Corporeità e libertà nella filosofia di Michel Henry

The philosophy of Michel Henry forces to rethink of every phenomenological assumption. With his philosophy, one enters a field never really quite understood: the human subjectivity. If it is for Life that Henry dedicated his entire philosophical work; it is because Life, as affection and pathos, is the essence of the manifestation, the only original reality of man. Investigating Life means then reaching the absolute that identifies the ultimate essence of each subjectivity. Based on these assumptions, this research is structured in three main themes, strongly connected with each other : the Corporeity, the Action and the Freedom. This thesis has in fact started from a fundamental questioning: According to Michel Henry’s philosophy of Life, man can consider himself to be free? Analyzing such a question in light of of material phenomenology (Phénoménologie matérielle) meant to turn upside down the method of investigation which is usually adopted: the phenomenon is no longer synonymous to appear as the truth is no longer something to be sought outside man. Referring continuously to the opus magnum of Henry, L'essence de la manifestation, the current thesis has initially analyzed the latter which was the first written test that explicitly addressed the body: Philosophie et phénoménologie du corps. Examining not only the main aspects of the script, but also comparing them to those of the author to whom it is dedicated, Maine de Biran, the thesis has acquired a wider analysis of the phenomenological assumptions of Henry and Biran as well, discovering their meeting points and differences. The subjective body was as such the key to introduce the phenomenological investigation of affectivity ; the latter understood in terms of immanence and liabilities. These topics made it possible to address the issue of the Absolute Fund that regards every singular ipseity: Life as the only original meeting place. Intersubjectivity was therefore the necessary path to discuss and analyze man’s actions and the relationship between man and the world. Finally, The matter of the flesh thus the incarnation were also examined in the latest works of Henry dedicated to philosophical investigation of the Christian religion, in particular Incarnation and C'est moi la vérité. Thanks to these works, it has in fact been possible to put not only Life but also man before the main questioning of this research: man and his freedom.