Dr Cyril McDonnell

    Philosophy

    Gaeilge agus fáilte

    Lecturer

    Arts Building
    14
    (01) 708 3698

    Biography

    Research Interests

    One of my main areas of research is Heidegger’s controversial development of Husserl’s idea of phenomenology in the early decades of the twentieth century. This interest initially led me to investigate (i) Brentano’s re-introduction and modification of the scholastic concept of intentionality into a root- concept of his novel science of ‘descriptive psychology’ in the mid- 1870s (and ff.), taking into consideration Brentano’s engagement with the English empiricists (Locke, Hume, J. S. Mill); (ii) Husserl’s transformation of Brentano’s descriptive-psychological science of the intentionality of consciousness into a descriptive-eidetic psychology in the Logical Investigations (1900–01) and his later definition of phenomenology as a version of post-Kantian transcendental idealism in Ideas I (1913), as background to (iii) Heidegger’s re-direction of phenomenology towards the question of the meaning of being from within the horizon of temporality grounded in an existential approach to ontology in his major, albeit unfinished treatise Being and Time (1927). This required (iv) further investigation into the unfolding of hermeneutic methods of enquiry in the origins of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century phenomenology, with reference to Schleiermacher and Dilthey, and their influence on Heidegger’s reconfiguration of Husserl’s version of transcendental phenomenology into a ‘hermeneutic’ phenomenology.  I have also a keen interest in Kant’s objections to natural theology and subsequent post-Kantian philosophy of religion as advanced by Hegel, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, Levinas, and Desmond. In moral philosophy, I am interested in Fichte’s views on the irreducibility of both moral consciousness and the self to objectification and naturalistic philosophies, and in three topics in special ethics: the relation of morality to law; the concept and moral justification(s) of punishment; the history and concept of rights. Finally, I am interested in the philosophy of education, especially the concepts of teaching and learning and the issue of their ‘causal relation’.

    Books

      Year Publication
    2015 Heidegger’s Way Through Phenomenology To the Question of the Meaning of Being. A Study of Heidegger’s Philosophical Path of Thinking from 1909 to 1927.
    McDonnell, Cyril (2015) Heidegger’s Way Through Phenomenology To the Question of the Meaning of Being. A Study of Heidegger’s Philosophical Path of Thinking from 1909 to 1927. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. [Details]
    2010 Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society (2009).
    McDonnell, Cyril (ed.) (2010) Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society (2009). Dublin: Irish Philosophical Society. [Details]
    2008 Maynooth Philosophical Papers Issue No. 4 (2007).
    McDonnell, Cyril (ed.) (2008) Maynooth Philosophical Papers Issue No. 4 (2007). Dublin: Philosophy Department NUIM. [Details]

    Book Chapters

      Year Publication
    2022 'Reconciling the Irreconcilable: Stein’s Critique of Heidegger’s Phenomenology and Christian Metaphysics'
    Cyril McDonnell (2022) 'Reconciling the Irreconcilable: Stein’s Critique of Heidegger’s Phenomenology and Christian Metaphysics' In: Róisín Lally and Daniel Bradley (eds). Irish Contemporary Phenomenologists. Maryland, U.S.A: Rowan & Littlefield. [Details]
    2022 'Hume’s “Bundle of Perceptions” and the “Problem of the I” in Brentano’s Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2022) 'Hume’s “Bundle of Perceptions” and the “Problem of the I” in Brentano’s Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint' In: Ion Tănăsescu, Alexandru Bejinariu, Susan Krantz Gabriel, Constantin Stoenescu (eds). Brentano and the Positive Philosophy of Comte and Mill. With Translations of Original Writings on Philosophy as Science by Franz Brentano. Berlin: De Gruyter. [Details]
    2007 'Heidegger, Dilthey, and “the Being-Question”: Towards a Critical Appraisal of Heidegger's Use of Hermeneutic Phenomenology'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2007) 'Heidegger, Dilthey, and “the Being-Question”: Towards a Critical Appraisal of Heidegger's Use of Hermeneutic Phenomenology' In: Transcendence and Phenomenology. London: SCM-Canterbury Press. [full-text] [Details]

