A First Introduction to Husserl's Phenomenology

392 Pages·1967·23.327 MB·English

by  Joseph J. Kockelmans

A
First
In trod uction
to
Husserl's Phenomenology
by
JOSEPH J. KOCKELMANS, PH.D.
/,
DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Editions E. Nauwelaerts, Louvain
A
First
Introduction
to
Husserl's Phenomenology
!.
Otber works by Joseph Kockel11lans
Edmund Husserl's Phe1l011le1zological Psychology. A Historico-Critical
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by others
MANFRED S. FRINGS-Max Scbeler. A Concise bztroduction i11to tbe
JV orld of a Great T hi1'lker. 223 pages. Price: $6.50.
J.
HENRY KOREN-Research ill Pbilosophy. A Bibliographical 11ltro
ducti01z to Philosophy mzd a Few Suggestio1lS for Dissertatio1lS.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 67-27996
© 1967 by DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY
Pri1zted in the U1lited States of America
PREFACE
In principle this book delivers the text which constituted the back
ground for a series of lectures I gave on several different occasions. My
audiences each time were made up of graduate students in philosophy
and psychology. The content and framework of this book has been
determined partly by the character of those audiences.
The purpose of these lectures was to give the students a first intro
duction to HusserI's phenomenology in which, as far as HusserI himself
is concerned, nothing was presupposed. In lieu of discussing the insights
of the most important commentators, I have tried here to allow Husserl
to explain again his own ideas. And as the main intention of my lectures
was to present only an introduction to HusserI's thought, I did not dwell
on special phenomenological analyses concerning such topics as the
'world', nature, space, time, man, language, the human body, and so on,
because I felt that ~n an introduction the question of what phenomenology
itself is must occupy the central place. It was for this reason that I tried
to describe the genesis of HusserI's phenomenology and to explain the
most important aspects of its content and method, both of which, other
wise, are essentially correlated. But although it is true that one of the
intentions of this study is to describe the development which HusserI
underwent in regard to his own view on phenomenology, since 1906
especially, the stress in the different chapters is placed nonetheless on
the doctrinal and methodological aspects of HusserI's thought. This is
why I have felt free not to respect the chronological order of Husseri's
works in a strict way.
Each chapter deals with one or another aspect which in HusserI's
own view is essential to his phenomenological philosophy. In addition
to the most relevant historical remarks, each chapter contains a para
phrasis or brief summary of a few sections of one of Russerl's own pub
lications, followed by certain surveying, critical, and concluding remarks
inasfar as these appeared to be in keeping with the main intention of
this study. The reason I have chosen to adhere rather closely to Hus
serl's own text in the body of each chapter lies in the fact that HusserI
uses an analyzi.ng and describing style. Although it is true that one can
v
A FIRST INTRODuCTION TO HUSSERL'S PHENOMENOLOGY
easily give a brief survey of the results of an analysis, the analyses and
des~riptions themselves, which generally are more important than the
isolated results, cannot be maintained in their richness except by 're
peating' them in one way or another. Furthermore as it is well-known
that Husserl's style of writing makes a literal translation very difficult,
if 110t sometimes even impossible,l I have for the most part given prefet;,
ence to summaries or to a free paraphrasis rather than to a literal trans
lation. Only in crucial sentences have I followed Husserl's text as
closely as possible, but even then I have tried to strip Husserl's over
crowded sentences of all non-vital elements. It will be obvious that in
composing these summaries and paraphrases I have employed also the
existing translations of Gibson, Cairns, Lauer, Alston, and Nakhnikian.
As far as terminology is concerned I have generally followed the list of
phenomenological terms proposed by Spiegelberg in the second volume
of The Phenomenological AIove111,ent. Grateful acknowledgment must
therefore be made to the following publishers for their permission to
use the translations of Husserl's works in the sense indicated: Martinus
Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands; Harper & Row, Publishers, New
York; and The Macmillan Company, New York.
This book does not deliver a complete pictur·e of HusserI's work.
For a first introduction, however, this fact should not inspire serious
objections, for it does give a relatively clear and concise overall picture
of the most essential themes and topics of Husserl's phenomenological
philosophy. Neither is this sltudy original; it does not offer new ideas
concerning Husserl's philosophy. I have tried only to help the reader
to become conversant with the major topics of Huss·erl's phenomenology
and the extensive literature on the subject. That is why I wish also
explicirtly to acknowledge that I have used throughout the book the
excellent commentaries of Fink, Landgrebe, Biemel, De \Vaelhens, Van
Breda, Ricoeur, Gurwitsch, and Diemer to which I have nevertheless
seldom explicitly referred as they are not yet available in English. Also
lowe very much to the wo~ks of Spiegelberg, Farber, and Lauer, whose
.1. Quentin Lauer, ed., .Edmund Httsserl: Phenomenology and the Crisis of
Ph~losoPhy. Translated WIth an Introduction by Quentin Lauer (New York:
Harper and Row, 1965), p. 1.
VI
PREFACE
publications I have quoted many times in the histo,rical sections of tillS
study.
J.
I am deeply indebted to Father Henry Koren, S. T. D., who
worked extensively with the first draft of this book and later gave his
painstaking attention to its final draft.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
December 15, 1965
JOSEPH J. KOCKELMANS
Vl1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE ................................................ .
1
T ABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................... IV
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................... " . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vll
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX
CHAPTER ONE: THE ORIGIN OF HUSSERL'S PHENOMENOLOGY 1
1. Phenomenology as a Descriptive Psychology ........ 1
2. Phenomenology as a Critique of Pure Reason ........ 19
CHAPTER TWO: 'PHILOSOPHY AS RIGOROUS SCIENCE' ..... 35
1. Rigor and Radicalism in Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2. Philosophy as a Rigorous Science.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3. Husserl's Criticism of Naturalism ................•. 53
4. The Question of the Radical Departure in HusserI's
later Philosophy ................................. 62
a. Husserl's Rejection of Cartesianism .. . . . . . . . . . . 63
b. Radicalism as the Leading Idea in 'Cartesian
Meditations' and 'Crisis' ..................... 66
c. On the Meaning of 'Radicalism' in Philosophy .. 72
CHAPTER THREE : FACT AND ESSENCE ...... . . . . . . . . . . . 77
1. Phenomenology as the Study of the General Essence of
Consciousness ................................... 77
2. Fact and Essence ........................... . . . . . 84
3. Regional Ontologies and Phenomenology . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
CHAPTER FOUR: EVIDENCE .......................... 106
1. Naturalistic Misconceptions ....................... 107
2. The Existence and our Knowledge of Essences. . . . . . 110
3. The Principle of all Principles ..................... 116
4. The Theory of Evidence ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
IX
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER FIVE: PHENOMENOLOGICAL REDUCTION . . . . . . . . 133
1. Necessity of a Phenomenological Reduction.. ..... 133
2. Consciousness and Reality ........................ 143
3. Absolute Consciousness as Theme of Phenomenology. . 157
4. The DOdrinal Content of the Transcendental-Phenome-
nological Reduction .............................. 164
CHAPTER SIX: INTENTIONALITY ...................... 169
1. Intentionality in the 'Logical Investigations' .. . . . . . . . . 169
2. Intentionality as the Main Theme of Phenomenology.. 172
3. Static Description ·of Intentionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
4. Dynamic Description of Intentionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
5. Intentional Analysis ......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
CHAPTER SEVEN: CONSTITUTION ......... ........... 201
1. Historical Introduction ........................... 201
2. Constitutional Problems ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
3. Development of the Constitutional Problems Regarding
the Transcendental Ego Itself. Transcendental Idealism 213
CHAPTER EIGHT: INTERSUBJECTIVITY ................. 225
1. The Problem of Intersubjectivity. First Attempt at a
Solution ........................................ 225
2. The Sp~ere. o.f Transcendental Being as Monadological
IntersubJectlvlty ................................. 230
CHAPTER NINE: TRANSCENDENTAL PHENOMENOLOGY AND
THE LIFE-WORLD ..................................... 250
1. Signification of Husserl's Last Publication .......... 250
2. The \Vorld as Phenomenological Theme ............ 259
3. The Life-World in Husserl's 'Crisis' ....... . . . . . . . .. 267
CHAPTER TEN: PHENOMENOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY . . . . .. 281
1. The Genesis of the Idea of a Phenomenolgical Psychology 282
2. Phenomenological Psychology. Its Relation to Em
pirical Psychology and Phenomenological Philosophy .. 293
3. Phenomenological Psychology in 'Crisis' ............ 306
4. Conclusion ...................................... 311
x
A FIRST INTRODUCTION TO HUSSERL'S PHENOMENOLOGY
CHAPTER ELEVEN: REALISM OR IDEALISM? ............ 315
1. Phenomenology as All-embracing Philosophy. Its Final
Meaning. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 315
2. Idealistic Interpretation of Husserl's Phenomenology .. 322
3. The Interpretation of 1Ierleau-Ponty and De Waelhens 341
4. Survey and Conclusion ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 348
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . 356
INDEX OF NAMES ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 361
INDEX OF SUBJECT MATTER ............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 363
X.I
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
References to Husserl's publications are all to the German edition
of his works as indicated in this list. However, references have also
been made to translations wherever that was possible. The translations
used are listed below. References to tra.!1slations are always put between
brackets.
Phil. d. Arithm. Philosophie der Arithmetik. Psychologische 1,md
logische Untersl.£chungen. Erster Band (Halle a.S.:
C.E.M. Pfeffer, 1891).
L. U. Logische Untersuc/'tuf,'tgen, 3 vols. (Halle a.S.: Max
Niemeyer, 1921-1922).
Die Idee Die Idee der Phiinomenologie. Funf Vorlesungen
(1907). Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Walter
Biemel, Husserliana, Band II (Tbe Hague: Mar
tinus Nijhoff, 1950).
The Idea of Phenomenology. Trans. William P.
Alston and George N akhnikian. (The Hague: Mar
tinus Nijhoff, 1964).
Phil. str. W. "Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft", Logos, 1
(1910-1911) 289-341.
"Philosphyas Rigorous Science", in Quentin Lauer,
Edmund H'ttsserl: Phef,'tOmenology aud the Cr·isis of
Philosophy (New York: Harper and Row, 1965),
pp. 69-147. See also: Cross Currents, 6 (1956), pp.
228-246, 324-344.
Ideen I deen zu ei1'ler reinen Phiinomenologie und phiino
menologischen Philosophie.
Ideen I Erstes Buch: Allge1,11.ei'tte Einfiillr't111g in die rehf,e
Plziin01:nenologie. Herausgegeben von Walter
Biemel, Hl1sserliana, Band III (The Hague: Mar
tinus Nijhoff, 1950).
Ideas. General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology.
Trans. W. R. Boyce Gibson (New York: Collier
Books, 1962).
Ideen II Zweites B,!uh.: Phiiuomenologische Untersuchungen
zur Kon,st'ttut'ton. Herausgegeben von ~\larley Biemel,
Husserhana, Band IV (The Hague: Martinus
Nijhoff, 1952).
xu