Edmund Husserl: The Idea of Phenomenology

Abstract

The Idea of Phenomenology , which consists of five lectures that Husserl delivered in Gottingen in 1907, comes from perhaps the most important period in his overall philosophical development. For although in 1912 Husserl could refer to his Logical Investigations of 1900–1901 as constituting the “breakthrough” of phenomenology, after the publication of this magisterial work Husserl entered the most profound philosophical crisis in his life, in which he felt, the astonishing achievement of the Logical Investigations notwithstanding, unable to provide a satisfactory account of the possibility of human knowledge. The Idea of Phenomenology is his first public presentation of his thoughts after having worked his way out of this crisis and into a position that he would hold for the rest of his life: a position that he would term Transcendental Phenomenology . If phenomenology as such had emerged in the Logical Investigations , the transcendental perspective, which alone can answer fundamental sceptical worries about human knowledge, had not. We need, therefore, to understand what it is, according to Husserl, for philosophy to be “transcendental”, and why he deems it to be of such importance that it should be. Transcendental phenomenology involves taking a novel, indeed unnatural, perspective on the world. It is, Husserl believed, the one truly philosophical perspective. However, because of its unnatural character, there is a problem in explaining why this perspective should be adopted at all. Hence, from The Idea of Phenomenology until his death Husserl repeatedly attempted to provide a convincing motive for adopting this perspective, writing numerous “introductions” to phenomenology. Husserl scholars speak in this connection of the various “ways” into phenomenology that Husserl presented.