“Yes, the Whole Approach Is Questionable, Yes, False”: Phenomenology and the New Realism

The recent turn to realism in Continental philosophy leaves phenomenology in a precarious position, for it appears that we commit ourselves to a sort of idealism whenever we employ the phenomenological method. I will argue in this article, however, that this appearance is deceptive and that, instead, phenomenology provides support not just for realism but for a position I will call the “new realism,” which not only affirms the reality of conditioned, spatiotemporal beings but denies the existence of any type of eternal or unchanging being in which they would ostensibly find their unconditioned condition or source.