Husserlian Meditations: How Words Present Things (review)

380 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Moravia has deliberately left the field open for "life and works" studies of Cabanis, Tracy, Daunou, Garat, and other Id6ologues. But by his philosophical acumen and historical sensitivity he has restored a circle of French physicians and philosophers to their rightful place as links between Enlightenment and moderate Revolution and as stimuli to nineteenth-century spiritualist and romantic counter-currents. For this remarkable achievement all students of intellectual history ought to be very much appreciative . MARTIN S. STAUM University o~ Calgary Husserlian Meditations: How Words Present Things. By Robert Sokolowsld. (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1974. Pp. xix + 296. $13) In this book Sokolowski examines Husserl's basic phenomenological concepts, on the one hand, while proceeding from the perspective of Austin's linguistic analysis, on the other. His twofold concern is precisely indicated by the title and the subtitle respectively . This intellectual symbiosis makes the matter more comprehensible to a linguistic philosopher who wishes to be acquainted with Husserlian philosophy and also gives the book its particular style of exposition. It is indeed an excellent introduction to Husserl's thoughts by means of a sustained effort to clarify intricate notions through numerous concrete illustrations. This pedagogical method (which may be inspired by the practice of teaching), far from being a shallow vulgarization, serves perfectly the purpose of communicating a thorough knowledge as well as a correct understanding of Husserrs texts, which substantiate the interpretations. Instead of generalities on Transcendental Idealism and trivialities on broad themes, the different chapters analyze successively the key notions of the Logical Investigations, the Phenomenology o] Internal Time Consciousness, Ideas, and the Formal and Transcendental Logic. After a short Introduction laying out the attitude of "being faithful," the great ideal of the Founder of Phenomenology, the following topics are extensively treated: "Parts and Wholes," "Identity in Absence and Presence," "How to Intuit an Essence," "Identity in Manifolds," "Signs and Sensibility," "The Inside of Time," "Raising Questions about Appearances," "The Forms of Judgments," and "Verification in Philosophy." These chapters are supplemented by an appendix on logic and mathematics in Formal and Transcendental Logic, a previous study of 1973. It is also conspicuous that all the other important works, published or unpublished, have been abundantly used or at least consulted. The author is also aware of Husserl's philosophical evolution, although the historical approach is not the major concern of the study. Parts and wholes are considered as the most primitive structures in Husserl's philosophy . From these structures all the others--identity within manifold, relationhips between signs and signified--are derived: parts and wholes condition empty and filled intentions. The distinction between "pieces" and "moments," the first being independent and the latter dependent, is also considered worth noticing in phenomenological analysis. There is an interesting list of "empty" significations and "filled" intuitions. If I understand the doctrine, I am inclined to consider as an illustration of this couple the pair constituted by a formal abstract system and the verifying concrete system. Many other paragraphs clarify ideas which puzzle every reader of Husserl who so often gropes among his scrupulous analyses. After many elucidations of the leading concepts of the Logical Investigations, the chapter on "The Inside of Time" presents the doctrine of The Phenomenology o] Internal Time Consciousness. The following chapter on "Raising Questions about Appearances" introduce the reader to the fundamental issues of world, natural attitude, epoch6, structures of consciousness, and evi- BOOK REVIEWS 3 81 dence which are treated in Ideas. The chapter on "Forms of Judgments" elucidates the doctrine of the Formal and Transcendental Logic. Prima facie, a conclusion seems to be missing, but "Verification in Philosophy," the last chapter, compensates this absence of formal conclusion. This last investigation, which is written with the Contemporary concern for the different types of discourse and the exigencies of verification, situates the mundane discourse of the natural attitude , the scientific discourse rooted therein, the philosophical discourse in general, and finally phenomenological discourse. Now Sokolowski deals with the basic question concerning the true meaning of philosophical discourse. Is this discourse verifiable? Let us examine this level of discourse. It is clear that verification is not a univocal term, because the verification of a noetic...