Conrad-Martius: The “Real-Reality” of the World

Abstract

Abstract This article deals with Conrad-Martius’s conceptions of reality as “wirkliche Wirklichkeit”, being, existence, and essence and sets them in relation to the conceptions of Aristotle, Aquinas, and Husserl. It delves into the problems of both the hypostatization of being, where I assert that it concerns the noema itself, and the origin of being in particular. I claim that even though Conrad-Martius rejects the transcendental reduction, Conrad-Martius accepts the eidetic reduction and the positing of a sphere of original and given facts, whose origin Conrad-Martius traces back to a transphysical realm, thus revealing the grounds for the Husserlian sphere of primal facts, which itself remains beyond the reach of phenomenological enquiries. Hence, Conrad-Martius’s and Husserl’s investigations encounter and complement each other at the point where the real bursts into reality and becomes available for consciousness.