Edmund Husserl
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Born: 1859
Died: 1938, at the age of 79
Country of origin: Moravia (now the Czech Republic). He did most of his work in Germany.
- Areas of focus:
Phenomenology, Psychology, Mathematics.
- Some of Husserl's influences:
Franz Brentano,
- Contemporary Philosophers:
Franz Brentano, Martin Heidegger,
- Major Books written by Husserl:
- "On the Concept of Number" (1887)
- "Philosophy of Arithmetic" (1891)
- "Logical Investigations" (1901)
- "Ideas I" (1913)
- "Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology" (1931)
- Cocktail summary of Husserl's main ideas:
Husserl's mission was to understand the interaction between the two
types of knowledge: Rationalism and Empiricism. How exactly does Pure
Theory interact with knowledge gained from direct experience? How does
the mind go from sensory perception to the conscious abstraction of
something like numbers?
He was looking for a theory to explain pure thought. Such as, if we
look at two rocks lying on the ground we can produce a mental concept
of a number, such as "Two". But how does human consciousness go from
basic visual input to a mental abstraction of a number? What's the
"interface" between raw sensory data and mental abstractions?
This may sound like an odd question to base a whole career on, but it
was an important question to many thinkers at the time, due largely to
the changes going on at the time in science and theory, brought on by
the Modern Age.
The turn-of-the-Century saw Philosophy entering a period of
identity-crisis. The scientific method was taking over all disciplines,
reducing all knowledge to measurement, experiment, and numbers. Many of
the questions Philosophy traditionally dealt with were being taken over
by Psychology and the methods of Freud. Questions about formerly
abstract topics like Space and Time and were being incorporated into
mathematical equations by the likes of Einstein. The very words used to
talk about Philosophy were being taken over by Linguistics, by members
of the movement that called itself Logical Positivism, which viewed
Language as little more than symbols of Logic, and banished any
metaphysical topics from analysis, due to the non-mathematical nature
of metaphysics.
What was left for Philosophy to do, except look back at it's own
esteemed history, now that it was no longer relevant in the modern
world? Was there any need for pure Theory, for talking about abstract
ideas, now that science was supposedly on track to explain all details
of everything? Should Philosophers just pack it up and become talk-show
hosts?
Husserl was a student of Franz Brentano, who had argued that the nature
of human Consciousness was beyond the reach of simple, reductionist,
scientific explanations. The ancient problem of how the mind interacts
with the body could partially be explained by the fact that a key
aspect of Consciousness is "Intentionality": the mind is always
focusing on some external object or fact. #######
Building on Brentano's ideas, Husserl argued that the so-called
"Scientisms" and "Psychologisms" of the day were ultimately
self-defeating. His argument basically went like this:
All people of science agree that there exists a realm of pure
perfection of ideas - Mathematics. Arguments such as 1+1 always have an
exact, "pure" answer: 1+1 always equals 2. 1+1 never equals 2.000001 or
0.000001. It always, always
equals exactly 2. This is true even if there is no human mind to think
the thought. Mathematics is true above and beyond human actions or
thinking. The truth of numbers is "out there", waiting to be
discovered.
But the scientific method is all about experiment. Tests and
measurements always try to determine a value of some kind - they try to
figure out the true number that represents a particular question - but
the results will always be less than exact, no matter how sophisticated
our measuring-equipment or our techniques. There will always be some
margin of error, even down at the quantum level, with the realm of pure
mathematical perfection never truly being achieved. And this is the
goal of all science, to be as exact and specific as possible in
everything it says. This is what distinguishes the Modern era from all
previous eras.
But Philosophy has always aimed higher than what can be learned
empirically, from what our senses tell us. Pure theory lives in the
same realm as Mathematics - pure, exact, pre-existing ideas - and
Philosophy has always been used to think through the implications of
these pure ideas. Over time, Philosophy had become stuck in two
separate "isms", without a clear connection between the two:
Rationalism which worked out all of the implications of pure Ideas
without appealing to the world of the senses, and Empiricism which did
the reverse, working out the implications of knowledge gained from the
senses without appealing to pure Theory.
Philosophers knew that knowledge was gained from both the external
world and from "pre-wired" ideas that we apparently are born with, but
the mechanics of how the two realms interacted was fuzzy. Ideas clearly
passed back and forth between the two realms (such as seeing two rocks
on the ground triggered the purely abstract concept of "Two" in the
mind), so it was clear that some process had been overlooked.
Husserl used Geometry as an example, pointing out that all of modern
Geometry is based on common, simple assumptions of the idea of a line,
a point, an area, etc. These are pure ideas that are assumed to exist
"out there", true independent of our psychology or wishes to the
contrary. They are objectively true. Everyone assumes that the idea of
a line or a point is valid and exists, and the implications of how
these ideas interact are worked out from there, without relying on the
tools of science. True Logic doesn't need a slide-rule to arrive at
true Truths.
This all sounds very obvious and self-evident, and a dubious topic of
debate. But Husserl said that herein lies the key to the true purpose
of Philosophy - to address issues that lie above and beyond the
ordinary Logic of experiments and the scientific method. The Logical
Positivists said that only those words that are logical, exact, and
precise should be used to discuss ideas, and any words that are inexact
- such as words dealing with Ethics, Art, or Religion - are to be
"passed over in silence" and simply not used.
Husserl and the Phenomenologists agreed with this assessment of the
limits of ordinary language, and decided that a process of
introspection through negation was needed to deal with the Universal
which exists above and beyond all Particulars. That Universal is
Absolute Being, Absolute Consciousness, with the Particulars being all
things that exist within Being, that are est dealt with by science.
The path to approaching Absolute Being lay in introspection through
analyzing human conscious experience. Conscious experience is the
conduit through which Being is perceived, and measuring it via science
and numbers is not a useful approach. That is best left to the
scientists: real men are brave enough to look beyond numbers.
