Edmund Husserl's Phenomenology (Purdue University Series in the History of Philosophy) [Paperback]

Joseph Kockelmans (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1557530505 | ISBN-13: 978-1557530509 | Publication Date: August 1, 1994

In Edmund Husserl's Phenomenology, Joseph J. Kockelmans provides the reader with a biographical sketch and an overview of the salient features of Husserl's thought. Kockelmans focuses on the essay for the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1928, Husserl's most Important effort to articulate the aims of phenomenology for a more general audience. Included are Husserl’s text -- in the original German and in English translation on facing pages -- a synopsis, and an extensive commentary that relates Husserl's work as a whole to the essay for the Encyclopedia.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German
Original Language: German --This text refers to the Spiral-bound edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 363 pages
• Publisher: Purdue University Press (August 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557530505
• ISBN-13: 978-1557530509
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,835,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb book by a consummate expert on Husserl, October 20, 2006

By 

terry - See all my reviews

This review is from: Edmund Husserl's Phenomenology (Purdue University Series in the History of Philosophy) (Paperback)

This book is an outstanding presentation of Husserl's philosophy. The book draws upon important texts that are not readily available to English-speaking readers (e.g., the Husserls' lectures in Amsterdam and Paris), and it provides a careful analysis of how Husserl's ideas evolved over time. It provides a lucid account of the relation between phenomenological psychology and transcendental phenomenology. Chapter Seven ("The Transcendental Problem: Its Origin and Its Quasi-Solution by Psychologism") describes the origins of the concept of the transcendental and presents an account of how that concept evolved in the thought of Kant and Husserl. That chapter also discusses the evolution of Descarte's concept of the cogito. Dr. Kockelmans' understanding of Husserl's thought and of Husserl's importance to the history of philosophy is impeccable. He is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Penn State. I had the good fortune of attending quite a few of his classes and seminars in the 1970s. He is a man of deep and abiding compassion. He was a superb teacher who invariably presented his subject with elegance, grace, critical exactitude, transparent clarity, and sublime intellectual humility. This book is a fine book, and I highly recommended it to anyone with an interest Husserl, phenomenology, and transcendental idealism.

14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars kockelmans' approach clairvoyant, rigorous but "smooth", August 30, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Pennsylvania State University) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Edmund Husserl's Phenomenology (Purdue University Series in the History of Philosophy) (Paperback)

Prof. Kockelmans navigates the reader (even the uninitiated, as was I) through the prinicpal features of Husserl's thought. His writing is extremely well-structured, such that the reader's comprehension proceeds in equal rhythm with the author's careful explanations. After studying some medieval philosophy with Prof. Kockelmans I can confidently say that his understanding of the history of thought, art, and science are inspiring; all of this adds to the finish of the book. His style is never cumbersome--though he retains all of the slippery terminology of the discipline--and his summary is without superfluity. This is a highly important and recommendable work. Jason Stell

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine book clarifying one of the great but difficult articles written for the Encyclopaedia Britannica., November 23, 2010

By 

C. (Asheville, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Edmund Husserls Phenomenology (Purdue University Series in the History of Philosophy) (Spiral-bound)

I have returned to this work of Kockelman's several times since its initial publication and always feel some increase, however small, in my weak understanding of what Husserl was saying in his torturous article. For my part I doubt the last reviewer was able to discern the format of the book he wrote about but the result was so hilarious that it's just as well. In his article for the Encyclopaedia Britannica Husserl tried to say too much but he often did that and the article was surprisingly important to him or he wouldn't have struggled on alone after Heidegger bailed out. Husserl was a genius with few peers and tradition insists on calling him an unnecessarily difficult if not a poor writer. Well, maybe, but the difficulty in reading him is also a function of the complex ideas he was trying to throw light on for the very first time. Not all great ideas grasped for the first time by certain men and women are extraordinarily complex, but they are always like Eliot's words and tend to slip, slide, perish, and will not stay in place. Otherwise, we would not have to wait for genius to point at them for us. Kockelman's book and Husserl's article still help me see some things I enjoy thinking about but could never have come up with on my own.