Phenomenological Anthropology in the Netherlands and Flanders

Abstract

One of the first to apply phenomenological method in the Netherlands was the Philosopher and linguist Hendrick J. Pos (1898–1955). He invited Husserl in 1928 to give the so-called Amsterdamer Vorträge (Amsterdam Lectures) on phenomenological psychology. But it was not until after World War II that phenomenology became more deeply established in Dutch philosophy. The primary sway of influence now came from the south, from France. Heidegger’s influence was important, but it was especially the French existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Gabriel Marcel, Emmanuel Lévinas, and in particular Maurice Merleau-Ponty who dominated the philosophical scene in the Netherlands and Flanders.