The world outside the window: the preface to the translation of the article "Defenestration" by Marc Richir

This paper is a presentation of Russian translation of the article « La Défenestration » (1971) by Marc Richir. In this paper we depict the philosophical context in which the article was written and define its place in the totality of Richir's works. Our main goal is to help the reader to understand the features of Richir's complex thought and to give explicit definition to the term “defenestration.” The defenestration, understood as a philosophical concept, is a process of reconsideration of major phenomenological presuppositions. Thus, we distinguish three main steps of defenestration basing on Richir's critique of previous phenomenologists: 1) the abolition of the transcendental ego as a structure external to “the world”; 2) the rejection of the universe of beings as the one and only universe people inhabit (moreover, such a universe of beings should not be anymore considered as homogenous space of representation); 3) rethinking the phenomenalisation on the basis of “nothing” (rien) as a primary universe and, therefore, overcoming the classical dualism of the sensible and the intelligible. We conclude that by analyzing systems of previous philosophers through the concept of defenestration Richir in this early work determines the direction of his future philosophical research.