This process of analyzing Absolute Being through studying conscious
perception was called "Phenomenology": describing the phenomena of
conscious experience, without appealing to any pre-existing theories to
explain them. Similar to Behaviorism in Psychology, the emphasis is on
description only, not on explanation. It's sort of the opposite of
Positivism: Positivism figures out the solid, measurable, Logical
reliability of one "fact" before inferring anything beyond it, whereas
Phenomenology looks at facts from a bird's-eye view and infers the
implications on the basis of the Phenomena of how we consciously
experience them. Positivists studied the trees but Phenomenologists
studied the forest.
Husserl called the process of negation within this kind of analysis
"Reduction" or, alternately "epoché", and it involved the
so-called "bracketing" of all Particulars to the side while trying to
apprehend the Universal behind them. It works like this:
- First, when thinking about the nature of Reality, bracket out all
Particulars. Such as, when you think of the Earth, "bracket" this out
from your thinking. When you think of the Universe, bracket this out as
well. When you think of God, bracket that concept out, etc.
- Second, bracket out the acts and objects of consciousness. Since what
we consciously perceive are just representations, and not the objects
themselves, these need to be ignored for the present purpose. So stop
thinking about Particulars, and stop thinking about thinking about
them.
- Third, you need to bracket out all remaining analysis, contemplation,
and judgment. You're basically clearing all of the clutter out of your
cranial closet.
- When you're done bracketing out all particulars, no matter how grand
those particulars are (even God is argued to be a Particular, existing
within a larger state of Being), you are left with Pure Consciousness,
Absolute Being, the so-called "Transcendental Ego".
This process is sort of similar to how Zen Buddhists approach
meditation, silencing the mind of all verbalization in order to
approach the pregnant-void behind all of reality. But whereas the Zen
method aims for the ultimate empty Void at the farthest "edges" of
reality, the bracketing process of Husserl's attempted to approach the
"pure essence" of an experience, the core nature of a perception and
its abstraction. (Don't try this at home...)
Husserl called his ideas "Phenomenology". This word was actually
borrowed from Hegel, who had used it much earlier, but Husserl built
his whole discipline around it. The name refers to the discipline of
analyzing human perception of Phenomena directly, without appealing to
any existing theories that tries to explain how perception is
translated into knowledge. It is only the Phenomena of conscious
perception that is to be studied, inductively from the "outside".
Instead of talking about Theory, Husserl would say "To the things
themselves", referring to the perceptions of things, with no subjective
explanations. The goal was Description of Phenomenon, not Explanation
of Phenomenon. It was sort of an investigation of Theory via
Psychology.
Edmund's approach attracted a growing audience, since it was seen as an
antidote to the depersonalizing influence of Modernity. While Modernity
and Science were obsessed with measurement and objectivity, in reality
its measurement could never arrive at a pure, final solution and
subjectivity could never be omitted. The Phenomenology of Husserl
pointed to a way to preserve the inherently unique, non-reductionist
nature of human conscious perception.
- Husserl praised & criticized:
- Husserl's writings, and Phenomenology in general, is not easy
to read. Compared to the writings of his student Heidegger, it's
downright light reading, but on it's own it takes a while for most
readers to zero in on the basic ideas. The word "Phenomenology" has
been used in so many contexts in the past 200 years that it now means
almost anything and everything, so one has to isolate Husserl's use of
the word. For this reason his writings are sometimes criticized for
being too obscure and specialized. But Husserl was a direct forerunner
of many ideas in modern Existentialism and his ideas had immense impact
on subsequent Existentialist writers like Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and
Sartre, specifically with regards to his unique method of approaching
"Absolute Being" via "bracketing". Phenomenology can be a hard nut to
crack, but it's worth the effort, since it offers a possible solution
to the long-standing "mind-body" problem in Philosophy.
- Notable Facts about Edmund Husserl:
- Religious affiliation:
Husserl was Jewish but converted to Christianity when he was 28,
joining the Lutheran Church. He was actively religious and saw his
philosophical pursuits as a form of religious discipline.
- Husserl is often famous for the shabby way he was treated
by his most famous student, Martin Heidegger. Professor Husserl had
seen great promise in Marty and had recommended him to succeed his post
at the University of Freiburg when he resigned, which was granted. When
Marty wrote his famous book "Being and Time" he dedicated it to his
mentor Husserl.
However, when the Nazis came into power it became very inconvenient to
your career to have Jewish friends in Germany, so Heidegger gave
Husserl the cold shoulder and even removed the dedication to him in a
later edition of his book. Husserl's Jewish heritage made him persona
non-grata in any University in Germany and he spent his later years
discussing his ideas in secret meetings and a few rare lectures in
Vienna. But his days of celebrity were over, thanks in part to his
opportunistic former friend.
- Husserl eventually decided that Heidegger was taking his
ideas in a direction that he, Husserl, hadn't originally intended,
which is probably the only time a student has ever disappointed his
professor...
- Husserl died of Pleurisy, a lung-infection in 1938, on Good Friday, just a little over a year before World War II began.
- Quotes:
- "... it is forgotten that natural science is a title for spiritual activities".
- "Blinded by Naturalism (no matter how much they themselves
may verbally oppose it), the practitioners of humanistic science have
completely neglected even to pose the problem of a universal".
- "The crisis of European existence can end in only one of
two ways: in the ruin of a Europe alienated from its rational sense of
life, fallen into a barbarian hatred of spirit; or in the rebirth of
Europe from the spirit of philosophy, through a heroism of reason that
will definitively overcome naturalism. Europe's greatest danger is
weariness."
Other stuff going on during Husserl's life:
- History:
- Art:
- Music:
- Literature:
- Religious trends: