Introduction to phenomenology

731 Pages·2000·4.81 MB·English

by  Moran

INTRODUCTION TO PHENOMENOLOGY
For years philosophers have been looking for a clear, engaging, accurate
introduction to phenomenology to recommend to students and read
themselves. This is the book. Introduction to Phenomenology is a pleasure to
read, yet it provides deep insights into what is surely one of the most
important philosophical movements of the twentieth century.
Charles Guignon, University of Vermont
This book is genuinely impressive. It provides the most accessible, the most
scholarly, and philosophically the most interesting account of the
phenomenological movement yet written.
David Bell, University of Sheffield
This long-awaited introduction is a work of admirable care and concision.
Moran has an innovative sense of the scope of phenomenology, and the
construction of the overall context within which to place each thinker is
masterly. Written in a clear, succinct style, it will soon become a standard
reference work in the field.
Joanna Hodge, Manchester Metropolitan University
Not since Spiegelberg’s The Phenomenological Movement has one author
covered so many phenomenological figures so well between two covers.
Moran’s solid and straightforward presentations will greatly help faculty as
well as students who are seriously interested in this century-old movement.
Lester Embree, Florida Atlantic University,
Editor in Chief, Encyclopedia of Phenomenology
Dermot Moran Professor of Philosophy at University College Dublin and Editor
of the International Journal of Philosophical Studies.
INTRODUCTION TO PHENOMENOLOGY
Dermot Moran
First published 2000
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2000 Dermot Moran
Typeset in Times by Taylor & Francis Books Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Moran, Dermot.
Introduction to Phenomenology / Dermot Moran.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Phenomenology. I. Title B829.5.M647 1999 99-042071
142’.7–dc21
ISBN 0–415–18372–3 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–18373–1 (pbk) ISBN 978–0–415–18372–7 (hbk) ISBN 978–0–415–
18373–4 (pbk)
FOR MY FAMILY
AND
ESPECIALLY IN LOVING MEMORY
OF
MY NEPHEW TRISTAN MORAN
(1978–1999) R.I.P.
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations

Introduction
Phenomenology and twentieth-century European philosophy
What is phenomenology?
The origins of the term ‘phenomenology’
Phenomenology in Brentano
The presuppositionless starting point
The suspension of the natural attitude
The life-world and being in the world
Phenomenology as the achievement of knowing
The structure of intentionality
Philosophy and history
Phenomenology in France
Conclusion
1 Franz Brentano: descriptive psychology and intentionality
Introduction: exact philosophy
The Brentano school
Brentano: life and writings (1838–1917)
Brentano’s philosophical outlook: empiricism
Brentano’s theory of wholes and parts
Brentano’s reform of logic
Descriptive psychology
Inner perception
Inner perception as additional awareness
The tripartite structure of mental life
Presentations and modifications of presentations
The intentional relation
Distinction between physical and psychical phenomena
Twardowski’s modification of Brentanian descriptive psychology
Brentano and Husserl
2 Edmund Husserl: founder of phenomenology
Introduction: an overview of Husserl and his philosophy
Husserl’s central problem: the mystery of subjectivity
Husserl as perpetual beginner
The stages of Husserl’s development
Husserl: life and writings (1859–1938)
A leader without followers
3 Husserl’s Logical Investigations (1900–1901)
Introduction
The composition of the Logical Investigations
The ideal of science as a system of evident cognitions
The Prolegomena (1900)
Psychologism
The six Investigations and the ‘breakthrough’ to pure phenomenology
A brief survey of the six Investigations
The First Logical Investigation
The Fifth Logical Investigation
The Sixth Logical Investigation
Realism and idealism in the Logical Investigations
4 Husserl’s discovery of the reduction and transcendental phenomenology
Introduction
Phenomenology as a presuppositionless science
Husserl’s principle of principles
The absolute self-givenness of our mental acts
Phenomenology an eidetic not a factual science
Eidetic seeing (Wesenerschauung)
Husserl’s transcendental turn
David Hume as a transcendental philosopher
The critique of naturalism
The epoché and the reductions
The epoché and scepticism
Breaking with actuality
Imaginative free variation
The noetic–noematic structure of experience
Problems with the reduction
The horizon
5 Husserl and the crisis of the European sciences
Introduction
The notion of constitution
Static and genetic constitution
The transcendental ego
Intersubjectivity and the experience of the other (Fremderfahrung)
The Crisis of European Sciences: the investigation of the life-world
The life-world
The origin of geometry
Husserl’s achievement
6 Martin Heidegger’s transformation of phenomenology
The enigma of Heidegger
The question of being
Heidegger: life and writings (1889–1976)
The political implications of Heidegger’s philosophy
7 Heidegger’s Being and Time
Introduction: the road to Being and Time
The review of Karl Jaspers’ Psychology of World Views (c. 1921)
Heidegger’s Aristotle interpretation (1922)
Heidegger’s critical appropriation of Husserl
Readiness to hand (Zuhandenheit) and presence at hand (Vorhandenheit)
Expression (Aussage)
Heidegger’s fusion of phenomenology with hermeneutics
The hermeneutical structure of the question
The hermeneutical circle
The nature of Dasein
Authenticity and inauthenticity
Anxiety and being-towards-death
Mood and state of mind (Befindlichkeit)
Mitsein
Transcendental homelessness
Heidegger’s influence
8 Hans-Georg Gadamer: philosophical hermeneutics
Introduction: an overview of Gadamer’s philosophy
The classical legacy
The tradition of understanding
Philosophy as dialogue
Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–): life and writings
Gadamer on the Greeks and the Germans
The importance of language
The tradition of hermeneutics
Hermeneutics in Dilthey and Heidegger
Truth and Method (1960)
Language and world
Gadamer’s influence
9 Hannah Arendt: the phenomenology of the public sphere
Introduction: Hannah Arendt as philosopher
Arendt: life and writings (1906–1975)
The Human Condition
Arendt’s contribution