Descartes et le tournant theologique de la phenomenologie francaise

Abstract

I will analyse Descartes’ role in the „theological turn “ of French phe-nomenology. Although in Husserl’s phenomenology the Cartesian cogito was the central element, in the phenomenologists of the „theological turn“ (Janicaud) it was exchanged for the idea of the infinite. I examine why Marion and Levinas are interested in the Cartesian idea of the infinite. In the phenomenology of Marion this idea is interpreted as a „conceptual icon“ and a „saturated pheno¬menon" ,in the phenomenology of Levinas this idea represents the structure that provides the possibility of the phenomenological description of transcendence. In order to see if Marion and Levinas turn back to the onto-theo-logical tradition of the metaphysics, like Janicaud affirms, we have to see how Descartes describes the idea of infinite and how Marion and Levinas interpret it.