Gustav Shpet and Lev Shestov: two friends and antipodes (the two interpretations of Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology)

Discussion on Shpet and Shestov continued

Abstract

The discussion panelis concerned with the two interpretations of Husserl’s phenomenology given, respectively, by Gustav Shpet and Lev Shestov. Despite having little in common as philosophers, the two remained close friends and kept exchanging what they called their 'unmatured thoughts'. Shpet family archive has preserved several letters from Shestov which help recreate the context of their conversations. Apparently no letters remain from Shpet to Shestov, but there areShpet’s letters to N. K. Gutchkova (1912, 1914) which amply display his distinctive writing manner full of unusually detailed references to some of the more important points in discussions held elsewhere, and thus present us with a very important evidence of the partly lost polemic. Participants in the panel attempt to enter the imaginary dialogue between the two thinkers and show that in this way much of what is difficult to understand in their published work finds a better explanation. The central topic in this dialogue is philosophical scepticism, no less important today than in their time.