The Nature and Status of Concepts in Phenomenology

Journal of Transcendental Philosophy 3 (2):235-251 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This essay examines the debate that arose immediately following the publication of the first volume of Edmund Husserl's Ideas regarding the model of concept formation that Husserl sketches in that work. After a brief overview of the relevant passages from the Ideas, I take up essay-length responses to Husserl by August Messer, Theodor Elsenhans, and Heinrich Gustav Steinmann. Reflecting a variety of empiricist commitments, all three authors are skeptical that concepts can be expected to embody the essence of a corresponding phenomenon. Subsequently, I review the responses to these critiques offered by Husserl, his then-assistant Edith Stein, and Paul Linke. For Linke, it is at least highly probable that certain concepts derive their content from an apprehension of essence. The empiricist alternative, he argues, is fatally unstable. Husserl and Stein, meanwhile, offer a more forceful defense of this position. Unless we allow that certain kinds of concepts can originate from a grasp of essence, they argue, we will be unable to explain how certain manifest cognitive accomplishments are possible.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

    This entry is not archived by us. If you are the author and have permission from the publisher, we recommend that you archive it. Many publishers automatically grant permission to authors to archive pre-prints. By uploading a copy of your work, you will enable us to better index it, making it easier to find.

    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 102,020

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Essence in Edith Stein‘s Festschrift Dialogue.Robert McNamara - 2016 - In Andreas Speer & Stephan Regh (eds.), Alles Wesentliche lässt sich nicht schreiben. Freiburg: Verlag Herder. pp. 175-94.
Apriori and world: European contributions to Husserlian phenomenology.William R. McKenna, Robert M. Harlan & Laurence E. Winters (eds.) - 1981 - Hingham, MA: distributors for the U.S. and Canada, Kluwer Boston.
Possibility of Grasping the Essentiality of Things.Antonio Sergio Da Costa Nunes - 2022 - Revista de Filosofia Moderna E Contemporânea 10 (2):59-70.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-08-12

Downloads
56 (#390,790)

6 months
6 (#917,032)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations