Introduction to Husserl's Phenomenology

by Jan Patočka, James Dodd (Editor)

Patocka's celebrated Introduction, here made available in English for the first time, is not an introduction in the ordinary sense of the term. Patocka ranges over the whole of Husserl's output, from The Philosophy of Arithmetic to The Crisis of the European Sciences, and traces the evolution of all the central issues of Husserlian phenomenology - intentionality, categorial intuition, temporality, the subject-body; the concrete a priori, and transcendental subjectivity. But rather than attempting to give a tour of Husserl's workshop, Patocka is himself hard at work on Husserl's problems.

Genres: Philosophy

212 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Jan Patočka (June 1, 1907, Turnov, Bohemia - March 13, 1977, Prague) is considered one of the most important contributors to Czech philosophical phenomenology, as well as one of the most influential central European philosophers of the 20th century. Having studied in Prague, Paris, Berlin and Freiburg, he was one of the last pupils of Edmund Husserl, who is considered the founder of phenomenology, and Martin Heidegger. During his studies in Freiburg he was also tutored by Eugen Fink, a relation which eventually turned into a lifelong philosophical friendship.

His works mainly dealt with the problem of the original, given world (Lebenswelt), its structure and the human position in it. He tried to develop this basically Husserlian concept under the influence of some core Heideggerian themes (e.g. historicity, technicity, etc.) On the other hand, he also criticised Heideggerian philosophy for not dealing sufficiently with the basic structures of being-in-the-world, which are not truth-revealing activities (this led him to an appreciation of the work of Hannah Arendt). From this standpoint he formulated his own original theory of "three movements of human existence": 1) receiving, 2) reproduction, 3) transcendence.

Reviews

[Ejansand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew

That was quite a read. A stellar introduction for those already introduced to Husserl and his legacy. The chapters on the Phenomenological Reduction and the concept of the Phenomenon were particularly great.

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful work, Brentano and mathematics synthesized as a new philosophical science called phenomenology. Husserl claims transcendental consciousness sets the limit for all possible knowledge.