PHI 600: Husserl and the Foundations of Phenomenology

                                  Syracuse University - Dr. John D. Caputo  -  Fall, 2006

 

                                                                     Prospectus

            Husserl's phenomenology is central to the study of contemporary continental thought. Virtually every major thinker from Heidegger to Jacques Derrida has passed through the doorway of the phenomenological method.   His theories of intentionality, internal time consciousness, the constitution, the pure and the empirical ego, active and passive genesis, the natural attitude, the epoche and the reduction, noesis and noema, perception, and his idea of experiential “reason” are groundbreaking openings which provide the entryway to continental thought in the 20^th century.  He is also the most scientific and epistemological of the continental philosophers–having begun his work in the foundations of mathematics and logic (which included an exchange with Frege–and thus has often attracted the interest of analytic philosophers).  We will study three major texts, which take up three central themes and represent three characteristic stages in the development of Husserl's thought.  We will begin with the “transcendental turn” taken by Husserl in Ideas I (1916),which gave the “descriptive psychology” of Logical Investigations (1900-1901) a fundamentally new epistemological status.  Ideas I was also of foundational importance for Jean-Paul Sartre.  Then we will turn to the central issue of an “intersubjective phenomenology,” raised in the Cartesian Meditations (1929), which includes the famous account of constitution of the alter ego, which was the point of departure for Levinas’s work in ethics.  We will conclude with the well known “Life-world phenomenology” in the Crisis (mid-1930s), which was of decisive importance to Merleau-Ponty and to existential phenomenology generally.  With the exception of Cartesian Meditations, we cannot read these books in their entirety, but we will nonetheless gain a substantial sense of the movement and range of Husserl’s thought.

 

                                                                  Texts & Topics

(1)  Transcendental Phenomenology:

Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and a Phenomenological Philosophy: First Book:  General Introduction to a PurePhenomenology, trans. Fred Kersten (Springer/Kluwer paperback)

 

(2)  Intersubjectivity

Cartesian Meditations, trans. Dorian Cairns (Springer Classic Titles in Philosophy)

 

(3)  The Life World

Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, trans. David Carr, Northwestern UP paperback

 

 

                                                                   Reserve Room

If you are newcomer to Husserl, some good places to get some background are:

(1)  Caputo, Radical Hermeneutics, ch. 2 (IUP), which will outline my approach;

(2)  Maurice Natanson, Husserl: Philosopher of Infinite Tasks (Northwestern); very good intro.
(3)  Robert Solomon, From Rationalism to Existentialism, the chapter on Husserl is the best intro of its length to Husserl that I know. (Littlefield Adams, 1992).  Good place to start.  These and the required texts have been placed on reserve in the Bird Library.

                                                             Course Requirements

(1)  Seminar Participation (20%)

(2)  2 Research Papers (40% each)

                 These papers should be approximately 4,000-4,500 words long.

     The paper should be prepared in accordance with a standard style sheet and should be correctly documented (notes and bibliography).

     The topic of the first paper is on Ideas I and of the second paper on either the Cartesian Meditations or the Crisis.  Comparative studies are welcome so long as you are not starting from scratch with the figure with whom you are comparing Husserl.

     Bibliographical assistance is available on line in the library.  Philosopher's Index is the best place to start.                       

                  Deadlines:

            Paper #1  - proposal due Oct. 4; paper due Oct. 25;

            Paper #2  - proposal due Nov. 15; paper due Dec. 15

 

                                                                 Office (HL 509)

            Although I have scheduled office hours–Tuesday, 3:45-5:30, Wednesday, 1:00-4:15–you should, for safety's sake, make an appt in advance by email at johncaputo@comcast.net (preferably) or jdcaputo@syr.edu.

 

                                                                        Syllabus

 

August 30                   Orientation; Ideas I, Natural Attitude, §§27-32; Principle of all Principles, §24; Consciousness and Natural Reality,  Ideas I, §§33-38.

 

September 6                Consciousness and Natural Reality, Ideas I, §§39 -46

                                    Pure Consciousness, Ideas I, §§47-51

 

                   13             Pure Consciousness, Ideas I, §§52-55; the Reductions, §§56-62;

                                    Reflection, Ideas I, §§76-80

 

                  20              Time, Matter and Form, Ideas I, §§81-86

                                    Noesis and Noema, Ideas I, §§87-96

 

                   27             Language, Ideas I, §§124-127

                                    Objectivity, Ideas I, §§128-35

 

October 4                    Cartesian Meditations, Introduction, I, II

 

              11                  CM, III, IV

 

              18                  CM, V,  §§42-54

 

              25                  CM, V, §55-64

 

November 1                The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology

                                    “The Vienna Lecture” (pp. 269-299)

 

                  8                Crisis, Part I, §§1-7 and “Origin of Geometry” (pp. 353-378)

 

                 15              Crisis, Part II, §§8-9

 

                 22               Thanksgiving

 

                 29               Crisis, Part II, §§10-27

 

December 6                 Crisis, Part III, A, §§28-55