La fenomenologia negli Stati Uniti (1939-1962): l'utopia di una definizione

The paper investigates the first occurrences of the term «phenom- enology» in the United States, underlying as well the history of its progressive resemantization. The temporal frame 1939-1962 refers to the foundation of the two major American phenomenological societies: the International Phenomenological Society (IPS) and the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP). Ac- cordingly, it will be described the shift of meanings of the word «phenomenology»: originally the term simply meant «Husserlian philosophy», but in the turn of a few decades it ended up to de- note a plurality of different meanings, not always mutually compat- ible. The paper presents elements of historical reconstruction (the early institutional phases, the relationship between American and European phenomenologists, the «existential» turning-point of the Sixties, etc.) as well as elements of theoretical analysis. The main thesis is that the early-history of phenomenology in the US helps us to better understand the reasons that support the analytic-continen- tal distinction and, at the same time, the unbearable tension of this distinction.