Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1923-02-28)February 28, 1923 Marianowo,Mazovia, Poland |
| Died | June 7, 2014(2014-06-07) (aged 91) Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Nationality | Polish-American |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | Jagiellonian University |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Phenomenology |
| Institutions | Oregon State College Pennsylvania State University Radcliffe College St. John's University |
| Main interests | Epistemology,ontology,aesthetics |
Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Polish:[tɨmʲɛˈɲɛt͡ska]; February 28, 1923 – June 7, 2014) was a Polishphilosopher,phenomenologist, founder and president of TheWorld Phenomenology Institute, and editor (from its inception in the late 1960s) of the book series,Analecta Husserliana.[1] She had a thirty-two-year friendship and occasional academic collaboration withPope John Paul II.[2][3]
Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka was born into a noblePolish-Jewish family. She was daughter of Władysław Tymieniecki and Maria Ludwika Loewenstein. Her acquaintance withphilosophy started at an early age with reading of the fundamental work ofKazimierz Twardowski, the founder of theLwów–Warsaw Philosophical School,Zur Lehre vom Inhalt und Gegenstand der Vorstellungen (On the content and object of presentations), as well as works byPlato andBergson. To the philosophy of the latter she was introduced by her mother, Maria-Ludwika de Lanval Tymieniecka.[citation needed]
After the end ofWorld War II she began systematic studies of philosophy at theJagiellonian University inKraków under the guidance ofRoman Ingarden, student of the famous teachersKazimierz Twardowski andEdmund Husserl. Simultaneously she studied at theKraków Academy of Fine Arts.[citation needed]
After completing the entire university course within two years she moved toSwitzerland to continue studies under another importantPolish philosopher andlogician,Józef Maria Bocheński, at theUniversity of Fribourg. Her doctoral study, dedicated to explorations of the fundamentals of phenomenology inNicolai Hartmann and Roman Ingarden's philosophies, was later published as "Essence and Existence" (1957). She obtained her second Ph.D., this time in French philosophy and literature, at theSorbonne in 1951.[citation needed]
In the years 1952–1953 she did postdoctoral researches in the field of social and political sciences at theCollege d'Europe inBrugge,Belgium. From that moment on Tymieniecka started her own way in philosophy by developing a special phenomenological attitude that was neither entirely Husserlian, nor entirely Ingardenian.[citation needed]
Her first husband was the Kraków art painter Leszek Dutka (1921–2014). In 1956 she marriedHendrik S. Houthakker (1924–2008), Professor of Economy atStanford University (1954–1960) andHarvard University (from 1960) and member of PresidentNixon'sCouncil of Economic Advisers from 1969 to 1971.[citation needed]
In 1979 she published, in collaboration withKarol Wojtyła, who had become Pope John Paul II in 1978, an English translation of Wojtyla's book "Osoba i czyn" (Person and Act).Person and Act, one of Pope John Paul II's foremost literary works, was initially written in Polish; it has been translated into French, Italian, German, Spanish, English and other languages. Tymieniecka's English translation is widely criticized. Critics of this work claim that Tymieniecka "changed the Polish translation, confusing its technical language and bending the text to her own philosophical concerns." It is also said that John Paul II did not agree with this translation. Besides, it was published before the definitive edition of the Polish version, which shows that it was not the final version that the author desired.[4] Her critics suggest that the English title used by Tymieniecka, "The Acting Person" is indicative of the problems involved with the work, as the author's title was meant to convey the tension between subjective consciousness (person) and objective reality (act), an idea central to the written work and the message the author tried to convey. Despite widespread disagreement, Tymieniecka insisted in 2001 that her work is the "definitive" English edition of "Osoba i czyn".[5]
She served as assistant professor in mathematics at theOregon State College (1955–1956) and assistant professor at thePennsylvania State University (from 1957). She spent the years 1961–1966 at the Institute for Independent Study atRadcliffe College. In 1972–1973 she was Professor of Philosophy atSt. John's University.[citation needed]
Tymieniecka and Wojtyla, laterPope John Paul II, began a friendship in 1973 while he was the archbishop of Kraków.[6] The friendship lasted thirty-two years until his death. She served as his host when he visited New England in 1976, and photos show them together on skiing and camping trips. Letters that he wrote to her were part of a collection of documents sold by Tymieniecka's estate in 2008 to theNational Library of Poland. According to theBBC the library had initially kept the letters from public view, partly because of John Paul's path to sainthood, but a library official announced in February 2016 the letters would be made public.[7] In February 2016 the BBC documentary programmePanorama 'revealed' that John Paul II had had a close relationship with Polish-born philosopher Tymieniecka.[8] The pair exchanged personal letters over 30 years, and Stourton believes that in some of these Tymieniecka had told Wojtyła that she loved him.[8][9] The Vatican described the documentary as "more smoke than fire",[10] and Tymieniecka had earlier denied being involved with John Paul II.[11] WritersCarl Bernstein, the veteran investigative journalist of theWatergate scandal, and Vatican expert Marco Politi, were the first journalists to talk to Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka in the 1990s about her importance in John Paul's life. They interviewed her and dedicated 20 pages to her in their 1996 bookHis Holiness.[8][12][13] Bernstein and Politi even asked her if she had ever developed any romantic relationship with John Paul II, "however one-sided it might have been." She responded, "No, I never fell in love with the cardinal. How could I fall in love with a middle-aged clergyman? Besides, I'm a married woman." The secret letters of Pope John Paul programme was aired on UK's BBC One on Monday, 15 February 2016, at 20:30.[8][12]
In 1969 Tymieniecka founded the 'International Husserl and Phenomenological Research Society', in 1974 the 'International Society for Phenomenology and Literature', in 1976 the 'International Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences', in 1993 the 'International Society of Phenomenology, Aesthetics, and Fine Arts' (1993) and in 1995 the 'Sociedad Ibero-Americana de Fenomenologia'. The first three societies comprised the foundation for creation of the World Institute for Advanced Phenomenological Research and Learning in 1976, reorganized later into The World Phenomenology Institute. The initiative to establish this institute was supported byRoman Ingarden,Emmanuel Levinas,Paul Ricoeur, andHans-Georg Gadamer as well as by the Director of the Husserl-Archives inLeuven, (Belgium)Herman Leo Van Breda. Since its foundation and for many years Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka remained its permanent President.[citation needed]
As the president of the 'World Phenomenology Institute' she organized numerous phenomenological congresses, conferences and symposia.
Since its creation in 1968,[14] although the first book of the series seems to have formally appeared only in 1971, Tymieniecka was the editor of the book seriesAnalecta Husserliana: The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research, which aims to develop and disseminateEdmund Husserl's ideas and phenomenological approach. The series was created as a continuation ofJahrbuch für Philosophie und Phänomenologische Forschung edited by Husserl himself (main themes: the human being and the human life condition). As of 2022, theAnalecta Husserliana series is being published bySpringer Publishing and contains 125 volumes.[15] The last volume to bear Tymieniecka's name as editor was Vol. CXIXThe Cosmos and the Creative Imagination, which was published in 2018.[16]
In addition toAnalecta Husserliana, The World Phenomenology Institute publishes the journalPhenomenological Inquiry, and Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka acted also as Editor of the Springer (formerly Kluwer Academic Publishers) book series:Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology in Dialogue,[17] with co-Editors Gholamreza Aavani and the Lebanese/British philosopherNader El-Bizri.
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