Kant's Cave: Gary Chamberlin - Edmund Husserl, Phenomenology, and the Lifeworld

Edmund Husserl, founder of phenomenology as a philosophical discipline, is well regarded as an important 20th century philosopher on the Continent and in America, but strangely neglected in Britain. Can we do something to correct this glaring gap? We can try I suppose, and I'd like to present some of his main ideas for Kant's Cave. What Husserl was seeking was a science of subjectivity, which sounds like rather a contradiction. But when you come down to it, phenomenology is about the world as we experience it and about ourselves as experiencing subjects. It's about what Husserl called the "lifeworld". Could there be a more vital topic in these times when it seems we're trying to cancel the very idea of being properly human, whether it's through the violence of dictators, the extremities of 'woke', or some apparently beneficial means such as the proliferation of AI? Husserl, I believe, can help to lead us back to the common ground of our essential humanity.

Gary Chamberlin got hooked into philosophy by reading Russell's History of Western Philosophy, also on the alternative side by Colin Wilson's The Outsider. Later, studied with a Plato group and dipped into the Advaita tradition of Hindu philosophy. Further inspired by Bryan McGee's Confessions of a Philosopher: a great adventure, which I try in some way to replicate if I can. Later still, intrigued by Roger Scruton, particularly his Green Philosophy and Soul of the World. Enrolled for MA at University of Buckingham - thesis on, would you believe it, Husserl and the Lifeworld. More recently, engaged with Alasdair Macintyre's After Virtue, a profound and challenging view of ethics. Currently I lead philosophy groups for University of Third Age (U3A) in NW London and Oxford.

This event is sponsored by the Royal institute of Philosophy.

PFA is currently holding Kant's Cave meetings upstairs at the Two Chairmen, 39 Dartmouth Street, SW1H 9BP, with Zoom option for those who are not able to join in person, every first Monday of the month. Join us for more great talks and discussion! All welcome, link available when you sign up.