Husserl's Phenomenology (Cultural Memory in the Present) Paperback – January 1, 2003

No real elaboration of arguments. Some insights. Could be more clearly written.

There might be other books out there that give a specific subject (e.g. the mind and cognitive science) a phenomenological treatment, but Zahavi's contribution here is unique in that it helps you gain an understanding of phenomenology as it starts to depart from empiricism and a naturalistic framework. This is not an accidental feature of the text, Zahavi shows that he understands that most of his audience are naturalists by disposition and/or training, and takes pains to point out the limits of that worldview. The book is really dense and after reading it twice, I still had to jump back and forth between chapters to make sure I understood what it said, but as a former naturalist in the narrow sense, I have to say this was an incredibly rewarding exercise and Zahavi has been what Hume was to Kant. And if you've been trained in analytic philosophy/empiricism, but have been curious to know what these folks on the other side of the continent are talking about, this is most definitely the place to begin.

Decent book, read it for a class and it was a little tricky a times.

In _Husserl's Phenomenology_ Zahavi has really blown me away with how much he could fit into such a short amount of space with such clarity. This is, without a doubt, the best slim volume written on Husserl to date.

At first glance, it seems improbable that Zahavi's slim volume (the text is only 144 pages) could do justice to the voluminous, minutely argued, stylstically challenged, sometimes tortured work of Edmund Husserl. In fact such a suspicion is well-taken, since no single volume that anyone could carry is likely to exhaust all the possibilities for commentary that Husserl inspires. But it is hard for me to imagine that anyone could write a better introduction in terms of lucidly and precisely explicating the central themes of Husserl's phenomenology. Any normal mortal who is seriously interested in Husserl would profit from reading this book.The themes that have given students the greatest difficulty are treated concisely and with an elegance of expression that belies a deep understanding on Zahavi's part. These include intentionality, the nature of evidence and "apodicticity," the transcendental reduction and epoche, the balance of idealism and realism in Husserl's thought, the transcendental ego and constitution, time consciousness, the body, intersubjectivity, and the life world. The discussion of idealism/realism is very good, to a great extent owing to Zahavi's encyclopedic knowledge of all of Husserl's work -- both the major works published during or shortly after his lifetime, and the Husserliana, Husserl's notes and lectures that have only been available fairly recently. The discussion of the body, particularly in its role as both subject and object, and the foundation for intersubjectivity, is also extremely useful. The discussion of intersubjectivity is nothing short of superb. And the discussion of the life world, and the complexities and subtleties that this idea interjects into Husserl's developing understanding of the phenomenological project, is quite valuable.It is a measure of how good this book is that I like it in spite of fundamentally disagreeing with several of the author's central arguments about how Husserl should be interpreted. Zahavi is one of a growing number of revisionists that challenge the traditional interpretation of Husserl. The traditional interpretation is held by explicators and anthologists such as Dermot Moran (Introduction to Phenomenology, Routledge, 2000), and other philosophers such as Paul Ricouer (Husserl: an Analysis of his Phenomenology, Northwestern, 1967), Leszek Kolakowski (Husserl and the Search for Certitude, St. Augustine's Press, 1975), and Richard Rorty (Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Princeton, 1979). This tradition sees Husserl as the culmination of a philosophical line that begins with Descartes, touches upon the skepticism of Hume, and comes to its fullest statement in Kant. It emphasizes Husserl's debt to Descartes, his focus on subjectivity as the basis and origin of knowledge, a radical understanding of Husserl's doctrine of the ego's activity in constituting the given world, the foundationalist nature of Husserl's approach, and the consequent disjuncture between Husserl and the continental philosophers -- hermeneuticists, existentialists, and postmodernists -- that come after him. Not surprisingly, the revisionists tend to take opposing positions on each of these points. Examples of revisionist commentary in addition to Zahavi's are The Cambridge Companion to Husserl (Cambridge, 1995), and The New Husserl (Donn Welton, ed., Indiana, 2003).Some correction of the received wisdom on Husserl is probably in order. It is possible to take an overly restrictive view of his treatment of subjectivity, for instance. But a couple of Zahavi's arguments just seem wrong to me. For instance, Zahavi argues that Husserl is not a foundationalist thinker. This is a difficult position to maintain in the face of Husserl's oft repeated claim that through phenomenology philosophy can finally fulfill its promise of a life lived according to reason alone. He also argues, against a number of other interpreters, that Husserl is able to escape the solipsism that is implied by the radical focus on subjectivity set forth at the beginning of the Crisis and the Cartesian Meditations, among other places. Here he points to the extensive attention that Husserl gives to "intersubjectivity," the objectivity leant to the external world by the overlapping of the consciousnesses of multiple subjects. My constitution of a particular object must take into account the consitution of the same object by others. But the problem for Husserl, as for Descartes before him, is not one of focus but of method. The question is how either, given the radical subjectivity of their initial methodology, can build a bridge to an objectively existing world. Descartes relies on God. Husserl offers a tortured doctrine of "the Other." Many, including some of Husserl's disciples, believe that neither approach is altogether satisfactory.One of the well-taken points made by many of the revisionists, however, is that the relative neglect of Husserl in favor of later thinkers such as Heidegger, Sartre, Levinas, and Gadamer is not justified. Husserl changed the face of continental philosophy, and gave much to analytical philosophy as well. Happily, because of his work among thers, Zahavi can say that "Husserl is no longer simply regarded as a surpassed chapter in the history of phenomenology."

