Edmund Husserl
Set aside assumptions about whether the world exists and describe exactly how things appear to consciousness – that is where philosophy must begin.
Placement
Founder of phenomenology: “To the things themselves!” Bracketing the world (epoché) reveals the structures of consciousness.
Key ideas
- Intentionality
- Epoché
- Lifeworld
Teachers: Wilhelm Wundt, Franz Brentano
Students: Tanabe Hajime, Martin Heidegger, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Edith Stein, Roman Ingarden, Herbert Marcuse, Hans Jonas, Emmanuel Levinas, Jan Patočka
Influence
Influenced by 10
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
influenced by
Husserl praised K. E. Neumann’s translation of the Buddha’s discourses in a short text of 1925; in the manuscript “Socrates – Buddha” (1926) he read the Buddha’s path as a transcendental turn akin to the phenomenological epoché. E. Husserl, “Über die Reden Gotamo Buddhos” (1925), Hua XXVII, pp. 125–126; “Sokrates – Buddha” (1926), ed. S. Luft, Husserl Studies 26 (2010)
Evidence: AI draft
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) › c. 480–400 BCE · conventionally dated 563–483 BCE
Augustine
influenced by
Husserl opened his lectures on inner time-consciousness (1905; ed. Heidegger, 1928) with Augustine’s Confessions XI and closed the Cartesian Meditations (1931) with his ‘in te redi’. E. Husserl, Vorlesungen zur Phänomenologie des inneren Zeitbewußtseins (ed. M. Heidegger, 1928); Méditations cartésiennes (1931); SEP “Edmund Husserl”
Evidence: AI draft
Augustine › 354–430
René Descartes
influenced by
In the Cartesian Meditations (1931) Husserl radicalised Descartes’s way to the ego cogito into transcendental phenomenology, rejecting the ego as a thinking substance. E. Husserl, Méditations cartésiennes (1931); Cartesianische Meditationen (1950); SEP “Edmund Husserl”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
René Descartes › 1596–1650
Immanuel Kant
influenced by ✓
Husserl took up Kant’s transcendental question (Ideas I, 1913) but faulted his constructions not drawn from intuition (‘Kant und die Idee der Transzendentalphilosophie’, 1924; Krisis, 1936). E. Husserl, Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie I (1913); “Kant und die Idee der Transzendentalphilosophie” (1924; publ. 1956); Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften (1936); SEP “Edmund Husserl”
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804
Bernard Bolzano
influenced by ✓
Husserl took from Bolzano’s Wissenschaftslehre (1837) the propositions and truths in themselves, ideal unities independent of thinking, for his critique of psychologism (Prolegomena, 1900). E. Husserl, Logische Untersuchungen I: Prolegomena zur reinen Logik (1900); B. Bolzano, Wissenschaftslehre (1837); SEP “Bernard Bolzano”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Bernard Bolzano › 1781–1848
Franz Brentano studied with
studied with ✓
After his doctorate in mathematics, Husserl attended Brentano’s lectures in Vienna from 1884 to 1886, which decided him for philosophy; Brentano recommended him to his pupil Carl Stumpf in Halle, where Husserl habilitated (1887). SEP “Edmund Husserl”; E. Husserl, “Erinnerungen an Franz Brentano”, in O. Kraus, Franz Brentano (1919)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Franz Brentano › 1838–1917
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Hermann Lotze
influenced by
Husserl took up Lotze’s early opposition to psychologism and his separation of validity from mental acts. SEP “Hermann Lotze” (D. Sullivan), §§4.2–4.3
Evidence: AI draft
Hermann Lotze › 1817–1881
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
influenced by
Masaryk, whom Husserl met in Leipzig (1876), advised him to study with Brentano in Vienna (1884–86) and influenced his turn to Christianity (baptism 1886). K. Schuhmann, Husserl-Chronik (1977); SEP “Edmund Husserl”
Evidence: AI draft
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk › 1850–1937
Christian von Ehrenfels
influenced by
In Philosophy of Arithmetic (1891) Husserl related his ‘figural moments’, the unitary character of sensory groups, to Ehrenfels’s Gestalt qualities, published the year before (1890). E. Husserl, Philosophie der Arithmetik (1891); C. von Ehrenfels, “Über Gestaltqualitäten”, Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie 14 (1890); SEP “Christian von Ehrenfels”
Evidence: AI draft
Christian von Ehrenfels › 1859–1932
Kazimierz Twardowski
influenced by
