Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2010
“What is phenomenology? It may seem strange that this question has still to be asked half a century after the first works of Husserl. The fact remains that it has by no means been answered.” Merleau-Ponty made this observation in 1945. It is still substantially correct, except that it is now three-quarters of a century after the first works of Husserl.
1 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Phenomenology of Perception, translated by Smith, Colin (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962), p. viiGoogle Scholar.
2 Cited by Edie, James M. in “Phenomenology as a Rigorous Science,” International Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. VII (1967), pp. 21–40, p. 21CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The occasion was the fourth Colloque de Royaumont.
3 “Phenomenology”, Encyclopedia Britannica (14th Edition, 1959), pp. 699–702, p. 701.
4 Husserl, , The Idea of Phenomenology translated by Nakhnikian, and Alston, (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1964), p. xxiGoogle Scholar (of Nakhnikian's introduction).This work will be referred to hereafter as Idea.
5 “Ego and Person: Phenomenology or Analysis”, The Monist, Vol. 49, pp. 18–27, p. 21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 Review of Farber's Foundation of Phenomenology, Philosophy, Vol. XXI (1946), pp. 263–69, p. 265Google Scholar.
7 “Phenomenology and Linguistic Analysis”, The Aristotelian Society, Supplement, Vol. XXXIII (1959), pp. 111–24, p. 121Google Scholar.
8 Op. cit., p. viii.
9 Idea, p. I.
10 Cf. Ibid., p. 17.
11 Cf. Ibid., 30.
12 Cf. Ibid., pp. 2–3, 23–24.
13 Ibid., p. 31.
14 Ibid., p. 18.
15 Ibid., p. 17.
16 Cf. Ibid., p. 20.
17 Cf Ibid., p. 7.
18 E.g., Ryle, in the review cited, p. 265.
19 Cf. Ideen I, Section 22.
20 Idea of Phenomenology, p. 60.
21 This is Sartre's position in his “Conscience de soi et connaissance de soi”.
22 Cf. Ideen I, Sections 31 and 32.
23 Sartre, J. P., Being and Nothingness, translated by Barnes, Hazel (New York, Philosophical Library, 1956), p. 73Google Scholar.
24 Cf. Ibid., lvii.
25 Idea, p. 31. My italics.
26 Being and Nothingness, p. 619.
27 Cf. Ideen I, Part 2—Indeed, Husserl sometimes uses “epoché” and “phenomenological reduction” synonymously. Cf. Idea, p. 34 and Ideas, p. 12 (Husserl's introduction to the Boyce Gibson translation).