Edmund Husserl (Husserl Edmund)

(1859-1938)
Through teaching, and many works had a considerable influence on philosophy in Germany and many other countries, in particular the emergence and development of existentialism.
Husserl was born on April 8, 1859 in Prosnitse (Moravia). He studied in Berlin and Vienna universities, was preparing to become a mathematician, but TG Masaryk put him in classes philosopher and psychologist F. Brentano. Communicate with Brentano, and then with the psychologist C. Stumpf stimulated his interest in the study of mental processes. Husserl must Brentano important concept intent (orientation of consciousness: consciousness is always consciousness of 'something'). Subsequently, Husserl argued that Brentano did not see the real problems of 'intentionality' of the knowledge base and the constitution of the structures of experience. Among those who influenced Husserl in the early period, - William James, the British empiricists (mainly Dzh.S.Mill) and GW Leibniz. Kantian theory of knowledge influenced Husserl in a later period of his philosophical development.

Husserl believed that the main problem he has identified in the first book - The philosophy of arithmetic (Philosophie der Arithmetik: Psychologische und logische Untersuchungen, 1891). Two principal subjects of his interest, mathematics and formal logic, on the one hand, and psychology - on the other hand, for the first time together in this work. The difficulties he encountered (some of them were identified Frege in a critical analysis of this book), led Husserl to make a general study of the structure and the specific activity of 'conscious experience'. In the last chapter, he considered instantaneous 'seizure' of such characteristic forms as a row of soldiers, or a flock of birds. Thus, Husserl can be considered the forerunner of Gestalt psychology.

Although through all the work of Husserl held the same ideas, his views have undergone considerable change. There are four main groups of works: 1) the period of fascination with 'psychological', 2) phenomenology, . originally referred to as 'descriptive psychology', . or phenomenology in the narrow sense, and 3) the transcendental phenomenology, . first described in 1913, . however conceived several years earlier,
. Works published in Husserl's later life and after his death, constitute the fourth group.

Logical investigations (Logische Untersuchungen, 1900-1901) - the most well-known work of Husserl, was considered by him as a 'clearing the way' for the phenomenology. In the first volume, entitled Prolegomena to pure logic, given the strong criticism at the time the influential concept of 'psychology', or the view that the fundamental concepts and principles of logic are defined in terms of psychology. In the last chapter, 'The idea of pure logic', brought the philosophy of formal logic, emancipated from the psychology. Husserl insists on the futility of reference sphere of pure logic, or formal thinking in psychology. The second volume are six research value and structure of experience. Former interest in the characteristic forms of experience has led to the study of Husserl's 'categorial intuition'.

For the next period, which began lecturing idea of phenomenology (Die Idee der Phnomenologie, lectures 1907, published. posthumously), and is historically associated with ideas of labor to clean the phenomenology and phenomenological philosophy (Ideen zu einer reinen Phnomenologie und phnomenologischen Philosophie, . 1913), . critical Husserl had carried out the transition to a new type of idealism,
. This goal served his proposed method of phenomenological 'reduction'. Epohe (epoche), or refraining from any methodological judgments and beliefs, is a necessary preliminary step in the procedure for allocation of the field of perception as such, and finding the 'absolute' grounds for philosophy. It became clear that the phenomenology of looking nothing like the essence and the essential relationship.

In the works of Husserl clearly presented his opposition to naturalism, which is seen, in particular, his essays on philosophy as a rigorous science (Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft, 1911). This confrontation was for him one of the most effective motives. Descriptive science experiences, considered purely reflexive or 'transcendental' philosophy was to give a 'radical' start, free from any assumptions. Program 'constitutive' of phenomenology, launched in the later volumes of his ideas (publ. posthumously), as well as in other works, was to create a new idealistic philosophy.

Husserlian genius especially striking in two areas: in the philosophy of logic and descriptive analysis of the processes of consciousness, including the experience of consciousness of time. Studies in the logic include the works of his mature period: Experience and judgments (Erfahrung und Urteil, 1939) and Formal and Transcendental Logic (Formale und transzendentale Logik: Versuch einer Kritik der logischen Vernunft, 1929). Undisputed recognition deserves study consciousness of time in lectures on the phenomenology of the inner consciousness of time (Vorlesungen zur Phnomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstsein, 1928), as well as a number of works of different years. In Cartesian meditations (Mditations cartsiennes, 1931) is a detailed description of the problem of experience and knowledge of the consciousness of other people.

Many former students and colleagues have developed Husserl's phenomenology in alternate directions. For example, Max Scheler had an interest in religion and therefore built his concept of phenomenology. M. Heidegger, one of the founders of existentialism, initially was respectful and receptive pupil Husserl. He then undertook a thorough revision of phenomenology, based on the concepts of 'being' and 'existence'. Confident in the limitless potential of its 'constitutive' of phenomenology, supplemented by the concept of 'pre-given life-world', Husserl criticized the theory of Heidegger. Abandoned by his 'Aryan' students, Husserl hard to bear ill last years of life. Completed later period of his work The crisis of European sciences and transcendental phenomenology (Die Krisis der Europischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phnomenologie, 1936, publ. 1954), in which Husserl proposed that a certain notion of life-world (Lebenswelt).

Husserl died in Freiburg im Breisgau April 26, 1938. He left about 11 000 pages of unpublished papers and notes. Fortunately, they were stored and transported in Leuven (Belgium), where he currently continues work begun in 1950 on their editorial preparation and publication (series 'Gusserliana' - 'Husserliana').