The Basic Problems of Phenomenology: From the Lectures, Winter Semester, 1910-11

by Edmund Husserl, I. Farin, J.G. Hart

This book provides a short introduction to Husserlian Phenomenology by Husserl himself. Husserl highly regarded his work "The Basic Problems of Phenomenology" as basic for his theory of the phenomenological reduction. He considered this work as equally fundamental for the theory of empathy and intersubjectivity and for his theory of the life-world. Further, with the appendices, it reveals Husserl in a critical dialogue with himself.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (Dr. phil. hab., University of Halle-Wittenberg, 1887; Ph.D., Mathematics, University of Vienna, 1883) was a philosopher who is deemed the founder of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, believing that experience is the source of all knowledge, while at the same time he elaborated critiques of psychologism and historicism.

Born into a Moravian Jewish family, he was baptized as a Lutheran in 1887. Husserl studied mathematics under Karl Weierstrass, completing a Ph.D. under Leo Königsberger, and studied philosophy under Franz Brentano and Carl Stumpf. Husserl taught philosophy, as a Privatdozent at Halle from 1887, then as professor, first at Göttingen from 1901, then at Freiburg im Breisgau from 1916 until his 1928 retirement.

Reviews

[Federico Bondi]

This is a nice introduction to phenomenology by none other than the father of this school of thought. Very nice edition too.

[Rodger Broome]

This book is a series of lectures (as the subtitle indicates) of Husserl's introductory lectures to some beginning and novice philosophy students. It is much easier to understand that his other writings. The translator's preface unpacks a lot of Husserl's language that the lay-person interested in investigating his though would need to know. I which some of the Latin terms in the text were parenthetically translated into English to help the newcomer follow along easier. Nonetheless, many of Husserl's key concepts about the phenomenological attitude, bracketing, intersubjectivity, and more, are explicated out in a user-friendly way.

This is a Husserlian gold-mine for the beginner.