Abstract

Husserl, who to my knowledge never attended a philosophical meeting—not to attend was and still is almost a sign of eminence among German philosophers—once gave as his reason: “At philosophical meetings it is only the philosophers who meet, not the philosophies.” I wonder how far he would be willing to revise this estimate, had he ever been able to attend a meeting of the APA and especially of its Western Division. At least some of our symposia seem to me determined attempts to make different philosophies face each other and to talk to each other instead of past one another.