Phenomenology and the Problem of History

Cover

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Front Matter

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Contents

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Preface to the New Edition

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pp. xi-xii

The book grew out of my work on the translation of Husserl’s Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie (The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology), published by Northwestern in 1970. In the same year, J. N. Findlay’s translation of Husserl’s Logische Untersuchungen (Logical Investigations) was published. Husserl’s most important...

List of Abbreviations

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pp. xiii-xiv

Acknowledgments

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pp. xv-

I would like to express my gratitude first to several colleagues at Yale University, whose encouragement, suggestions, and criticisms have been helpful to me in preparing this book. These are Professors Edward Casey, Robert Fogelin, Karsten Harries, and Merold Westphal. Professor David Hoy of Princeton also offered helpful criticisms, and Professor Herbert...

Preface

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pp. xvii-xxvi

A glance at some of the ironies of the contemporary scene in philosophy suggests a need for such an exploration. Heirs to the British tradition, which had little use for anything called "transcendental philosophy" during its several heydays on the Continent, now often embrace the term or some of the leading ideas associated with it. In 1960 Erik Stenius interpreted...

1. Phenomenology as Transcendental Philosophy

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pp. 3-44

The foregoing preface necessarily describes only briefly the project of this study and the broad framework which is meant to justify its undertaking. Even those interested enough to read on may have been puzzled or annoyed by the sort of oversimplifications which are hard to avoid in such a preliminary sketch...

2. Philosophy and History in the Crisis

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pp. 45-67

Husserl's new introduction to phenomenology begins in an unexpected way. Its title and opening theme seem to derive from what the author admits is a kind of popular clich�. Talk of a "crisis of science" is "heard so often these days," he says.¹ Is there any truth in it? Husserl admits the prima facie implausibility of the idea if one takes it to mean that the sciences...

3. Genetic Phenomenology

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pp. 68-81

There are two themes in Husserl's phenomenology which can be said to have "resulted" in the late "historical turn" described in the previous chapter. While it is impossible to retrace Husserl's actual train of thought, it is at least possible to show that these themes, when developed and combined, suggest and make understandable the historical framework...

4. Intersubjectivity

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pp. 82-109

As depicted so far in our exposition, HusserI's phenomenology takes its point of departure from consciousness conceived as individual consciousness. This point of departure was taken for granted in the Logical Investigations and was made more explicit in the theory of the Ich, which was first treated in Ideas I and further developed in the Cartesian...

5. Historical Reduction and the Critique of the Philosophical Tradition

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pp. 110-133

In chapters 3 and 4 we have dealt with developments in Husserl's phenomenological theory which, as we claim, motivate and make understandable the novel historical approach of the Crisis described in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3 we treated the transition from the static to the dynamic or genetic theory of consciousness; a theory that originated in the lectures on...

6. Husserl's New Concept of the World: The Life-World

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pp. 134-161

At the end of the previous chapter we suggested that Husserl's critique of Kant is actually a critique of Husserl in disguise. In the present chapter we shall try to show how this is so, pointing to the novelty of the concept of the world, as it emerges in the Crisis, not only in contrast to Kant but also in contrast to Husserl's own earlier views on the...

7. Life-World, Historical Reduction, and the Structure of the Crisis

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pp. 162-189

We have argued that the theory of the life-world in the Crisis is developed in and through a criticism which is directed not only at past philosophers, Kant in particular, but also, even primarily, at Husserl's own earlier views. In the foregoing chapter we have tried to demonstrate the ambiguities and lack of clarity surrounding the concept of world which the...

8. Ambiguities in the Concept of the Life-World

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pp. 190-211

The account of Husserl's procedure with which we closed the last chapter would be satisfactory were it not for a strange counterpoint which begins to enter into his discussion of the life-world in the section devoted to it in the Crisis. Quite early in Part III A, in the context of his critique of Kant, Husserl writes: "Naturally, from the very start in the Kantian manner...

9. Experience and Judgment and the Problem of Historicism

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pp. 212-236

Before examining the view expressed in Experience and Judgment, we must be clear on the peculiar status of this text,¹ Ludwig Landgrebe is listed as the "editor" of this volume, which was first published in 1939, but he informs us in his foreword that his work has been more than just editorial in the usual sense. As far as the main body of the text is concerned...

10. Historical Relativity and Transcendental Philosophy

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pp. 237-259

Our examination of the Introduction to Experience and Judgment seemed to lead to a vindication of historicism. If this consequence is valid, the claim of phenomenology to the status of transcendental philosophy—in fact, the possibility of any transcendental philosophy at all—is seriously threatened. Indeed, if Husserl had followed the train of thought we have...

11. The Project of Transcendental Philosophy

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pp. 260-277

The considerations of the last chapter have led us to question the idea of historical skepticism. It should be made clear that we questioned it as a coherent philosophical position; that is, we were able to subject it to criticism only by supposing that its proponents were willing to put forward the reasons for maintaining it. Naturally, this is the only way that this or any...

Index

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pp. 279-283