Introduction to Phenomenology 1st Edition by Dermot Moran, ISBN-13: 978-0415183734

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Introduction to Phenomenology 1st Edition by Dermot Moran, ISBN-13: 978-0415183734

[PDF eBook eTextbook]

• Publisher: ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (December 23, 1999)
• Language: ‎ English
• 592 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎ 0415183731
• ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0415183734

Introduction to Phenomenology is an outstanding and comprehensive guide to phenomenology. Dermot Moran lucidly examines the contributions of phenomenology’s nine seminal thinkers: Brentano, Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer, Arendt, Levinas, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida.

Written in a clear and engaging style, Introduction to Phenomenology charts the course of the phenomenological movement from its origins in Husserl to its transformation by Derrida. It describes the thought of Heidegger and Sartre, phenomonology’s most famous thinkers, and introduces and assesses the distinctive use of phenomonology by some of its lesser known exponents, such as Levinas, Arendt and Gadamer. Throughout the book, the enormous influence of phenomenology on the course of twentieth-century philosophy is thoroughly explored.

This is an indispensable introduction for all unfamiliar with this much talked about but little understood school of thought. Technical terms are explained throughout and jargon is avoided. Introduction to Phenomenology will be of interest to all students seeking a reliable introduction to a key movement in European thought.

Table of Contents:

Preface xiii

Acknowledgements xvii

List of abbreviations xix

Introduction 1

Phenomenology and twentieth-century European philosophy 1

What is phenomenology? 4

The origins of the term ‘phenomenology’ 6

Phenomenology in Brentano 7

The presuppositionless starting point 9

The suspension of the natural attitude 11

The life-world and being in the world 12

Phenomenology as the achievement of knowing 14

The structure of intentionality 16

Philosophy and history 17

Phenomenology in France 18

Conclusion 20

1 Franz Brentano: descriptive psychology and intentionality 23

Introduction: exact philosophy 23

The Brentano school 24

Brentano: life and writings (1838–1917) 26

Brentano’s philosophical outlook: empiricism 33

Brentano’s theory of wholes and parts 36

Brentano’s reform of logic 37

Descriptive psychology 39

Inner perception 41

Inner perception as additional awareness 43

The tripartite structure of mental life 45

Presentations and modifications of presentations 46

The intentional relation 47

Distinction between physical and psychical phenomena 52

Twardowski’s modification of Brentanian descriptive psychology 55

Brentano and Husserl 59

2 Edmund Husserl: founder of phenomenology 60

Introduction: an overview of Husserl and his philosophy 60

Husserl’s central problem: the mystery of subjectivity 60

Husserl as perpetual beginner 62

The stages of Husserl’s development 65

Husserl: life and writings (1859–1938) 67

A leader without followers 89

3 Husserl’s Logical Investigations (1900–1901) 91

Introduction 91

The composition of the Logical Investigations 91

The ideal of science as a system of evident cognitions 94

The Prolegomena (1900) 99

Psychologism 101

The six Investigations and the ‘breakthrough’ to pure

phenomenology 105

A brief survey of the six Investigations 109

The First Logical Investigation 110

The Fifth Logical Investigation 113

The Sixth Logical Investigation 118

Realism and idealism in the Logical Investigations 121

4 Husserl’s discovery of the reduction and transcendental

phenomenology 124

Introduction 124

Phenomenology as a presuppositionless science 126

Husserl’s principle of principles 127

The absolute self-givenness of our mental acts 129

Phenomenology an eidetic not a factual science 132

Eidetic seeing (Wesenerschauung) 134

Husserl’s transcendental turn 136

David Hume as a transcendental philosopher 139

The critique of naturalism 142

The epoché and the reductions 146

The epoché and scepticism 148

Breaking with actuality 152

Imaginative free variation 154

The noetic-noematic structure of experience 155

Problems with the reduction 160

The horizon 161

5 Husserl and the crisis of the European sciences 164

Introduction 164

The notion of constitution 164

Static and genetic constitution 166

The transcendental ego 168

Intersubjectivity and the experience of the other (Fremderfahrung) 175

The Crisis of European Sciences: the investigation of

the life-world 179

The life-world 181

The origin of geometry 186

Husserl’s achievement 186

6 Martin Heidegger’s transformation of phenomenology 192

The enigma of Heidegger 192

The question of being 195

Heidegger: life and writings (1889–1976) 200

The political implications of Heidegger’s philosophy 219

7 Heidegger’s Being and Time 222

Introduction: the road to Being and Time 222

The review of Karl Jaspers’ Psychology of World Views (c. 1921) 223

Heidegger’s Aristotle interpretation (1922) 225

Heidegger’s critical appropriation of Husserl 226

Readiness to hand (Zuhandenheit) and presence at hand

(Vorhandenheit) 233

Expression (Aussage) 234

Heidegger’s fusion of phenomenology with hermeneutics 234

The hermeneutical structure of the question 236

The hermeneutical circle 237

The nature of Dasein 238

Authenticity and inauthenticity 239

Anxiety and being-towards-death 240

Mood and state of mind (Befindlichkeit) 241

Mitsein 242

Transcendental homelessness 243

Heidegger’s influence 245

8 Hans-Georg Gadamer: philosophical hermeneutics 248

Introduction: an overview of Gadamer’s philosophy 248

The classical legacy 250

The tradition of understanding 252

Philosophy as dialogue 253

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–): life and writings 254

Gadamer on the Greeks and the Germans 268

The importance of language 269

The tradition of hermeneutics 271

Hermeneutics in Dilthey and Heidegger 276

Truth and Method (1960) 280

Language and world 282

Gadamer’s influence 283

9 Hannah Arendt: the phenomenology of the public sphere 287

Introduction: Hannah Arendt as philosopher 287

Arendt: life and writings (1906–1975) 292

The Human Condition 306

Arendt’s contribution 316

10 Emmanuel Levinas: the phenomenology of alterity 320

Introduction: ethics as first philosophy 320

Emmanuel Levinas: life and writings (1906–1995) 322

Levinas and phenomenology 327

The role of philosophy 329

The religious dimension of Levinas’s thought 330

Early writings 332

A defence of subjectivity 341

The face to face 347

Levinas’s influence 350

11 Jean-Paul Sartre: passionate description 354

Introduction: the engagé intellectual 354

Sartre’s philosophical outlook 356

Jean-Paul Sartre: life and writings (1905–1980) 363

Post-war politics 374

The Transcendence of the Ego (1936) 376

L’Imaginaire (1940): the phenomenology of imagining 379

Being and Nothingness (1943): phenomenological ontology 385

Sartre’s influence 390

12 Maurice Merleau-Ponty: the phenomenology of perception 391

Introduction: a philosophy of embodiment 391

Maurice Merleau-Ponty: life and writings (1908–1961) 391

A phenomenology of origins 401

Merleau-Ponty’s intellectual background 406

The critique of reductionism in The Structure of Behaviour (1942) 412

Phenomenology of Perception (1945) 417

The role of sensation in perception 420

One’s own body (Le corps propre) 423

The body as expression 425

Merleau-Ponty’s later philosophy 427

The metaphysics of contingency 430

Merleau-Ponty’s influence on contemporary philosophy 430

13 Jacques Derrida: from phenomenology to deconstruction 435

Introduction—neither philosophy nor literature 435

Jacques Derrida: life and writings (1930–) 437

Deconstruction and morality 442

Derrida and the end of philosophy 444

The critique of Husserl’s The Origin of Geometry 446

Logocentrism 448

Deconstruction: ‘more than one language’ 450

The world as text: “there is no outside-text” 453

Derrida’s engagement with Husserlian phenomenology 456

Derrida’s debt to Heidegger 461

The influence of structuralism: de Saussure and Lévi-Strauss 461

The nature of ‘différance’ 463

Sketch of a history of différance 467

Différence and the trace 469

Derrida and religion 469

Derrida’s contribution to twentieth-century philosophy 471

Notes 475

Bibliography 519

Index 550

Dermot Moran teaches Philosophy at the University College Dublin.

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