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The Idea of Phenomenology: Reading Husserliana as Reductions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2011

Juha Himanka
Juha Himanka*
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
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Abstract

Edmund Husserl strongly emphasized the importance of reduction to his phenomenology. For his followers, however, it has proved a formidable task to specify exactly how this intricate accomplishment that opens up the possibility for phenomenological research is to be performed. In this article, we study different approaches to gaining access to reduction and conclude by suggesting that we should read Husserliana itself as a set of accomplished reductions. In other words, our task is to pinpoint chapters where the movement of reduction takes place. As an example of such a reading, I will point out events that come about in Husserl’s Idea of Phenomenology.

Résumé

Husserl a fortement insisté sur l’importance de la réduction dans sa phénoménologie. Pour ses disciples, cependant, s’est avéré être redoutable la tâche de préciser comment doit être exécutée cette réalisation complexe qui ouvre la possibilité pour la recherche phénoménologique. Dans cet article, nous étudions les différentes approches de la réduction et nous concluons en suggérant que l’ouvrage Husserliana lui-même doit se lire comme un ensemble de réductions accomplies. Notre tâche consistera donc à identifier les chapitres où a lieu ce mouvement de réduction. À titre d’exemple d’une telle lecture, j’évoquerai quelques-uns des événements de L’idée de la phénoménologie de Husserl.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 49 , Issue 4: Numéro Spécial / Special Issue: Philosophie cartésienne et matérialisme , December 2010 , pp. 617 - 640
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2011

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References

Notes

I would like to thank Janita Hämäläinen and Hannu Sivenius, whose thoroughness and insights during the process (1993–95) of translating The Idea of Phenomenology into Finnish helped me a lot in learning to read Husserl.

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10 HuaDok III(3), 281; Hua I, 66; Hua IX, 295.

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25 One has to admit, however, that in his short introduction to “The Origin of Geometry,” Fink does not mention reduction: Eugen Fink, “Vorwort” for “Edmund Husserl, Die Frage nach dem Ursprung der Geometrie als intentional-historisches Problem,” in Revue internationale de Philosophie I (1939): 203–6.

26 Cairns, 10.

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32 Phenomenology “does not engage in theory” (Husserl, The Idea of Phenomenology, 43).

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37 Ibid., (emphasis original).

38 Ibid., 80 (emphasis mine). Although Derrida makes a reference to Bachelars, Susan, A Study of Husserl’s Formal and Transcendental Logic (Evanston: Nortwestern University Press, 1968)Google Scholar here, his own statement goes well beyond the evidence presented there.

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46 The Idea of Phenomenology, 16.

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48 Ibid., 52, translation modified. Cf. Himanka, “Reduction in concreto” (n. 23).

49 In Husserl’s The Idea of Phenomenology, the first sentence, “Was is nun die Grenze für die gegebenheit?” wass later added, according to Himanka (“Reduction in concreto,” n. 23).

50 The Idea of Phenomenology, 35.

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52 Himanka, “Reduction in concreto” (n. 23).

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54 Himanka, “Reduction in concreto” (n. 23).

55 Cf. also Hua I, 70-71; Hua V, 147; Hua XVII, 11.

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