Husserl answered Twardowski’s distinction of content and object (1894) in the manuscript ‘Intentionale Gegenstände’ (1894; publ. 1979), rejecting immanent objects, a step toward the Logical Investigations (1900–01). K. Twardowski, Zur Lehre vom Inhalt und Gegenstand der Vorstellungen (1894); E. Husserl, “Intentionale Gegenstände” (1894; publ. 1979); SEP “Kazimierz Twardowski”
Evidence: AI draft
Kazimierz Twardowski › 1866–1938
Influenced 27
Rudolf Carnap
influenced ✓
Carnap grounded intuitive space on Husserl’s eidetic intuition (Wesensschau) in his dissertation (Der Raum, 1922) and attended Husserl’s seminars in Freiburg (1924–25). R. Carnap, Der Raum. Ein Beitrag zur Wissenschaftslehre (1922); SEP “Rudolf Carnap”
Rudolf Carnap › 1891–1970
Hans-Georg Gadamer
influenced ✓
Gadamer took over Husserl’s concepts of horizon and lifeworld, grounding understanding in a world always already shared rather than in a constituting consciousness (Truth and Method, 1960). H.-G. Gadamer, Wahrheit und Methode (1960); E. Husserl, Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften (1936; 1954); SEP “Hans-Georg Gadamer”
Hans-Georg Gadamer › 1900–2002
Jean-Paul Sartre
influenced ✓
After studying Husserl in Berlin (1933–34), Sartre adopted intentionality but rejected the transcendental ego as superfluous in The Transcendence of the Ego (1936–37). J.-P. Sartre, La Transcendance de l’Ego (1936–37); “Une idée fondamentale de la phénoménologie de Husserl: l’intentionnalité” (1939); SEP “Jean-Paul Sartre”
Jean-Paul Sartre › 1905–1980
Emmanuel Levinas taught
taught
Levinas spent 1928–29 in Freiburg to study with Husserl, wrote the first French book on his phenomenology (La théorie de l’intuition dans la phénoménologie de Husserl, 1930) and co-translated the Cartesian Meditations (1931). SEP “Emmanuel Levinas”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Emmanuel Levinas › 1906–1995
Simone de Beauvoir
influenced
S. Heinämaa reads The Second Sex (1949) as a phenomenological work in Husserl’s sense, describing woman’s lived body and experience rather than explaining them causally. S. Heinämaa, Toward a Phenomenology of Sexual Difference: Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Beauvoir (2003); S. de Beauvoir, Le Deuxième Sexe (1949)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Simone de Beauvoir › 1908–1986
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
influenced ✓
Merleau-Ponty took up Husserl’s themes of lifeworld and lived body, studied in the Louvain archives (1939), and concluded that the reduction is never complete (Phenomenology of Perception, 1945). M. Merleau-Ponty, Phénoménologie de la perception (1945), preface; “Le philosophe et son ombre” (1959), in Signes (1960); H. L. Van Breda, “Merleau-Ponty et les Archives-Husserl à Louvain” (1962); SEP “Maurice Merleau-Ponty”
Maurice Merleau-Ponty › 1908–1961
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Max Scheler
influenced ✓
Scheler, who met Husserl in 1901, applied the phenomenological intuition of essences to values in a material ethics of value (Der Formalismus in der Ethik, 1913–16). M. Scheler, Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik (1913–16), in Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung; SEP “Max Scheler”
Max Scheler › 1874–1928
José Ortega y Gasset
influenced
Ortega took up Husserl’s phenomenology in 1913 (‘On the Concept of Sensation’) but soon moved beyond it to a philosophy of life (Meditations on Quixote, 1914). J. Ortega y Gasset, “Sobre el concepto de sensación” (1913); Meditaciones del Quijote (1914); SEP “José Ortega y Gasset”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
José Ortega y Gasset › 1883–1955
Tanabe Hajime taught
taught
Tanabe studied with Husserl in Freiburg in 1922–23, after a stay with Riehl in Berlin; there he also met the young Heidegger and Oskar Becker. SEP “The Kyoto School” (B. W. Davis); J. W. Heisig, Philosophers of Nothingness (2001)
Evidence: AI draft
Tanabe Hajime › 1885–1962
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz taught
taught
After his doctorate Ajdukiewicz spent the academic year 1913/14 in Göttingen, attending Husserl’s lectures in philosophy (and Hilbert’s in mathematics); a short period of study, not a lasting teaching relation. Archiwum PAN, inventory III-141 (Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz); Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań, biographical sketch of K. Ajdukiewicz
Evidence: AI draft
