Abstract
The following is an English translation of the 1960 paper by the South African philosopher D. C. S. Oosthuizen entitled “Die Transendentaal-Frenomenologiese Idealisme: ‘n Aspek van die konstitusie-probleem in die filosofie van Edmund Husserl,” preceded by a few contextualizing remarks by the translator. The paper attempts to show that the phenomenological, eidetic and transcendental reductions, the problem of constitution and transcendental genesis are indispensable parts of the transcendental phenomenological method. It then demonstrates that this method and the results that are obtained by means of it cannot, strictly speaking, be said to decisively favour a metaphysical or epistemological idealism, specifically because the transcendental reductions cannot be undone.
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Notes
Permission to publish the English translation of the copyrighted paper, originally entitled “Die Transendentaal-fenomenologiese Idealisme: 'n Aspek van die konstitusie-probleem in die filosofie van Edmund Husserl,” has kindly been granted to the translator by the University of South Africa.
A selection of these papers were collected and published by Ian Bunting. See Oosthuizen (1973).
Oosthuizen, James Oglethorpe and Johan Degenaar are the three main philosophical figures who develop responses to the political and ideological conflicts of the 1940s and 1950s in South Africa. See Nash (1997).
Translator’s Note: I have translated this term to echo the German “Weltanschauliche” as closely as possible, even though there is no standard equivalent in English.
Translator’s Note: In Zulu mythology, a tokkelossie is a small, mischievous evil spirit. The word is sometimes translated as “gremlin” in English, but since this word does not in my view adequately capture the meaning of the term, I have left it untranslated.
E. Husserl, Pariser Vorträge, Husserliana I, p. 24.
Translator’s Note: The meaning of this sentence is unclear in the original Afrikaans. The word “begaan” is usually only used when someone commits an error, but its usage here does not here directly indicate this. As such, I use the English “provides”.
Bevan, Symbolism and Belief, p. 19. Beacon Press, Boston, 1957.
Husserl, Erste Philosophie, Husserliana VII, p. 381.
Acknowledgments
A special thank you to Johan Snyman and Rafael Winkler for their insightful comments on this translation.
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Botha, C.F. D. C. S. Oosthuizen on Husserl’s Doctrine of Constitution. Husserl Stud 32, 131–147 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10743-016-9190-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10743-016-9190-z