Edgar Jaramillo
N14881160
Music Education
Summer 2006
E85.1505
Performing Arts in Western Civilization
Summary of Ferrara Chapter 3


Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) wanted to bring to the natural and human sciences a new phenomenological foundation. Phenomenology is a way of doing philosophy, a system by which things can be scrutinized by consciousness in order to ascertain their essential and necessary characteristics. Husserl believed that these systematic descriptions would purify the objects engaged by consciousness of all constructive interpretations. He called for the direct the direct investigation of phenomena by suspending belief in theories. Husserl’s early period of phenomenology (Husserl I) is marked by a turn to the objects of experience in the immediacy of their appearance. The reason was in response to pychologism. Psychologism maintaining a priority over all other sciences was in contradiction of Husserl’s phenomenological motto “coming back to the thing themselves” which required the abandonment of pychologism. Husserl was attempting at that time to develop a pure empiricism based on the immediate perceptions of things. This is based to his commitment to the development of an empirically based objectivism. His focus was on the things of consciousness rather than consciousness itself is the distinct characteristic of his early phenomenology. Interesting that later on (Husserl II) he moves away from this objective view and focuses inward towards consciousness and psychologism.
Husserl is credited for being the founder of the Phenomenological Movement of philosophy although he is not the first to use the term ”phenomenology.” Immanuel Kant uses it to distinguish between phenomena, objects that are being experienced by consciousness, and noumena, things that exist outside and are autonomous from consciousness. Kant’s “The Critique of Pure Reason” is the position that blows away David Hume’s, the passive mind theory. Man consciousness is at the center of all knowledge theory was referred to as Kant’s Copernican revolution. Kant places consciousness at the center of thus providing a bridge to the phenomenology but also intersects with other philosophies of the nineteenth ands twentieth centuries. Yet, even though Kant’s principles are in keeping with phenomenological thought, he clearly was not a phenomenologist.
Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel uses the term phenomenology in his 1807 work “Phenomenology of Spirit. Hegel develops the theory of the dialectical relationship between objects(phenomena of culture) and human consciousness. This relationship is results in a byproduct later called the “absolute mind or spirit.” His phenomenology is largely based on the absolute mind and it’s interaction with the cultural history it dwells with. Hans-Georg Gadamer notes that Hegel’s philosophy represents the last mighty attempt to grasp science and philosophy as a unity. Due to Hegel’s pursuit to back up his work with absolute knowledge, he fails because it cannot be attained neither in the natural sciences, philosophy, historical research or arts criticism. This separates him from mainstream phenomenology.
Franz Brentano can be considered a forerunner of modern phenomenology. Some biographical data regarding his past may be significant. He was a catholic priest and resigned after eight years. He was a professor for six years and was removed when he got married. He was a non-salaried lecturer for fifteen years before retiring to Italy and Switzerland. Kant’s view (mind has a central position) and Aristotle’s view (classic position termed realism) are stated. Brentano attempted to reconstruct this classic view of an object being in consciousness while understanding that the object remains separate and autonomous. Brentano explores the use of inner perception as an alternative to introspection as a data-gathering tool. He also suggests that empirical philosophy must be comprised of at least two domains: Descriptive and genetic psychology. Descriptive is more immediate and relegated to casual studies. Genetic follows this with established general psychology in the natural sciences. . Intentionality is introduced and distinguishes between mental phenomena and physical phenomena.
Husserl began his studies in mathematics and not in philosophy in Leipzig. For his PhD., he went to Vienna. There he heard lectures from Brentano. Then he shifted to philosophy. In his work, Logical Investigations, consciousness began to creep into the forefront as he studied its significance in understanding mathematic principles. Then he made a radical move and became a philosophy professor in Freiburg University. In 1928, he named martin Heidegger his successor. Then afterwards, he had become despondent due to the eventual Nazi regime that affected his life and Jewish heritage so profoundly. Husserl had absorbed Brentano’s notion of intentionality that every conscious act is directed toward something.
One’s attempt at self-awareness instantly brings awareness of what is non-self. Therefore, meaning is possible only when a thing is engaged by consciousness and brought to the status of “object” of and for consciousness. Husserl insists on bracketing out personal biases for the use of the phenomenological method. From here, a phenomenological reduction must follow with at least two stages. The first is transcendental reduction. The second is an eidetic reduction. The epoche and the eidetic.
The phenomenological method breaks down the steps of phenomenology as per Spiegelberg. They are descriptive phenomenology, essential, phenomenology of appearances, constitutive, reductive and hermeneutic.
The aforementioned phenomenologists have indeed mulled over their respective theories for the world to take note. Most fascinating to me is the wall that hits most experts in the sciences when they cannot further or fully explain the world or the object of analysis. I personally know two mathematicians that have switched careers to the human sciences after their pursuit for absolute knowledge ended up fruitless.