Husserl aims for a new science of the critique of knowledge that clarifies the essence of knowledge. He reaches for the possibility of metaphysics, as a science of being in the absolute and final sense. The outcome of this endeavour is a transcendental consciousness that is able to constitute objectivity, i.e. a science based on intuitive knowledge.
According to Husserl, positive sciences are not concerned with the critique of knowledge. It does not deal with real actualities, but rather with ideal possibilities that are valid in themselves and unquestioned from the very outset. Husserl argues for a philosophical method that distinguishes philosophy from the positive sciences. In this book he explains his preliminary thoughts on the possibility of knowledge.
First, Husserl outlines “the riddle of knowledge”:
- The problem of transcendence: how can consciousness (the thinking act) reach out beyond itself and make contact with an object? The objects of which we are conscious are ontologically distinct, i.e. the object itself is not a part of consciousness.
- The problem of correspondence: knowledge is a mental experience, it belongs to the knowing subject. How can knowledge be sure of its agreement with its object?
(1) The first requirement of a critique of knowledge: knowledge freed from transcendent knowledge
The cogitatio as an absolute givenness
Husserl first locates the sphere of immanence, that is, the intuitive knowledge of the cogitatio. The cogitatio is an absolute givenness, because it’s clear and certain that one doubts, perceives, judges, etc. He also calls this reflective thinking, or the reflective apprehension of the acts of consciousness: forms of thought that are realized in thinking are given insofar one reflects on them. Perception stands right before the eyes as something given and the same holds for every intellectual experience (no matter how they are given).
Phenomenological reduction
All knowledge must be placed in question, because knowledge contains within itself a problem, we do not know how it is possible that it makes contact with objectivity, i.e. the problem of transcendence (transcendence can be understood in twofold ways: the question of existence of the transcendent object or the ability of the relation to make contact with it.) No theoretical construct, empirical framework, psychology, biology, etc. can be used, everything is to be excluded.
The same goes for the ego, the world, and the experience of the ego as such. Here he does something interesting. Not only the (external) transcendence of objectivity must be excluded, the ego of the knowing subject also needs to be cleared out by suspending any (psychological) judgement. In this way the experiencing person that is part of that external world also falls under the reduction. He creates a 'second' (transcendental) consciousness. He also calls this pure consciousness.
It is unknown how perception makes contact with what is transcendent, but through the phenomenological reduction we can understand how it makes contact with what is immanent, because we directly see and grasp precisely what we intend in the seeing and grasping. Then reflection yields the pure phenomenon of any apperception as entities absolutely given and grasped in pure immanent seeing. This is no longer open to doubt, because it is given in consciousness itself.
Consequently, the problem of transcendence is solved by a theory of intentionality. Intentionality is the relation between the thinking act and objectivity. It contains something that can be apprehended within the pure phenomenon: the-relating-itself-to-something-transcendent, to refer to it in one way or another is an inner characteristic of the phenomenon.
(2) Second requirement: including insights into the essences
Then Husserl moves from the (reflective apprehension of its own) acts of consciousness to the following question: how can this type of knowledge also include insights into the essences of the acts of consciousness/knowing? These findings will then count as a priori truths. Research into essence is research into universals. The universal has the form of transcendence. By know Husserl already excluded all such knowledge, because it is problematic in itself (and can't be used in causal relation with each other), but he needs a solution for making general claims.
He says:
“The singular phenomenon of knowledge, coming and going in the stream of consciousness, is not the object of phenomenological determination. Phenomenology is directed to the "sources of knowing," to the general origins which can be seen, to absolutely given universals that provide the general criteria in terms of which the meaning and also the correctness of all our highly intricate thought is to be ascertained, and by which all the riddles concerning its objectivity are to be solved."
He finds that a purely immanent consciousness of universality can constitute itself on the basis of a seen and self-given particularity. Husserl calls this process “ideating abstractions”, this process secures the essence of a particular phenomenon that can be grasped. On the basis of a particular, an immanent consciousness of universality can be constituted. He gives an example of seeing the color red, it starts with (1) an intuition of red by attending to pure immanence, (2) then the phenomenological reduction is to be performed: all transcendental data must be excluded, so if the red is a dot on a piece of wood, the wood itself must be excluded, (3) then the meaning of red in specie becomes actualized in pure seeing this object of our intent, through which the universal can be seen, or: red in general.
