The Paradox of the Transcendental Ego

Abstract

The title of this untitled and undated manuscript is by Helmut Wagner. Because it would seem to be related in content to Schutz’s article on “Multiple Realities” Wagner dates it around 1945 and suggested that it may even have been part of that article. Schutz would seem to accept, in this manuscript, Farber’s critique of Eugen Fink’s interpretation of phenomenology as an “idealism”. This provided Schutz with a starting point for a discussion of the differences among the various finite provinces of meaning, re-enforcing his own interpretation of everyday life as “paramount reality”. The paradox mentioned in the title is that concerning the possibility of communication among phenomenologists once they have performed — or co-performed — the phenomenological reduction.1