Experience, Poetry and Truth: On the phenomenology of Ernst Jünger’s The Adventurous Heart

Ernst Jünger is known for his war writings, but is largely ignored by contemporary phenomenologists. In this essay, I explore his The Adventurous Heart which has recently been made available in English. This work consists of a set of fragments which, when related, disclose a coherent flow of philosophical thinking. Specifically, I show that, beneath a highly poetic and obscure prose, Jünger posits how subjective experience and poetry allow individuals to realize truth. I relate parts of Jünger’s insights to contributions by Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, arguing that Jünger offers a unique and valuable contribution to the phenomenological discipline.