This is how Husserl moves from the particular to redness in general. He justifies this process by stating that the relation of similarity between two singularities is a universal that is an absolute givenness. This is an analysis of essence and an investigation of universal states of affairs that are constituted within immediate intuition. These insights about the essence of the acts of consciousness (and acts of knowing) can then count as a priori truths. Knowledge belongs to the sphere of the immanence, so the aim is to find general objectivities of this consciousness. In this way a doctrine of essence of knowledge becomes possible.
(3) Third requirement: phenomenological solution for the problem of correspondence through the absolute givenness of the transcendent
First Husserl was more concerned with the immanence as an internal sphere of intuitive knowledge versus the external objectivity of transcendence, and how the thinking act can reach out and make contact with objectivity. He determined the givenness of intuition and objectivity. Now the focus shifts to how the givenness of objects are constituted in consciousness.
“Absolute givenness is an ultimate. Of course, one can easily say and maintain that something is absolutely given when it is not.”
So: while the physical object remains outside the act of knowing, the appearance of that object can be given in the reflective perceiving act that goes through the reduction. This givenness then is the key for the phenomenological solution of the correspondence problem. Husserl basically 'pulls' the transcendent into the immanent sphere through the criteria of absolute givenness. The relation between the thinking act and objectivity now no longer needs external research, but can be analysed and described in phenomenological terms.
In other words, essences or universals are transcendent, i.e. objectivity does not belong to consciousness, but phenomenologically they do if they can be given. These still do not become part of consciousness (not immanent in the real sense), but they do because they can be given (and thus become immanent in the phenomenological sense). Transcendent is now that which cannot be given, those things remain outside consciousness.
Consequently, things constitute themselves in the experience. The givenness of things means that they present themselves (or are represented) as such in these phenomena.
(He also mentions this does not mean that things “send their representatives into consciousness”. Rather, things exist in appearance, and are themselves given by virtue of appearance “to be sure, taken individually, they exist, or hold, independently of appearance -insofar as nothing depends on this particular appearance (on this consciousness of givenness)- but essentially, according to their essence, they cannot be separated from appearance”.)
Husserl calls this the wonderful correlation between the phenomenon of knowledge and the object of knowledge that reveals itself everywhere. A phenomenological investigation then becomes possible.
In short:
- The acts of consciousness are an absolute given. Intuitive knowledge is secured.
- The method of phenomenological reduction clears out all transcendental knowledge to yield a phenomenon that can be grasped in pure seeing through intentionality.
- Then he adds universals/essentials into this mix that can count as a priori truths. We can not only grasp particulars, but by researching them, also the universals/essences of knowing.
- Finally he solves the problem of correspondence. He does this by determining that there is a strict correlation between the appearance and that what appears.
Here are some thoughts
He solved the problem of transcendence by a theory of intentionality. Contact can be made by directing our intention to it. Grasping what appears becomes absolutely given in consciousness through the phenomenological reduction. He then constitutes these appearances in the consciousness as essences/universals by noticing particular appearances have stuff in common.
The problem of correspondence is met with a poor solution. Basically, the method of reduction yields an appearance, which is then a given because the setting aside of external knowledge ánd psychological judgement should guarantee a pure phenomenon. This appearance then functions as a bridge. He simply determines that there is a correlation between the appearance and the object itself. The gap in the relation between the thinking act and objectivity should be closed by such absolute givenness and thereby constituted in that same sphere of intuition for further investigation. I find it to be poor, because its aimed agreement with objectivity doesn't really leave the same domain (and the appearance is still related to the individual ‘reducing' subject). Husserl thinks differently, because the transcendental consciousness transforms any knowledge into a pure knowing, without depending on bodily human consciousness. But it does (imo).
Here is the thing, it also doesn’t surpass his solution for the problem of transcendence, it doesn’t provide much more than the very same solution, i.e. the phenomenological reduction. He only adds that absolutely given objectivity can be pulled into the sphere of immanence as long as it is adequately given, and thereby become part of it (even when it is not in the real sense).
The absolute givenness of things is the key to everything in his understanding. My main gripe with this is that it doesn’t seem to exclude anything and he does not burst out, he pulls everything in and then seems to close the door to the world he tries to agree with. Husserl seems to be developing a sort of hidden Platonism. A giveaway is when he says “Could a deity, an infinite intellect, do more to lay hold of the essence of redness than to "see" it as a universal?”.
Or maybe I became tired of reading his obscure texts all together. I had to scrape it all together back and forth throughout the text to make sense of it. This book was immensely obscure and difficult to read. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.