Das Experiment bei Husserl. Zum Verhältnis von Empirie und Eidetik in der Phänomenologie

Abstract

Abstract. In the third book of his Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenology and to a phenomenological philosophy, Husserl devotes an extensive discussion to the relationship between phenomenology and experimental psychology. In this context, he also addresses the possible use of experiments in phenomenology, by contrasting “phenomenological experiments” to the regular use of experiments in the empirical sciences. The present paper seeks to offer a minute interpretation of this notion. As such, it is structured in three parts. The first part exposes the historical background of Husserl’s conception by specifically analyzing the experimental procedures of the Würzburg school of psychology and their relationship to phenomenology. The second part circumscribes Husserl’s conception of “phenomenological experiments” in difference to the experiments of empirical psychology. The third part relates this conception to the frequently invoked comparison between the phenomenological method and thought experiments, reflecting on the paradoxical status of experience in phenomenology.