The journey through the notion of force in Edith Stein

Abstract

In this article, we have the objective of presenting the research about the development of the conception of force accomplished by the philosopher Edith Stein on her Philosophical, Anthropological and Pedagogical Writings. This route through the steinian work has roots on the surprise and admiration by the consistency,deepness and actuality of her Philosophical Anthropology in which she elaborates the phenomenological description of the Human Person. She presents aristotelic-thomistic influences in her theoretical body and in the elaboration of the concept of force, which is of central relevance in the dynamism of the dimensions of corporeity, psyche and spirit, always shown in their unity. Beyond emphasizing the route of the concept of force on the steinian work, we have the purpose to reflect on the force’s manifestation in the perspective of the person-community interaction in the experiences of the lifeworld, the Lebenswelt. The grandiosity and density of Edith Stein’s thought increase the desire to deepen in her knowledge which implicates in a precise listening of ourselves and of the alterity. The steinian conception of the being human reveals her vision of totality and causing resonances on Psychology, Education and related sciences.