The Project of a Pure Logical Grammar

Abstract

This chapter examines Edmund Husserl's philosophical reflections on pure logical grammar. When we talk about the meaning and genealogy of the notion of a “philosophical grammar,” the fourth of Husserl's Logical Investigations comes to mind. The central idea of the fourth Investigation is that all formal logic in the current sense— that is, the logic of validity—presupposes a logic of meaning that prevents non-sense and that is not concerned with objective validity, but instead only with the a priori laws that establish the conditions for the unity of meaning. In the first Investigation, Husserl proposes to establish the juncture between pure logic and language. The chapter suggests that the theme of the fourth Investigation is not the edification of a universal grammar, but rather of a pure grammar capable of serving as a foundation for logic.