The Idea of the “I” in Hedwig Conrad-Martius

This article[aut]Miron, Ronny presents the dualist perception of the ‘I’ of the woman phenomenologist[aut]Conrad-Martius, Hedwig, Hedwig Conrad-Martius (1880–1966). In this regard, she discerns “two opposing extremes” regarding the _I-being (ichhafte Sein): autonomic and “causa sui” being on the one hand, and “complete powerlessness” (vollkommene Seinsohnmacht) that is surrounded by the threat of nothingness on the other hand. As opposed to unifying views of the “I”, in particular Husserl’s idealistic one that identifies it with the pure consciousnessConsciousness of the ego, Conrad-Martius leaves room neither for a mutual exclusion nor for a convergence into unity of the two composing elements of the “I”. Hence the dualityDuality of the I transpires as a genuine philosophical problem that as such is unresolved.