Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology. Illustrated

by Edmund Husserl, W. R. Boyce Gibson (Translator)

" General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology" by Edmund Husserl, first published in 1913, is a foundational work in 20th-century philosophy that formally introduces Husserl's mature system of phenomenology. Building on earlier texts like Logical Investigations, this book seeks to establish phenomenology as a rigorous science of consciousness — one that examines the structures of experience without presuppositions.

At the heart of Husserl’s project is the concept of intentionality — the idea that consciousness is always directed toward something, be it a thought, perception, or emotion. He introduces the phenomenological reduction, a method of "bracketing" or suspending judgment about the existence of the external world to analyze how things appear in pure experience. Through this, Husserl aims to reach the essential truths of phenomena.

This volume lays out key distinctions between the natural attitude (our everyday way of seeing the world) and the phenomenological attitude (a reflective, philosophical stance). It explores how objects, time, space, and self-awareness emerge from lived experience, positioning consciousness as the foundation for all meaning and knowledge.

760 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 18, 2025

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.