Hedwig Conrad-Martius (1888–1966)

Abstract

Abstract This chapter establishes three constitutive layers in the phenomenological study of reality of Hedwig Conrad-Martius (1888–1966): phenomenal, ontological, and metaphysical. Each of these layers is distinguished by an inaugurating question: “where do we encounter [essences] in concrete realization?,” “what is reality?,” and “where does the world remain?,” respectively. The suggested division describes the chronological evolution of Conrad-Martius’s thinking, starting with Doctrine of Appearance (1916), continuing with an ontological inquiry in Realontologie (1923), and arriving at an articulated metaphysical discussion in the writings composed during the 1930s. The illumination of the arguments consolidating each of the related layers also demonstrates the dynamic taking place between the layers and their eventual joining together. However, because the philosophical insights achieved up to the late 1930s were never abandoned in her subsequent oeuvre, the layered observation is suggested as a key for understanding Conrad-Martius’s thinking as a whole.