Doing Phenomenology: Essays on and in Phenomenology

311 Pages·1975·33.384 MB·English

by  Herbert Spiegelberg (auth.)

Doing Phenomenology
PHAENOMENOLOGICA
COLLECTION FONDEE PAR H. L. V AN BREDA ET PUBLIEE SOUS LE
PATRONAGE DES CENTRES D'ARCHIVES-HUSSERL
63
HERBERT SPIEGELBERG
Doing Phenomenology
Comite de redaction de la collection:
President: S. IJsseling (Leuven);
Membres: M. Farber (Buffalo), E. Fink (Freiburg i. Br.), L. Landgrebe
(K61n), W. Marx (Freiburg i Br.), M. Merleau-Pontyt (Paris),
J. N. Mohanty (New York), P. Ricoeur (paris), E. Stroker (KOln)
J. Taminiaux (Louvain), K. H. Volkmann-Schluck (KOln).
Secretaire: J. Taminaux
HERBERT SPIEGELBERG
Doing Phenomenology
ESSAYS ON AND IN PHENOMENOLOGY
•
MARTINUS NIJHOFF / THE HAGUE / 1975
To The Memory of
ERWIN SPIEGELBERG
1901-1938
© 1975 by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
Soflcover reprint o/the hardcover 1st edition 1975
All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form
ISBN-13: 978-94-010-1672-8 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-010-1670-4
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-1670-4
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am indebted to the following copyrightholders for permission to
reprint here, in the original or in slightly amended form, the articles
listed next: American Catholic Philosophical Association, "How
Subjective Is Phenomenology?"; American Philosophical Quarterly,
"Toward a Phenomenology of Experience"; Duquesne University
Press, "Phenomenology Through Vicarious Experience"; Encyclo
paedia Britannica, "Phenomenology"; Harvard University Press,
"The 'Reality-Phenomenon' and Reality"; Johns Hopkins Press,
"The Relevance of Phenomenological Philosophy for Psychology";
Martinus Nijhoff, "Change of Perspectives: Constitution of a Husser!
Image" and "On Some Human Uses of Phenomenology"; Philosophy
and Phenomenological Research, "Critical Phenomenological Real
ism" and "Phenomenology of Direct Evidence"; Quadrangle Press,
"A Phenomenological Analysis of Approval"; Review of Existential
Psychology and Psychiatry, "The Idea of a Phenomenological An
thropology and Alexander Pfiinder's Psychology of Man"; and John
Wiley & Sons, "On the Right to Say 'We': A Linguistic and Phe
nomenological Analysis."
PREFACE
Substantial encouragement for this volume came from the editors
and readers of the Studies for Phenomenological and Existential
Philosophy (SPEP) at Northwestern University Press. But its publi
cation has been made possible only by the unqualified and un
abridged acceptance of the Editorial Board of Phaenomen%gica,
which at the time was still headed by its founder, the late Professor
H. L. Van Breda, who welcomed the manuscript most generously.
This makes his untimely passing even more grievous to me.
The stylistic copy editing and proof reading were handled ef
ficiently by Ruth Nichols Jackson, secretary of the Philosophy
Department. In the proof reading I also had the able help of my
colleague Stanley Paulson.
I dedicate this book to the memory of my late brother, Dr. chern.
Erwin Spiegelberg, at the time of his death assistant professor at the
University of Rio de Janeiro, who preceded me by two years in
emigrating from Nazi Germany. When in 1938 he put an end to his
life in an apparent depression, he also did so in order not to become
a burden to his brothers, who were on the point of following him.
Whatever I, more privileged in health and in opportunities in the
country of my adoption, have been able to do and achieve since then
has been done with a sense of a debt to him and of trying to live
and work for him too.
Washington University
Saint Louis, Missouri
May 1974
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v
PREFACE VII
INTRODUCTION: THE OLD AND THE NEW Xl
I. The goal xl
II. The new pattern XlII
III. The ingredients XIV
IV. Where I stand XIX
PART ONE
TO THE THINGS 1
(ESSAYS ON PHENOMENOLOLOGY)
A. ON THE MEANING OF PHENOMENOLOGY 3
1. "Phenomenology"
Origin and Development 3
Characteristics 10
2. Ways into phenomenology: phenomenology and
metaphenomenology 13
I. The way through the texts 16
II. The way through history 21