I am going to try to keep this review relatively short and sweet. There are already some excellent reviews of this book here on amazon and Zahavi's book has already succeeded in establishing itself as a must read secondary on Husserl. I am going to limit myself to listing a few of the virtues of this book. First, Zahavi's clarity as a writer. Husserl was a very precise writer but, in his concern with precision, he is not always the most lucid writer. Reading Husserl can be a bit of a chore even for those who have a strong background in philosophy and the phenomenological tradition. Zahavi, on the other hand, is an extremely lucid writer. This was the first book I ever read on Husserl years ago and I found it clear when I first read it, and after having just re-read it during a graduate seminar on Husserl, I was again struck by its clarity. The book is short but Zahavi is able to pack a lot in because he does not waste words.Second, Zahavi is one of the most well respected Husserl scholars around. There are a few places where Zahavi offers somewhat contentious interpretations, particularly in his interpretation of time consciousness, but, for the most part, you do not need to wonder, when reading this book, whether you are getting an accurate presentation of Husserl's ideas or not. Zahavi is a serious and well respected scholar. I just finished getting a Masters in philosophy and, in my experience, a lot of intro philosophy texts, like this one, offer really questionable interpretations of the philosophers they are interpreting. That can be a real problem for people who are just starting out in philosophy because the first books you read tend to influence how you read everything after that. So you want to get an accurate book to start with so that you have a solid foundation. This book definitely provides a solid foundation in Husserlian phenomenology.Third, Zahavi covers most of the major periods of Husserl's philosophical career, from the  Logical Investigations  up through the  The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology . Zahavi also analyzes most of the major topics in Husserlian phenomenology. He has an excellent chapter on perception, and the role of the body in perception, a good chapter on intersubjectivity, and a good chapter on the life-world and the crisis of the sciences. Zahavi defends Husserl from many of his later critics and gives lots of examples where Husserl anticipated many of the ideas of the later phenomenologists. I love Merleau-Ponty, for example, and it was great to see the ways in which Husserl had already anticipated many of Merleau-Ponty's most important insights. Apparently, Husserl was already talking about the reversibility of the flesh.There are two other books I would recommend for the newcomer to Husserl. I think that the  Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology  is probably the best place to start if you are new to Husserl, and if you do decide to start there, I highly recommend  Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Husserl and the Cartesian Meditations  by Smith. It is an excellent commentary. Finally, I have to recommend a book by an old professor of mine, Burt Hopkins,  The Philosophy of Husserl . I have actually only read sections of it so far, but it is very good, and Hopkins was a great professor, and a great Husserl scholar, so I definitely recommend his book if you are looking for another intro to Husserl.

Best introduction (I know of) to Husserl. Also excellent if you (like myself) want to brush up half-forgotten knowledge. Clearheaded author, good pedagogue, with firmly held opinions, but not opinionated.

Good