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz › 1890–1963
Edith Stein taught
taught ✓
Stein studied with Husserl in Göttingen from 1913, took her doctorate under him in Freiburg in 1916 with a thesis on empathy and was his first paid assistant from October 1916 to February 1918, transcribing and editing his manuscripts. SEP “Edith Stein”
Edith Stein › 1891–1942
Herbert Marcuse taught
taught
In his second period in Freiburg (1928–32) Marcuse studied with Husserl as well as with Heidegger, though Heidegger was his main teacher; he had already taken his doctorate there in 1922, in German literature. SEP “Herbert Marcuse”; D. Kellner, Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism (1984)
Evidence: AI draft
Herbert Marcuse › 1898–1979
Xavier Zubiri
influenced
Zubiri’s dissertation, Ensayo de una teoría fenomenológica del juicio (1923), developed Husserl’s theory of judgement; he later heard Husserl in Freiburg (1928–30). X. Zubiri, Ensayo de una teoría fenomenológica del juicio (1923); Sobre la esencia (1962)
Evidence: AI draft
Xavier Zubiri › 1898–1983
Alfred Schutz
influenced
Schutz used Husserl’s constitutive phenomenology to clarify Weber’s ‘subjective meaning’, describing how meaning is built up in consciousness and how we understand others; Husserl admired the book (1932). A. Schütz, Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt (1932); SEP “Alfred Schutz”; SEP “Edmund Husserl”
Evidence: AI draft
Alfred Schutz › 1899–1959
José Gaos
influenced
Gaos took his doctorate on Husserl’s critique of psychologism and translated the Logical Investigations with Manuel García Morente (Investigaciones lógicas, 1929). E. Husserl, Investigaciones lógicas, trans. M. García Morente and J. Gaos (1929); J. Gaos, La crítica del psicologismo en Husserl (doctoral thesis)
Evidence: AI draft
José Gaos › 1900–1969
Gilbert Ryle
influenced
Ryle studied Husserl’s Logical Investigations in the 1920s, lectured on Brentano, Meinong and Husserl, and read phenomenology as a form of conceptual analysis (‘Phenomenology’, 1932). G. Ryle, “Phenomenology”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, suppl. vol. 11 (1932); “Autobiographical”, in O. P. Wood and G. Pitcher (eds.), Ryle (1970); SEP “Gilbert Ryle”
Evidence: AI draft
Gilbert Ryle › 1900–1976
Hans Jonas taught
taught ✓
Jonas began his studies in Freiburg in 1921, where he attended Husserl’s seminars and met the young Heidegger; a short period before his years with Heidegger in Marburg. H. Jonas, Erinnerungen (2003)
Evidence: AI draft
Hans Jonas › 1903–1993
Kurt Gödel
influenced
Gödel studied Husserl from 1959 and proposed phenomenology as a method for clarifying the meaning of mathematical concepts and intuition (draft, 1961; publ. 1995). K. Gödel, “The Modern Development of the Foundations of Mathematics in the Light of Philosophy” (1961), in Collected Works III (1995); SEP “Kurt Gödel”
Evidence: AI draft
Kurt Gödel › 1906–1978
Jan Patočka taught
taught ✓
Patočka met Husserl at his Paris lectures in 1929 and studied with him in Freiburg in 1933. E. Kohák, Jan Patočka: Philosophy and Selected Writings (1989), introduction
Evidence: AI draft
Jan Patočka › 1907–1977
Paul Ricœur
influenced
As a prisoner of war Ricœur translated Husserl’s Ideas I (publ. 1950) and set out his philosophy as a phenomenology of the will (Le volontaire et l’involontaire, 1950). E. Husserl, Idées directrices pour une phénoménologie, trans. P. Ricœur (1950); P. Ricœur, Philosophie de la volonté I: Le volontaire et l’involontaire (1950); SEP “Paul Ricoeur”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Paul Ricœur › 1913–2005
Harold Garfinkel
influenced
Garfinkel drew on Husserl’s natural attitude, also via Schutz and Gurwitsch, to ask how members produce the taken-for-granted order of everyday life (Studies in Ethnomethodology, 1967). H. Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology (1967); The Perception of the Other (diss., Harvard, 1952); J. Heritage, Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology (1984); SEP “Edmund Husserl”
Evidence: AI draft
Harold Garfinkel › 1917–2011
Thomas Luckmann
influenced ✓
Luckmann continued Husserl’s analysis of the life-world in completing Schutz’s Structures of the Life-World (1975, 1984) and treated phenomenology as a ‘protosociology’ underlying social science. A. Schütz and T. Luckmann, Strukturen der Lebenswelt (1975, 1984); T. Luckmann, “Philosophie, Sozialwissenschaft und Alltagsleben” (1973); SEP “Edmund Husserl”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Thomas Luckmann › 1927–2016
