Born in 1858 in Prossnitz (now Prostejov, Czech Republic) into an Austrian Jewish family, Edmund Husserl converted to Roman Catholicism in 1887 at 29 years old. In his final years, due to his Jewish roots, he was banned by the Nazis from academic life. He was educated in Leipzig, Berlin and Vienna, and taught at the Universities of Halle, Gottingen and Freiberg.
Husserl's Revolutionary Approach to Philosophy
Husserl agreed in principle with Descartes that the one thing of which we can be certain is conscience awareness. While this was his starting point, he had a fresh approach to philosophy - simply, he claimed that everything is a "phenomenon" and he justified this by disregarding subject versus object and consciousness versus the world.
Instead of favouring the subject/object, says Husserl, we should focus on the phenomenal qualities of objects as they appear to consciousness. Jonathan Culler in Literary Theory explains: "We can suspend questions about the ultimate reality of knowability of the world and describe the world as it is given to consciousness." From this, it appears that a work of literature is not necessarily objective, or an actuality. Husserl wrote: "The whole world, when one is in the phenomenological attitude, is not accepted as actuality but only as actuality-phenomenon. I exist, and all that is not-I is mere phenomenon dissolving into phenomenal connections."
It follows for example, that a work of literature is not objective, but is the experience of the reader. Readers may do the following:
- Analyse by making connections to produce meaning.
- Fill in any gaps.
- Conjecture and then have their expectations rejected or confirmed.
In other words, "things" are appearances rather than "things in themselves." Whether or not they actually exist should be put aside, and Husserl has a special word for this putting aside - "bracketing." Thus, we should be focusing on pure experience whose premise is that reality consists of objects and events as perceived in human consciousness, without existing independently of it. This Husserl describes as "transcendental idealism"
Husserl's Critics Challenge his Theory
Husserl's critics accused the philosopher of producing a paradox. Jeremy Harwood, in Philosophy: 100 Great Thinkers, describes their objection as follows: "How could he possibly reconcile his claim that consciousness constitutes the objects to which it is directed with the fact that the external world has a reality of its own?"
Apparently, Husserl did not respond to this question. However, he became a major influence on Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre and other philosophers adopted some of his principles. He died in 1938.
Sources:
- Culler, Jonathan, Literary Theory, Oxford University Press, 1997.
- Harwood, Jeremy, Philosophy: 100 Great Thinkers, Quercus, 2010.
Janet Cameron - MA. Cert.Ed. is a retired university lecturer and author of twelve books, women's short fiction and a magazine column.
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