PHENOMENOLOGY TODAY 
Monte Verita, 19-24 July 2026 

 

Congress Centre Stefano Franscini
Ascona (TI) 

 

Organising Team:
Guillaume Fréchette (University of Geneva), main organiser
Marta Jorba (University Pompeu Fabra)
Alessandro Salice (University College Cork)
Hamid Taieb (Humboldt University Berlin)
Íngrid Vendrell Ferran (University of Marburg)

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Extended Deadline March 7th, 2026

About the Conference
This conference aims to explore phenomenology’s identity and vitality in the 21st-century. Phenomenology has long been regarded as one of the central legacies of 20th-century philosophy, but its historical development and ongoing diversification have rendered its unity increasingly opaque. While phenomenology emerged as a rigorous method for describing conscious experience, it has continuously evolved through dialogue with other philosophical traditions, empirical sciences, and socio-political movements. Its resulting pluralism raises a fundamental question: what, if anything, still unites phenomenology today?

This question raises two sets of issues. The first is historical: how should phenomenology be defined and reconstructed as a tradition? Is it best understood as a movement anchored in key figures such as Brentano, Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Stein or rather as a set of methodological commitments that continue to animate contemporary thought? 

The second set of issues is systematic. It asks in which philosophical domains the phenomenological tradition continues to offer distinctive insights, and what problems it is uniquely positioned to illuminate. While phenomenology originated in the analysis of consciousness and intentionality, it now addresses a wide range of questions concerning linguistic, social, moral, and political life. The conference will examine how phenomenological approaches shed light on philosophical problems while engaging not only with other traditions within philosophy, e.g., analytic philosophy or (post)-critical traditions, but also with other academic disciplines.

Accordingly, the meeting will foreground a series of core themes that exemplify phenomenology’s continuing relevance as a philosophical approach. These include its contributions to the philosophy of mind, epistemology, value theory, political and social philosophy, psychopathology, and metaphysics. By situating phenomenology within this constellation of philosophical subfields and key substantive questions, the conference aims to underscore its ongoing significance.