About this video

• Video Title: Husserl: Phenomenology and the Life World
• Channel: Michael Sugrue
• Speakers: Michael Sugrue
• Duration: 00:44:54

Overview

This video provides an in-depth explanation of Edmund Husserl's philosophy, focusing on phenomenology and the concept of the "life world." Michael Sugrue discusses Husserl's background, his project of establishing a foundational, certain knowledge, and his method of phenomenology, including the epoché and free imaginative variation. The video also touches upon the difficulties and criticisms of Husserl's approach, particularly concerning the problem of other minds and the limitations of his introspective method, while also introducing his later concept of the "life world."

Key takeaways

• Husserl's Project: Husserl aimed to create a presuppositionless foundation for all knowledge, a "science of sciences," by examining the inner workings of the psyche, similar to Descartes' quest for certainty.
• Phenomenology as a Method: Husserl developed phenomenology, a method involving the "epoché" (suspension of belief in the external world) and "free imaginative variation," to discern the essential structures or "essences" of human consciousness and experience.
• Intuition and Intentionality: The method relies on intuition, which Husserl argues can be direct and certain for one's own mental states, and the concept of intentionality, that mental states are always directed towards an object.
• Challenges and Criticisms: Husserl's method faces significant challenges, including the difficulty of verifying subjective findings, the problem of other minds, and potential circularity in his reasoning, with critics like Wittgenstein suggesting that essences are tied to language rather than inherent mental structures.
• The Life World (Lebenswelt): Towards the end of his life, Husserl shifted focus to the "life world," the world as it appears in immediate human experience, contrasting it with the abstract, impersonal view of the natural sciences and emphasizing the primacy of subjective experience.

The video highlights several criticisms of Husserl's phenomenology:

• Methodological Circularity: The process of developing the phenomenological method involves using phenomenology on itself, leading to a potential circularity or a "methodological circle."
• Difficulty in Verification and Communication: Findings derived from introspection are hard to verify externally and communicate to others. When one claims an intuition about an essence, presenting it to others with a simple "I looked inside myself and I know" is not a satisfactory philosophical answer. This lack of communicability is seen as a betrayal of the ideal of "logos," which demands that knowledge be rational and communicable.
• The Problem of Other Minds: Like Descartes, Husserl struggles to provide a satisfactory account of how we can know or be certain of the existence and experiences of other minds. While he posits empathy as a means, his analysis of empathy itself is not fully developed or clearly defined.
• Essences Tied to Language (Wittgenstein's Critique): Ludwig Wittgenstein argued that "essences" are not intrinsic qualities of the mind but rather qualities intrinsic to how we use language. For example, the idea that "self-consciousness" is an essential predicate of a human being reflects our language use, not necessarily a fundamental structure of the mind itself. Wittgenstein suggested Husserl was "reifying language" and treating it as a model of the psyche.
• Trapped in the "Intracosm": Critics argue that Husserl's focus on inwardness traps him within the subjective realm, making it difficult to bridge the gap to the external world or to others' consciousness. His method risks becoming solipsistic, where one only talks to oneself.
• Nebulousness and Lack of Concrete Examples: The video notes that Husserl spent a great deal of time defining and refining his method rather than extensively applying it, leading to a sense of nebulousness and a lack of clear, actionable steps for practitioners. The "truth conditions" for determining essential predicates remain unclear.