Transcendental Phenomenology as Human Possibility

This book focuses on Edmund Husserl's philosophical collaboration with Eugen Fink which took place in the early 1930s, and shows how their disagreement over the nature, origin, and aim of phenomenology led to a crucial divergence on the issue of who was engaging in phenomenology, and with what motivation. It provides a philosophical investigation of a key moment in the development of Husserl's late phenomenology. The author claims that Husserl's meta-phenomenological exploration of the theoretical and, importantly, practical underpinnings of the transcendental investigator leads him to affirm their humanity and, ultimately, to adopt an ethically charged ideal of "higher humanity" as telos of phenomenology. Fink argued that phenomenology was essentially an activity beyond the horizon of human possibility and history. In contrast, Dzanic illustrates how Husserl was looking for a way to theoretically unite the purity of transcendental insight with the existential realityand practical motives of the phenomenologist. Understanding the complex aspects of this debate is crucial for understanding the Crisis-period of Husserl's thought. This text appeals to graduate students and researchers in phenomenology and related fields of philosophy.

Auteur

Dr. Denis Dzanic obtained his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vienna in 2021, and is now working at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Graz. He works on systematic and historical topics in the fields of phenomenology and philosophy of action.