Reflection in Phenomenology

husserl-science-phenomenes

« La question phénoménologique de la réflexion » (“Reflection in phenomenology”)
in A. Grandjean, L. Perreau (eds.), La science des phénomènes, Paris, Presses du CNRS, 2012

Abstract: This article analyses the fundamental relation between Husserl’s theory of reflection in the first volume of the Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenology and the two main concepts upon which transcendental phenomenology is grounded: namely, description and reduction.

Edmund Husserl
Edmund Husserl

Although the concept of reflection was already used in the Logical Investigations, Husserl revised it entirely thanks to his analysis of time-consciousness in the 1905 Lectures. Reflection thus appears as a key-concept in understanding the ‘turn’ that led Husserl to deeply modify his descriptive method in order to move to transcendental phenomenology. This article deepens and widens the view developed in my book Husserl on Categories and accounts for the transformation of Husserl’s method after the publication of the Logical Investigations.