Robert Sokolowski


Robert Sokolowski is the Elizabeth Breckenridge Caldwell Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America and a monsignor of the Roman Catholic Church.
An author published in a variety of sub-disciplines of philosophy, he is noted mainly for his interpretation of Husserl, named "East-Coast Husserlianism." His Introduction to Phenomenology has been translated into seven other languages.
Sokolowski has throughout his career maintained that philosophy begins with good distinctions.

Life

Early life

Sokolowski was born on May 3, 1934 to Stanley A. Sokolowski and Maryann C. Drag of New Britain, Connecticut.
Sokolowski entered seminary formation at Theological College after being awarded a Basselin scholarship, earning his bachelor's degree in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America in 1956 and a Master's degree in 1957. He then went to the Catholic University of Leuven, where he earned his S.T.B in Theology and his Ph.D. in Philosophy. His dissertation was titled "The Formation of Husserl's Concept of Constitution." His dissertation was written under Fr. Herman Leo Van Breda, the man who saved Husserl's writings from destruction by the Nazis, and who subsequently founded the Husserl Archives at the Leuven Higher Institute of Philosophy.
While at The Catholic University of America as an undergraduate, he received the Basselin scholarship,.

Academic posts

Since earning his Ph.D. his entire teaching career has been at The Catholic University of America, with visiting posts at The New School for Social Research, University of Texas at Austin, Villanova University, and Yale University.

Books

Author

1. The Formation of Husserl's Concept of Constitution. Phaenomenologica 18. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1964.
2. Husserlian Meditations: How Words Present Things. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1974.
3. Presence and Absence: A Philosophical Investigation of Language and Being. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978. Reprint, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2017.
4. The God of Faith and Reason: Foundations of Christian Theology. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982. Reprint, with a new preface, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1995.
5. Moral Action: A Phenomenological Study. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985. Reprint, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2017.
6. Pictures, Quotations, and Distinctions: Fourteen Essays in Phenomenology. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992.
7. Eucharistic Presence: A Study in The Theology of Disclosure. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1994.
8. Introduction to Phenomenology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
9. Christian Faith and Human Understanding: Studies in the Eucharist, Trinity, and the Human Person. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2006.
10. Phenomenology of the Human Person. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
11. Écrits de phénoménologie et de philosophie des sciences. Compiled, edited, and translated by André Lebel. Paris: Éditions Hermann, 2015.

Editor

Edmund Husserl and the Phenomenological Tradition. Studies in Philosophy and in the History of Philosophy, 18. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1988.

[Festschrifts]

Drummond, John J. and James G. Hart. The Truthful and the Good: Essays in Honor of Robert Sokolowski. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996.
Mansini, Guy and James G. Hart. Ethics and Theological Disclosures: The Thought of Robert Sokolowski. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 2003.