Continental Philosophy Review 41 (4):401-425 (2008)
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Abstract |
Throughout his career, Husserl identifies naturalism as the greatest threat to both the sciences and philosophy. In this paper, I explicate Husserl’s overall diagnosis and critique of naturalism and then examine the specific transcendental aspect of his critique. Husserl agreed with the Neo-Kantians in rejecting naturalism. He has three major critiques of naturalism: First, it (like psychologism and for the same reasons) is ‘countersensical’ in that it denies the very ideal laws that it needs for its own justification. Second, naturalism essentially misconstrues consciousness by treating it as a part of the world. Third, naturalism is the inevitable consequence of a certain rigidification of the ‘natural attitude’ into what Husserl calls the ‘naturalistic attitude’. This naturalistic attitude ‘reifies’ and it ‘absolutizes’ the world such that it is treated as taken-for-granted and ‘obvious’. Husserl’s transcendental phenomenological analysis, however, discloses that the natural attitude is, despite its omnipresence in everyday life, not primary, but in fact is relative to the ‘absolute’ transcendental attitude. The mature Husserl’s critique of naturalism is therefore based on his acceptance of the absolute priority of the transcendental attitude . The paradox remains that we must start from and, in a sense, return to the natural attitude, while, at the same time, restricting this attitude through the on-going transcendental vigilance of the universal epoché.
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Keywords | Husserl Naturalism Natural attitude Transcendental philosophy epoché |
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DOI | 10.1007/s11007-008-9088-3 |
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References found in this work BETA
Phenomenology of Perception.Maurice Merleau-Ponty - 1962 - Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: The Humanities Press.
The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy.Edmund Husserl - 1970 - Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Ideen Zu Einer Reinen Phänomenologie Und Phänomenologischen Philosophie.Edmund Husserl - 1950 - Felix Meiner Verlag.
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Citations of this work BETA
Intentionality: Some Lessons From the History of the Problem From Brentano to the Present.Dermot Moran - 2013 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 21 (3):317-358.
Volitional causality vs natural causality: reflections on their compatibility in Husserl’s phenomenology of action.Nicola Spano - 2022 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 21 (3):669-687.
Naturalizing What? Varieties of Naturalism and Transcendental Phenomenology.Maxwell J. D. Ramstead - 2015 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 14 (4):929-971.
Contaminating the Transcendental: Toward a Phenomenological Naturalism.Anthony Vincent Fernandez - 2015 - Journal of Speculative Philosophy 29 (3):291-301.
Phenomenology and Naturalism: A Hybrid and Heretical Proposal.Jack Reynolds - 2016 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 24 (3):393-412.
View all 18 citations / Add more citations
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