Husserl and Classical German Philosophy on History

Abstract

AbstractIn this essay I want to examine Husserl’s relation to the “classical” German background of his thought with respect to one concept in particular: history. Since Herder and Kant, German philosophers had devoted special attention to history and accorded it an important place in their thought. The central role of history in German philosophy reached its peak in Hegel, and although there was a widespread backlash against the dominance of Hegelian thought after his death, many aspects of his thought survived in the German philosophy of the nineteenth century. History was one of these. Thinkers as diverse as Karl Marx, the historians of the Historical School, and Wilhelm Dilthey denounced the Hegelian philosophy of history and were firmly convinced that they had liberated themselves from it. And indeed each of these rejected important features of Hegel’s philosophy of history. But they retained, sometimes even without realizing it, the underlying historicization of reason and experience that lay at the heart of Hegel’s philosophy.