Edmund Husserl: Philosopher of Infinite Tasks

You will find the word "phenomenology" used in architecture, archeology, physics, philosophy, psychology, general science, perception, religion and existentialism. It may have been first used by G.W.F. Hegel in his PHAENOMENOLOGIE DES GEISTES (1807). In the early 1960s I took a graduate course in that text at the University of Texas with visiting Professor Richard Kroner, at the time the grand old man of Hegelian studies. *** Etymologically "phenomen - ology" is the study or philosophy of phenomena. Phenomena are objects of human consciousness. In both Hegel and more especially Edmund Husserl, questions asked may include: What do I know when I receive sense impressions? What is the contribution to knowing phenomena of my "I," i.e., of myself as knower? What is consciousness? How does consciousness work? Why am I sure that phantasms/impressions in my consciousness point to or "intend" a reality outside my consciousness? What is the basis of my human certitude about the world beyond my knowing? *** Let's look briefly at Professor Maurice Natanson's 1973 EDMUND HUSSERL: PHILOSOPHER OF INFINITE TASKS. Despite many, many antecedents, including his teacher Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl (1859 - 1938) is the man scholars instinctively have in mind as the father of contemporary phenomenology. A chief concern of Professor Natanson is to find and demonstrate the underlying unity in Husserl's evolution as a thinker first in mathematics and physical sciences, then psychology and finally beyond all that into the "infinite tasks" of phenomenology. *** The book is not by any means an easy read unless you are a professional phenomenologist or historian of philosophy. It is not PHENOMENOLOGY FOR DUMMIES or Cliffs Notes. But you will emerge, I think, with a good grasp of key Husserlian concepts such as intentionality (objects of consciousness point to something beyond themselves), essences, epoche (= "bracketing" assumptions out of what is being focused on by consciousness), transcendental ego/I, intersubjectivity and others. *** The book also looks at the critics of and experimentsrs with Husserl such as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre and how Husserl did or would today answer them. His disciples and followers are noted, including his two famous research assistants Edith Stein (gassed at Auschwitz in 1942 and now a canonized Roman Catholic Saint) and Martin Heidegger, exuberant Nazi. *** Maurice Natanson leaves us in no doubt that phenomenology lives and grows today. Some of its methodology has proven attractive to certain social scientists and humanists, not to mention to Pope John Paul II. No matter where you start learning about Edmund Husserl and his Phenomenology, it will not be easy reading. Wikipedia is not a bad starting point. A bit later tackle Natanson's EDMUND HUSSERL. You are in the world of "hard thinking." But is a world happily embraced and gloried in by Edmund Husserl: the idea world that civilized Europe; the world of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Kant and Hegel. -OOO-