The Philosophy of Husserl

As the founding father of phenomenology, one of the twentieth century´s most significant philosophical movements, Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) has been hugely influential in the development of contemporary continental philosophy. This introduction examines the whole of Husserl´s phenomenology as it is presented in the published corpus.The first part of the book explores his early investigations into the formation of mathematical and logical concepts in our cognitive life, which sparked the development of his method of "descriptive psychology". In Part 2 Hopkins investigates his Cartesian formulation of conceiving phenomenology as an attempt to overcome deficiencies in both empiricism and rationalism. Part 3 discusses Husserl´s analysis of temporal experience and his consideration of the historical aspects of cultural formation to arrive at a mature formulation of transcendental phenomenology. By following Husserl´s own personal trajectory in this way and his own attempts at explaining his approach, Hopkins is able to situate Husserl alongside other philosophers including Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Leibniz and Kant. The final part of the book deals with some of Husserl´s most important critics, in particular the critiques of Heidegger and Derrida, for which Hopkins develops an Husserlian response.