| Product Summary | | Format: Hardcover | | ISBN: 9780792356912 | | Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers | | Publish Date: 5/14/2007 | | Buy.com Sku: 30918188 | | Item#: RLNCF2 | | Dimensions (in Inches) 9.75H x 6.5L x 0.5T | | Pages: 96 |
|
|
|
| | | In this fresh translation of five lectures delivered in 1907 at the University of GAttingen, Edmund Husserl lays out the philosophical problem of knowledge, indicates the requirements for its solution, and for the first time introduces the phenomenological method of reduction. For those interested in the genesis and development of Husserl''s phenomenology, this text affords a unique glimpse into the epistemological motivation of his work, his concept of intentionality, and the formation of central phenomenological concepts that will later go by the names of transcendental consciousness'', the noema'', and the like. As a teaching text, The Idea of Phenomenology is ideal: it is brief, it is unencumbered by the technical terminology of Husserl''s later work, it bears a clear connection to the problem of knowledge as formulated in the Cartesian tradition, and it is accompanied by a translator''s introduction that clearly spells out the structure, argument, and movement of the text.
| Author Bio| Edmund Husserl | | Edmund Husserl was a revolutionary philosopher, remembered as the progenitor of phenomenology. He was born in 1859 to a non-religious Jewish family in Moravia (part of the Czech republic), but spent the majority of his life in Germany and in German and Austrian academic institutions. From 1876 he studied logic and mathematics, and in 1883 received his doctorate from the University of Vienna. While there, Husserl was introduced to psychology and was strongly influenced by Franz Brentano, under whom he studied for nearly two years. Taking this influence with him to Halle, where he began his lecturing career (1887-1901), and onward to posts at Gottingen (1901-1916) and Freiburg (1916-1930), Husserl began to shape his own philosophical project. His initial interest in philosophy centered on the nature of mathematics, logic, and psychology, seeking to integrate the three. This, in turn, gave way to a search for the pure foundations of epistemology, referred to as descriptive phenomenology--describing the phenomenon of consciousness. Many students were drawn to this system and his popularity grew. Then Husserl's phenomenology began to incorporate the influence of British empiricism and Kantian ideology; his further refinements moved his philosophy from descriptive to transcendental--beyond normative consciousness to consciousness and the object of consciousness in itself. Though Husserl defended this turn, he was criticized harshly for becoming too idealistic, and his philosophy was under constant critical re-systematization. (An anecdote recounted by Emanuel Levinas illustrates well Husserl's perfectionist tendencies: A penknife given to the schoolboy Husserl seemed never sharp enough; he pared away at it until eventually the blade was gone.) In the end, this criticism, in combination with uncontrollable cultural events, left him without a direct heir to his hard-won phenomenological system for, in his constant rewriting of phenomenology, Husserl criticized past mentors and alienated students who preferred his more grounded, descriptive phenomenology. In addition, Husserl's last hope, Martin Heidegger, whom he befriended and taught at Freiburg and who eventually succeeded him there, ultimately failed him. Not only did he disagree with the transcendental turn that Husserl had taken in his later years--he removed his dedication to Husserl in repeat editions of BEING AND TIME--but also his brief Nazi collusions effectively ousted Husserl from German academia. This twofold betrayal crushed Husserl, who considered himself a German scholar and nationalist, a Lutheran--he was baptized in 1886--who lost his own son for Germany during the First World War. He refused, at great risk, to leave Germany although the National Socialist Party publicly derided him and his philosophy. In the face of this, Husserl was compelled to write another--his final--book, THE CRISIS OF THE EUROPEAN SCIENCES AND TRANSCENDENTAL PHILOSOPHY, which was to reinsert his phenomenology into the context of European culture. He was working on this text when he died in 1938. His remaining faithful students, particularly Hermann Van Breda, a Belgian from the Catholic University of Leuven, were instrumental in protecting Husserl's oeuvre after his death. Together with his widow, Malvine, they smuggled his works to Belgium, where they still reside and are studied at the Husserl Archives of the Institute of Philosophy at Leuven. |
| |
|
|
__USERID__
http://www.buy.com/prod/the-idea-of-phenomenology/q/loc/106/30918188.html
|