Niklas Luhmann
influenced ✓
Luhmann took Husserl’s analysis of meaning, an actual given against a horizon of possibilities, as the basic concept of his systems theory (‘Sinn als Grundbegriff der Soziologie’, 1971). N. Luhmann, “Sinn als Grundbegriff der Soziologie”, in J. Habermas and N. Luhmann, Theorie der Gesellschaft oder Sozialtechnologie (1971); Soziale Systeme (1984); SEP “Edmund Husserl”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Niklas Luhmann › 1927–1998
J. N. Mohanty
influenced
Mohanty defended Husserl’s theory of meaning – meanings as ideal entities intended by consciousness, not psychological events – in Edmund Husserl’s Theory of Meaning (1964). J. N. Mohanty, Edmund Husserl’s Theory of Meaning (1964); The Philosophy of Edmund Husserl (2008)
Evidence: AI draft
J. N. Mohanty › 1928–2023
Hassan Hanafi
influenced
Hanafi read Husserl in Paris and in his thesis (1966) applied phenomenology to Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh), reading it as a method of understanding grounded in consciousness. H. Hanafi, Les Méthodes d’exégèse: essai sur la science des fondements de la compréhension, ilm usul al-fiqh (thesis, Paris, 1966); L’Exégèse de la phénoménologie
Evidence: AI draft
Hassan Hanafi › 1935–2021
Paulin Hountondji
influenced
Hountondji, whose doctorate treated Husserl’s idea of science (1970), drew on it in demanding that philosophy be explicit critical enquiry, not a collective worldview (1976). P. J. Hountondji, Sur la « philosophie africaine » (1976); The Struggle for Meaning: Reflections on Philosophy, Culture, and Democracy in Africa (1997; Eng. 2002)
Evidence: AI draft
Paulin Hountondji › 1942–2024
Lewis R. Gordon
influenced
Gordon’s Fanon and the Crisis of European Man (1995) takes up Husserl’s diagnosis of a crisis of the European sciences and of European humanity and reads Fanon as a philosopher of the human sciences who exposes that crisis from the standpoint of the colonised. L. R. Gordon, Fanon and the Crisis of European Man: An Essay on Philosophy and the Human Sciences (1995); E. Husserl, Vienna lecture (1935) and Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften (1936)
Evidence: AI draft
Lewis R. Gordon › b. 1962
Criticism
Criticized by 6
Gottlob Frege influenced by
influenced by disputed ✓
Husserl discussed Frege’s Grundlagen in Philosophy of Arithmetic (1891); whether Frege’s critical review (1894) prompted his turn against psychologism in the Logical Investigations (1900–01) is disputed. G. Frege, review of E. Husserl, Philosophie der Arithmetik, Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik 103 (1894); D. Føllesdal, Husserl und Frege (1958); J. N. Mohanty, Husserl and Frege (1982); SEP “Edmund Husserl”
criticised by
In his 1894 review of Husserl’s Philosophy of Arithmetic (1891) Frege charged it with psychologism, confusing subjective presentations with objective concepts and numbers. G. Frege, review of E. Husserl, Philosophie der Arithmetik I, Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik 103 (1894), 313–332
Evidence: AI draft
Gottlob Frege › 1848–1925
Lev Shestov
criticised by
In ‘Memento mori’ (1917), Shestov attacked Husserl’s ideal of philosophy as rigorous science, objecting that his self-evident truths of reason silence the questions of human existence. L. Shestov, “Memento mori” (1917), in Potestas clavium (1923); “In Memory of a Great Philosopher: Edmund Husserl” (1938)
Evidence: AI draft
Lev Shestov › 1866–1938
Martin Heidegger taught
taught ✓
Heidegger had habilitated under Rickert, but after Husserl came to Freiburg in 1916 he worked closely with him and was his assistant from 1919 to 1923, holding seminars with him; Husserl backed his call to Marburg and his succession to the Freiburg chair (1928). SEP “Martin Heidegger”; T. Kisiel, The Genesis of Heidegger’s Being and Time (1993)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
criticised by
Heidegger objected that Husserl never asks about the being of the intentional, of consciousness itself, and turned to Dasein instead (Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Zeitbegriffs, 1925, §§ 10–13). M. Heidegger, Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Zeitbegriffs (lectures 1925; GA 20), §§ 10–13; SEP “Martin Heidegger”
Evidence: AI draft
Martin Heidegger › 1889–1976
Roman Ingarden taught
taught
