Michel Henry

Michel Henry (Haiphong, 1922 - Albi, 2002) was a French philosopher and novelist, one of the most original thinkers in twentieth-century phenomenology. He worked within the phenomenological tradition that begins with Husserl, but took it in a decisive new direction. Rather than studying how things appear in the world, he set out to describe the life that feels and experiences itself from within.

He was born in French Indochina and grew up in France after his father's death. During the Occupation he joined the Resistance in the Haut Jura, and that experience of clandestine life left a deep mark on his thinking. After the war he studied philosophy and completed his main thesis, The Essence of Manifestation, published in 1963. He taught in Morocco, Algeria and Aix-en-Provence, and from 1960 at the University of Montpellier, where he developed his work apart from intellectual fashions. He also wrote novels; L'Amour les yeux fermés won the Renaudot Prize in 1976.

For Henry, classical phenomenology deals with what appears in the world, that is, with exteriority, and overlooks the foundation that makes appearance possible: an invisible life that can only be known through its own self-feeling. This life moves between suffering and joy, and no one sees it from outside. The lived body, felt from within, is central to his reflection. His work has sparked debate among theologians and phenomenologists, and it is still studied at centres such as the one at Saint Joseph University in Beirut.