Edmund Husserl's Logical
Investigations, published in two volumes in 1900 and
1901, presents for the first time his ideas about transcendental phenomenology.
In it Husserl presents a sharp critique of psychologism and
develops some concepts such as intentionality which
will occupy a central place in phenomenology. Intentionality is described there
as the property of experiences as referring to something. Consciousness
for Husserl is necessarily intentional, that is, all experiences necessarily
refer to objects.
Phenomenology appears in
Logical Investigations as a science of essences that must proceed
according to a strict scientific method. One of the methods Husserl
offers is the eidetic variation, which consists of comparing several
intentional objects to highlight a common essence and to study it as a mere
possibility. Another methodical element is called a mereology, or theory of
wholes and parts, from which it is necessary to distinguish between independent
and non-independent parts of the essences of intentional objects.
Finally, the method advanced
by Husserl in Logical Investigations also assumes a theory of
intentional experiences. .According to this theory, the question about the
intentional meaning is answered from the perceptual experiences in which real
or ideal objects are captured. Husserl distinguishes between experiences
that present their objects and experiences that are "empty". For
him it is possible to think of the experiences in which ideas are grasped or
intuited as experiences analogous to those in which a real object is perceived.
From this point of view, objects are inconceivable without their reference to
the experiences in which they are shown: the postulate of a thing in itself,
independent of the life of consciousness, is absurd.
Thus, in summary, Husserl's
Logical Investigations conceives phenomenology as a science that studies the
essential structures of experiences and intentional objects, as well as essential
relationships between types of experiences and intentional objects. On the
other hand, the purpose of phenomenology as proposed in this work would consist
of the epistemological clarification of pure logic, which would also include
mathematics, based on the fulfillment of the intentional experiences of logical
objectivities. Husserl’s later work on phenomenology would take a different
direction, not to mention other future phenomenologists.
Back to: What is Phenomenology
Back to: Things Themselves: Easy Intro to
Husserl's Phenomenology
