for
this development is the standing character of the being of beings which
has been transferred in the metaphysical tradition from beings in the third
person to the first person. This translation of standing-ness to
the first person is put into question, thus revealing the insecure standing
of masculinity.
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Towards the end of the treatise, the phenomenon of femininity is developed
in the attempt to find words for the scarcely disclosed dimension of the
second person, which has likewise been subsumed under the whatness
of the third person in the metaphysical tradition.
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The final chapter thinks the phallus as the hidden god of standingness
in the Western history of being. The phallus and the logos have been secretly
in cohorts since the Greeks.
ME Cologne, July 1996
Copyright (c) 1985-1996 by Michael Eldred, all rights
reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use
provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed
in electronic form, provided that the author is notified and no fee is
charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this
text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author.
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