Reviews for Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy: First Book (Collected Works / Edmund Husserl Series)

The average rating for Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy: First Book (Collected Works / Edmund Husserl Series) based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-01-21 00:00:00 Jin Non I read the Cartesian Meditations and some secondary sources before tackling this - and I was glad that I did. This is a very difficult text, though difficulty isn't really his intention (which is how I am prone to view Hegel). Ideas I is one of Husserl's greatest works. In terms of importance and influence, it is perhaps tied with his Logical Investigations, which he published more than a decade earlier. It is interesting to note the differences between the Logical Investigations and Ideas I. On the one hand, Ideas I is devoted exclusively to phenomenology, while Husserl divides his attention in LI between phenomenology, refuting psychologism, the ideality of meaning, mereology, and other themes. In this respect, then, Ideas I may be more accessible (and interesting) for those interested strictly in phenomenology. On the other hand, Husserl's approach changes quite radically between these two works. In the earlier book, Husserl is, in many ways, a realist and anti-(Neo-)Kantian. In Ideas, however, Husserl offers the fruits of his so-called "transcendental turn" toward transcendental idealism. He makes use of several newer concepts, including the noema/noesis distinction, the phenomenological/transcendental reductions, and the epoché. I can't really tell you whether you should read LI or Ideas I first. All I can say is that I read Ideas, followed by LI, and I found it went all right. However, I had to stop frequently and ask myself whether concepts that appeared similar here were the same as were employed there. After checking secondary sources, I discovered that, in some cases, there were subtle differences between the concepts. (For instance, Quality and Matter in LI are very similar to Noesis and Noema in Ideas, but with some differences - which I admit I don't fully understand.) Of course, you'd have to do this whichever order you read them in. I find that one's choice of secondary sources is somewhat limited if you tackle Ideas I first. Many, if not most, English-language commentaries focus on his earlier works, particularly the Logical Investigations. Commentaries that come out of Continental Europe, however, tend to focus Ideas I and even later works, especially those that focus on the Lifeworld, time-consciousness, and so forth. Whichever route you take, "An Introduction to Husserlian Phenomenology" by Rudolf Bernet, et al, is absolutely essential. Less detailed, but still valuable, is Dan Zahavi's "Husserl's Phenomenology." I cite these not only because I have found them incredibly useful, but because they also appear on reading lists I've encountered at German and North American universities. One more thing! I think it would be valuable if you understood some of the contemporary debates about consciousness and intentionality in philosophy of mind. It will help you to understand what Husserl is trying to do and evaluate his success.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-05-24 00:00:00 Fernando Fischmann This book is Husserl's historical breakthrough to transcendental phenomenology. It's kind of a work-in-progress, and it only scratches the surface of what the philosophy of transcendental constitution would become in H's later work. This is important, but I really, really, wish I had read Cartesian Meditations first, then back-tracked to Ideas I. It's so much easier to see what he was trying to do (and how he was doing it) from the hind-sight perspective of his much more fleshed-out transc. phenomenology of the late '20s.