    Peer Reviewed Journals

      Year Publication
    2018 'The Origins of the Husserl-Heidegger Philosophical Dispute in Twentieth-Century Phenomenology'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2018) 'The Origins of the Husserl-Heidegger Philosophical Dispute in Twentieth-Century Phenomenology'. MAYNOOTH PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS, 9 :81-112 [DOI] [Details]
    2017 'Brentano’s New Understanding of Psychology in Light of His Reading of English Empiricists'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2017) 'Brentano’s New Understanding of Psychology in Light of His Reading of English Empiricists'. Brentano Studien. Internationales Jahrbuch der Franz Brentano Forschung, XV/1 :263-290 [Details]
    2015 'Understanding and Assessing Brentano's Thesis in Light of His Modification of the Scholastic Concept of Intentionality'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2015) 'Understanding and Assessing Brentano's Thesis in Light of His Modification of the Scholastic Concept of Intentionality'. Brentano Studien. Internationales Jahrbuch der Franz Brentano Forschung, 13 :153-182 [full-text] [Details]
    2012 'The Significance of Heidegger’s Analysis of Death in His Advancement of Husserl’s Idea of Phenomenology Towards the Question of the Meaning of Being in Being and Time'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2012) 'The Significance of Heidegger’s Analysis of Death in His Advancement of Husserl’s Idea of Phenomenology Towards the Question of the Meaning of Being in Being and Time'. Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society, 2011 :85-110 [full-text] [Details]
    2011 'The Task and Significance of Philosophical Reflection on the Relation of the Finite to the Infinite after Kant, in Husserl, Heidegger and Schleiermacher'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2011) 'The Task and Significance of Philosophical Reflection on the Relation of the Finite to the Infinite after Kant, in Husserl, Heidegger and Schleiermacher'. Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society, 2010 :93-116 [full-text] [Details]
    2011 'Husserl's Critique of Brentano's Doctrine of Inner Perception and its Significance for Understanding Husserl's Method in Phenomenology'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2011) 'Husserl's Critique of Brentano's Doctrine of Inner Perception and its Significance for Understanding Husserl's Method in Phenomenology'. MAYNOOTH PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS, 6 :73-109 [full-text] [Details]
    2010 'The Causal Link Between Teaching and Learning: Some Metaphysical, Ethical and Political Considerations'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2010) 'The Causal Link Between Teaching and Learning: Some Metaphysical, Ethical and Political Considerations'. Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society, 2009 :43-63 [full-text] [Details]
    2009 'Why Punish the Guilty? Towards a Philosophical Analysis of the State’s Justification of Punishment'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2009) 'Why Punish the Guilty? Towards a Philosophical Analysis of the State’s Justification of Punishment'. MAYNOOTH PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS, 5 :21-34 [full-text] [Details]
    2008 'Understanding and Assessing Heidegger's Topic in Phenomenology in Light of his Appropriation of Dilthey's Hermeneutic Manner of Thinking'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2008) 'Understanding and Assessing Heidegger's Topic in Phenomenology in Light of his Appropriation of Dilthey's Hermeneutic Manner of Thinking'. MAYNOOTH PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS, 4 :31-52 [full-text] [Details]
    2006 'Brentano's Modification of the Medieval-Scholastic Concept of Intentional Inexistence in Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint (1874)'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2006) 'Brentano's Modification of the Medieval-Scholastic Concept of Intentional Inexistence in Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint (1874)'. MAYNOOTH PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS, 3 :56-75 [full-text] [Details]
    2006 'Brentano's Revaluation of the Scholastic Concept of Intentionality into a Root-Concept of Descriptive Psychology'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2006) 'Brentano's Revaluation of the Scholastic Concept of Intentionality into a Root-Concept of Descriptive Psychology'. Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society, 2006 :124-171 [full-text] [Details]

    Other Journals

      Year Publication
    2004 'Heidegger's Recovery of the Being-Question in Light of His Interpretation and Evaluation of Husserl's Transcendental Reduction'
    McDonnell, Cyril (2004) 'Heidegger's Recovery of the Being-Question in Light of His Interpretation and Evaluation of Husserl's Transcendental Reduction' NUI Postgraduate Research Record: Proceedings of the Colloquium, x :128-136. [full-text] [Details]

    Book Review

      Year Publication
    2019 Review: The Intimate Universal by William Desmond.
    McDonnell, Cyril (2019) Review: The Intimate Universal by William Desmond. Dublin: Book Review [Details]
    2018 Review: William Desmond and Contemporary Theology.
    McDonnell, Cyril (2018) Review: William Desmond and Contemporary Theology. LONDON: Book Review [DOI] [full-text] [Details]
    2009 Review: Between System and Poetics: William Desmond and Philosophy after Dialectic, ed. by Thomas A.F. Kelly (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007).
    McDonnell, Cyril (2009) Review: Between System and Poetics: William Desmond and Philosophy after Dialectic, ed. by Thomas A.F. Kelly (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007). Book Review [full-text] [Details]
    2009 Review: God and the Between, by William Desmond (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008).
    McDonnell, Cyril (2009) Review: God and the Between, by William Desmond (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008). Book Review [full-text] [Details]
    2002 Review: Being and Dialectic: Metaphysics and Culture, ed. by William Desmond & Joseph Grange (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000).
    McDonnell, Cyril (2002) Review: Being and Dialectic: Metaphysics and Culture, ed. by William Desmond & Joseph Grange (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000). Book Review [full-text] [Details]
    1999 Review: Being and the Between, by William Desmond (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995).
    McDonnell, Cyril (1999) Review: Being and the Between, by William Desmond (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995). Book Review [full-text] [Details]
    1988 Review (in Comhar): Transitions: Narratives in Modern Irish Culture by Richard Kearney (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988).
    McDonnell, Cyril (1988) Review (in Comhar): Transitions: Narratives in Modern Irish Culture by Richard Kearney (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988). Book Review [full-text] [Details]

    Magazine Article

      Year Publication
    1996 Asking the Right Question.
    McDonnell, Cyril (1996) Asking the Right Question. Maynooth: Magazine Article [full-text] [Details]