3. A new way into phenomenology: the workshop ap-
proach 24
I. The original idea 26
II. The realization 27
III. The new methods 29
IV. The uses and limitations of group phenomenology 31
X CONTENTS
4. Phenomenology through vicarious experience 35
I. The problem and its background 35
II. Karl Jaspers' "phenomenology" of psychopathic phenomena 36
III. Developments in psychopathology since Jaspers 38
IV. The scope of the problem 39
V. Husserl's attempt to widen the scope of direct phenomeno-
logy 40
VI. The idea of a phenomenology through vicarious experience 46
5. Existential uses of phenomenology 54
I. Descriptive phenomenology 58
II. Essential phenomenology (eidetic phenomenology) 62
III. Phenomenology of appearances 64
IV. Constitutive phenomenology 66
V. Reductive phenomenology 67
VI. Hermeneutic phenomenology 69
B. ON THE RIGHTS OF PHENOMENOLOGY 72
6. How subjective is phenomenology? 72
7. Phenomenology of direct evidence (self-evidence) 80
I. Phenomenology and the untrustworthiness of self-evidence 80
II. On authentic self-evidence 86
III. Self-evidence and necessity of thought 95
IV. On inauthentic self-evidence 99
V. A discussion of specific cases 104
VI. Conclusion 107
8. Criteria in phenomenology 110
A. Initial assumptions 111
B. Theses 116
9. The Phenomenon of reality and reality 130
I. The problem 130
II. The phenomenon of reality 132
III. The reality of the phenomena of reality 134
IV. Hussed's phenomenological reduction in its epistemological
significance 137
V. Differences among the phenomena of reality in their episte-
mological significance 140
VI. Dubitability and dubiousness 143
VII. Insufficient reasons for doubt: Descartes' arguments 144
VIII. Reality-criteria 146
IX. Interim balance: The case for general realism 149
X. The problem of the genesis of sense-perception inits epitemo-
logical significance 159
CONTENTS XI
XI. Dubious phenomena of reality in their epistemological
significance 152
XII. The idea of a critical phenomenological realism 157
XIII. Critical phenomenological realism and general critical
ealism proper 165
XIV. Neo-critical realism and phenomenological critical realism 167
PART TWO
AT THE THINGS
(ESSAYS IN PHENOMENOLOGY)
10. Toward a phenomenology of experience 175
I. The problem of denotation 175
II. The record of phenomenology 175
III. Some phenomenological findings about experience 177
IV. The given and the found in experience 182
V. Toward a phenomenology of the context of experience 185
VI. On the metaphysical significance of a phenomenology of
experience 187
11. A phenomenological analysis of approval 190
I. Purpose 190
II. First distinctions 191
III. The intrinsic structure of acknowledging approval 193
IV. Approval is not a belief 195
V. Approval as an attitude and approval as an act 195
VI. The act of approval 197
VII. Approval as a referential ("intentional") act 198
VIII. The extrinsic structure of approval: its incompleteness and
secondary nature 206
IX. The grounds of approval and their cognition 208
X. Types of approval 210
XI. Conclusions 211
XII. The evidence of etymology 212
12. "We": A linguistic and phenomenological analysis 215
A linguistic analysis of we-talk 217
Toward a phenomenology of the we-consciousness 227
Some conditions for the right to say "we" 240
XII CONTENTS
13. The relevance of phenomenological philosophy for
psychology 246
I. The issue and its background 246
II. On Husserl's contributions to psychology 250
III. The potential relevance of Husserl's phenomenology for
psychology 255
IV. Phenomenology and field theory: a chance for co-operation 257
V. Concluding remarks 264
14. The idea of a phenomenological anthropology and
Alexander Pfander's psychology of man 265
I. Anthropology and philosophical anthropology 266
II. The idea of a phenomenological anthropology 267
III. Phenomenological anthropology thus far 270
IV. Pfander and the phenomenology of man 272
15. Change of perspectives: constitution of a Husserl image 277
Pre-perspective from Heidelberg 277
Close-up perspective from Freiburg 278
Retroperspective from Munich 280
Far-off retrospective from America 282
Total perspective 283
Index of names 284
Index of subjects 288