on the border of phenomenology and theologybetween God and man.^72 Interpreting the chain of generation as a
filiation, he conceives of Christ as the “Primal Son” [Archi-Fils] and
defines man, who is equally a Son of God [Fils de Dieu], as a “Son in
the Son” [Fils dans le Fils]. Here, the differences within the fundamental
unity of God and man make their appearance. The articulation in
different concepts based on the idea of filiation may be considered as
an analysis of the relationship between Life and the living. The first
task of this analysis is to shed some light on the birth of the Primal
Son within the process of self-engendering that is characteristic of Life.
In C’est moi la vérité, some highly speculative considerations are
dedicated to this task, which also contain, however, certain phenom-
enological insights.^73 Here, life is said to put itself in constant trial and
to have a perpetual experience of itself. It is from this process of self-
trial and self-experience that the self in its singularity is derived. From
a phenomenological point of view, this attempt to understand the self
is by no means inappropriate. What I call my “self” is, as is shown by
Henry, precisely “this fact of experiencing myself.”^74 The basis of my
selfhood is not so much my self-awareness, or self-consciousness, as
much as my constant feeling of being myself and no other [Selbstge-
fühl]. This feeling never leaves me.
However, experiencing oneself, putting oneself in constant trial
amounts to suffering on account ofoneself. Being a self is a “charge”
[charge]; it is even a “burden” [fardeau].^75 One is, once and for all,
“loaded with oneself.”^76 That is why selfhood is “not the mere iden-
tity of the ego with itself, not a mere self-identity,” but rather “a fun-
damental and irremissible” attunement, an “affective tonality” — the
“purely phenomenological tonality” in which the self finds itself
“thrown into itself.”^77
What is peculiar to this fundamental attunement is a certain
ambivalence, an insurmountable ambiguity, which is designated by
- Ibid., 138.. Ibid., 138.
- Ibid., 75-80.. Ibid., 75-80.
- Ibid., 136.. Ibid., 136.
- Ibid., 251.. Ibid., 251.
- Ibid., 250.. Ibid., 250.
- Ibid., 250f.. Ibid., 250f.