Edith Stein: A Proponent of Human Community and a Voice for Social Change

Known for her philosophical writings and association with Edmund Husserl, founder of phenomenology, as well as for her conversion to Christianity and subsequent death at Auschwitz, Edith Stein may not typically be thought of as a social reformer. Yet, she describes herself in her autobiography as having "an extraordinarily strong social conscience" with a "feeling for the solidarity" of all humankind as well as smaller social groups, and states that her love for history was closely tied to "a passionate participation" in current events.¹ This article contends that, taken together, Stein's writings and life do indeed substantiate her interest and involvement in promoting both wholesome human community and societal reform. In fact, Stein demonstrates the blending of both theory and praxis in this regard. And while she does not employ the now familiar phrase, "social justice," Stein would easily find a home in contemporary Catholic social teaching.

Stein never saw her philosophical and other scholarly investigations as mere intellectual exercises, but, rather, as a realist, she understood them to be descriptive of human reality and the foundation needed for productive action. While it is impossible to briefly summarize Stein's penetrating philosophical thought, I will begin by highlighting some pertinent aspects of her theory on the individual, community, and the state. Following her conversion, many of her insights concerning the human community easily flowed over into reflections on the Mystical Body of Christ and the importance of community in order for the individual to attain union with God. I will next present a few of Stein's practical concerns regarding the need for children and youth to be formed for incorporation and participation in society and in the Mystical Body. Finally, several examples will illustrate various ways that Stein herself moved beyond theory and actively pursued social change throughout her life. These examples range from her early involvement in promoting women's suffrage and opposing sexual discrimination in university hiring, to her efforts at educational reform and her request for a papal encyclical opposing the evils of National Socialism. Marked by her own unique style, Stein emerges as both a scholar of the theoretical and practical foundations of societal relationships and an active participant in the human community.

Stein's Understanding of the Individual, Community, and the State

Stein had a lifelong interest in the study of the spiritual being and life of the human being,² which she pursued from the lens of phenomenology, philosophical and theological anthropology, and ontology throughout the course of her life. From Stein's phenomenological perspective, the human being is constituted as a unity of body-soul spirit and becomes aware of himself or herself as a conscious self—as an "I." The pure "I" is the subject of conscious experience, "the quality-less point of radiation" of experience.³ The "I" is what "lives into the future out of the past," experiences "new life bursting out of itself every moment," and carries a "trail of bygones with itself."⁴ Consistently holistic in her overall thinking, Stein pays careful attention to interconnections and relationships, and I believe that her view of the human being can be aptly labeled body-soul holism.⁵

Despite her interest in the individual, Stein is always very clear that consideration of the isolated human being is merely an abstraction, for the structure of the human being includes existence in the world and life in a community.⁶ Her conviction in this regard is apparent in many of her works, beginning with her dissertation, On the Problem of Empathy. Phenomenologically, empathy concerns the process by which a human being perceives or experiences the experience of another. The actual experience of empathy can be as simple as saying "ouch" when someone else cuts his finger, or feeling the exhilaration of an Olympic snowboarder as one watches her doing twists in mid-air. Empathy enables me to distinguish between my "I" (my conscious self) and the "I" of another. Thus, empathy is at the root of intersubjectivity and community living, and also plays an important role in self...