The Phenomenological Given and the Hermeneutic Exchange: Which Holds Priority?

Abstract

It has been argued that Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenological mode, according to which phenomenology is the exhaustive content of a rigorous philosophy, is vulnerable to the criticism that no reality is given prior to signification and interpretation. This is the hypothesis that phenomenology is a moment within a more fundamental hermeneutic process, rather than vice versa. However, this hypothesis, together with the argument that phenomenology falls prey to ‘the myth of the given’, have been subjected to a critique by Marion himself, in his essay, ‘La Donation en son Herméneutique’ (2016), which throws light on his whole project. In this essay, I argue that Marion’s position is problematic, though many of his points are persuasive. I will claim that, for this reason, he hovers on the brink of a position that would undo his own attempted critique of metaphysics.