Julia Iribarne: The Ethical Meaning of Life

Abstract

Julia Iribarne (1929-2014) received her doctoral degree in 1998 from the University of Buenos Aires, where she was appointed Professor for Philosophy. She authored many books and articles on phenomenology and translated Husserl's Krisis into Spanish. While her first book is devoted to Kant, her doctoral thesis concerned intersubjectivity and was translated into German as Husserls Theorie der Intersubjektivität (Freiburg i.B., 1994). In her book De la ética a la metafísica (From Ethics to Metaphysics), Bogotá 2007, she intends to develop a transcendental anthropology that aims at showing how the human being attains a critical conception of knowledge, value and action on the basis of an elemental and non-objectifying but instinctive experiencing, valuing and willing. She was also concerned with the relationship between philosophy and literature: In her book Fenomenología y literatura (Phenomenology and Literature), Bogotá 2005, she deals with the issues of hope, dream and freedom. And in her last work, En torno del sentido de la vida. Ensayos fenomenológico-existenciales (About the meaning of life. Phenomenological-existential essays), Morelia 2012, she recurs to Husserl and Borges, she further pursues the issues of finite, death and hope, which reflections crystallize in the problem of the meaning of life.