With Twardowski’s support Ingarden went to Göttingen in 1912 to study with Husserl, followed him to Freiburg and took his doctorate there in 1918, with Husserl as director, on intuition and intellect in Bergson. SEP “Roman Ingarden”
Evidence: AI draft
criticised by
Ingarden rejected the transcendental idealism of Husserl’s Ideas I (1913) and defended the independent existence of the real world (Der Streit um die Existenz der Welt, 1947–48). R. Ingarden, Spór o istnienie świata (1947–48; German: Der Streit um die Existenz der Welt, 1964–65); SEP “Roman Ingarden”
Evidence: AI draft
Roman Ingarden › 1893–1970
Theodor W. Adorno
criticised by
In Zur Metakritik der Erkenntnistheorie (1956) Adorno read Husserl’s phenomenology as a last attempt at first philosophy, whose search for an absolute origin ends in idealism. T. W. Adorno, Zur Metakritik der Erkenntnistheorie. Studien über Husserl und die phänomenologischen Antinomien (1956), Introduction
Evidence: AI draft
Theodor W. Adorno › 1903–1969
Jacques Derrida influenced
influenced ✓
Derrida began with Husserl: a thesis on genesis in his philosophy (1953–54; publ. 1990) and a translation with long introduction of The Origin of Geometry (1962). J. Derrida, Le problème de la genèse dans la philosophie de Husserl (written 1953–54; publ. 1990); E. Husserl, L’origine de la géométrie, trans. and intro. J. Derrida (1962); SEP “Jacques Derrida”
criticised by
In Voice and Phenomenon (1967) Derrida argued that Husserl’s theory of meaning rests on a metaphysics of presence, privileging the voice and the living present over the sign. J. Derrida, La voix et le phénomène (1967); Introduction to E. Husserl, L’origine de la géométrie (1962); SEP “Jacques Derrida”
Evidence: AI draft
Jacques Derrida › 1930–2004
Criticizes 3
John Stuart Mill
criticised
In the Prolegomena to the Logical Investigations (1900) Husserl rejected Mill’s psychologism, which treats the laws of logic, including non-contradiction, as empirical generalisations about thinking. E. Husserl, Logische Untersuchungen I: Prolegomena zur reinen Logik (1900), chs. 3–5; SEP “Psychologism”
Evidence: AI draft
John Stuart Mill › 1806–1873
Wilhelm Wundt studied with
studied with ✓
Husserl heard Wundt among his philosophy teachers in Leipzig in 1876–78. SEP “Edmund Husserl” (D. Zahavi), §1
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
criticised
In the Logical Investigations Husserl charged Wundt’s logic with an extreme psychologism. SEP “Wilhelm Wundt” (A. Kim), §7.2 (Husserl 1901)
Evidence: AI draft
Wilhelm Wundt › 1832–1920
Wilhelm Dilthey
criticised
Husserl’s ‘Philosophy as Rigorous Science’ (1911) attacked historicism and worldview philosophy as leading to sceptical relativism; Dilthey felt targeted, and the two exchanged letters. E. Husserl, “Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft”, Logos 1 (1911); Dilthey–Husserl correspondence, June–July 1911; SEP “Wilhelm Dilthey”
Evidence: AI draft
Wilhelm Dilthey › 1833–1911
Works
Against psychologism – the breakthrough of phenomenology.
The phenomenological reduction and pure consciousness.
Descartes' path radicalized – with the problem of experiencing others.
Since Galileo, the mathematization of nature has forgotten the lifeworld.
Position
Husserl founded phenomenology as a rigorous science of experience: “back to the things themselves”. Instead of speculating about what lies behind appearances, philosophy should describe how things show themselves to consciousness. To do so, he practised the epoché – suspending our natural belief in the existence of the world – in order to study the intentional acts through which meaning is constituted. Against psychologism he defended logic’s independence of empirical psychology. In his late work he described the lifeworld, the pre-scientific world of everyday experience that the mathematised sciences have forgotten. Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas and many others started from his method.
Life & context
Born in Moravia, Husserl first studied mathematics before Brentano’s lectures in Vienna won him for philosophy. He taught in Halle, Göttingen and from 1916 in Freiburg, where Heidegger succeeded him. Under the Nazis, as a convert of Jewish origin, he was excluded from university life. After his death his vast manuscripts were rescued to Leuven in Belgium.
Appears in
- Journey ‘Doubt and the Self’ · Stop 7 of 10
- Journey ‘Philosophy under National Socialism’ · Stop 3 of 10
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