Abstract
This essay examines the debate that arose immediately following the publication of the first volume of Edmund Husserl's Ideas regarding the model of concept formation that Husserl sketches in that work. After a brief overview of the relevant passages from the Ideas, I take up essay-length responses to Husserl by August Messer, Theodor Elsenhans, and Heinrich Gustav Steinmann. Reflecting a variety of empiricist commitments, all three authors are skeptical that concepts can be expected to embody the essence of a corresponding phenomenon. Subsequently, I review the responses to these critiques offered by Husserl, his then-assistant Edith Stein, and Paul Linke. For Linke, it is at least highly probable that certain concepts derive their content from an apprehension of essence. The empiricist alternative, he argues, is fatally unstable. Husserl and Stein, meanwhile, offer a more forceful defense of this position. Unless we allow that certain kinds of concepts can originate from a grasp of essence, they argue, we will be unable to explain how certain manifest cognitive accomplishments are possible.
References
Cassam, Q. 1987. “Transcendental Arguments, Transcendental Synthesis and Transcendental Idealism.” The Philosophical Quarterly (1950–) 37 (149): 355–78, https://doi.org/10.2307/2219565.Search in Google Scholar
Elsenhans, T. 2018a. “Phenomenology, Psychology, Epistemology” [Phänomenologie, Psychologie, Erkenntnistheorie]. Trans. J. Rump, E. Clarke, A. Staiti. In The Sources of Husserl’s Ideas, edited by A. Staiti, and E. Clarke. Berlin: DeGruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Elsenhans, T. 2018b. “Phenomenology and the Empirical” [Phänomenologie und Empirie]. trans. A. Staiti. In The Sources of Husserl’s Ideas, edited by A. Staiti, and E. Clarke. Berlin: DeGruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Husserl, E. 2014. Ideas for a Pure Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy: First Book: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology. Translated by Daniel O. Dahlstrom. Indiana: Hackett Publishing.10.4324/9781315823577Search in Google Scholar
Husserl, E. 2018a. “Draft of a Letter to August Messer (1914)” [Entwurf eines Briefes an August Messer (1914)]. trans. E. Clarke. In The Sources of Husserl’s Ideas, edited by A. Staiti, and E. Clarke. Berlin: DeGruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Husserl, E. 2018b. “Remark on Messer and Cohn (February/March 1913: First Draft)” [Erster Entwurf zur Anmerkung über Messer und Cohn (Feburar/März 1913)]. trans. A. Staiti. In The Sources of Husserl’s Ideas, edited by A. Staiti and E. Clarke. Berlin: DeGruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Husserl, E., and E. Stein. 2018. “Critique of Theodor Elsenhans and August Messer (1917) (Edith’s Stein’s Draft)” [Zur Kritik an Theodor Elsenhans und August Messer (1917: Edith Steins Ausarbeitung)]. trans. E. Clarke. In The Sources of Husserl’s Ideas, edited by A. Staiti and E. Clarke. Berlin: DeGruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Linke, P. 2018. “The Legitimacy of Phenomenology: A Disagreement with Theodor Elsenhans” [Das Recht der Phänomenologie]. trans. E. Clarke. In The Sources of Husserl’s Ideas, edited by A. Staiti and E. Clarke. Berlin: DeGruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Messer, A. 2018. “Husserl’s Phenomenology in its Relation to Psychology (Second Essay)” [Husserl’s Phänomenologie in ihrem Verhaltnis zur Psychologie (Zweiter Aufstaz)]. trans. A. Staiti. In The Sources of Husserl’s Ideas, edited by A. Staiti and E. Clarke. Berlin: DeGruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Stern, R. 2000. Transcendental Arguments and Scepticism: Answering the Question of Justification. New York: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Stein, E. 2018. “Concerning Heinrich Gustav Steinmann’s Paper On the Systematic Position of Phenomenology” [Zu Heinrich Gustav Steinmanns Aufsatz Zur systematischen Stellung der Phänomenologie]. trans. E. Clarke. In The Sources of Husserl’s Ideas, edited by A. Staiti and E. Clarke. Berlin: DeGruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Steinmann, H. 2018. “On the Systematic Position of Phenomenology” [Zur systematischen Stellung der Phänomenologie]. trans. A. Staiti. In The Sources of Husserl’s Ideas, edited by A. Staiti and E. Clarke. Berlin: DeGruyter.Search in Google Scholar
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston