This volume is a presentation and a critical reassessment of the legacy of post-war phenomenology in Central and Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall, i.e., before the end of the East/West division. This period is unique in that many scholars from Central and Eastern Europe did not have the opportunity to introduce their contributions and innovations to international audiences. This book can be used as a reference to a wide range of redefinitions, developments, applications, and reevaluations of phenomenology in Central Europe.

Included are coverage of important works, figures, or schools of thought. This text explores how the writings of, for instance, Edmund Husserl, Max Scheler, Edith Stein, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Paul Sartre resonated within the philosophy of Central and Eastern Europe. This volume explores original post-war contributions of, to indicate a few, Alexandru Dragomir, Roman Ingarden, Constantin Noica, Jan Patočka, Gajo Petrović, Vasily Seseman, Mihály Vajda, and their accounts and use of phenomenology. It addresses the question of how phenomenology was used in other disciplines, not only in confrontation with Marxism, but with other leading currents of the time. Doing so provides a comprehensive overview of the heritage of the phenomenological movement in Central and Eastern Europe in 1945–89 that explores theories of major and less well-known figures in the field who are commonly regarded as phenomenologists or scholars who used phenomenology as their method or as a point of reference. Chapters on these figures explore the main points of their theories in chronological order and in the contexts which shaped their theories.  This book appeals to researchers and students in the field.

Witold Płotka is Full Professor at the Institute of Philosophy at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. He was a visiting researcher at the Husserl Archives of the University of Cologne. His publications include articles on, for instance, the theory of intentionality, theory of knowledge, and the history of the phenomenological movement in Poland. His papers were published, e.g., in “Husserl Studies,” “Human Studies,” “Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences” and the “Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology.” He is a co-editor of a few thematic journals, including Phainomena: Journal of Phenomenology and Hermeneutics and Horizon: Studies in Phenomenology. He edited and co-edited a few books, e.g., (with Patrick Eldridge) Early Phenomenology in Central and Eastern Europe: Main Figures, Ideas, and Problems (Springer, 2020) and Leopold Blaustein, Studies on Edmund Husserl’s Phenomenology (Brill, 2026). He authored four monographs, including, The Philosophy of Leopold Blaustein: Descriptive Psychology, Phenomenology, and Aesthetics (Springer, 2024). He is the winner of “The 2011 CARP Directors’ Memorial Prize in Honour of José Huertas-Jourda.” He is a member of the Husserl Circle, a former Secretary of the Polish Phenomenological Association, and a former President of the Central and East European Society for Phenomenology (CEESP).