Husserl’s Phenomenology by Dan Zahavi

"This book is a splendid introduction to Husserl's writings. Indeed, more than an introduction, it is a remarkably comprehensive overview not only of Husserl's major published works but also of his unpublished research manuscripts.... The book was a pleasure to read the first time, and it repays successive readings with new and ever deeper insights into Husserl's philosophical achievement." — Husserl Studies

Welcome everyone to this meetup that Tod and Philip will be co-hosting. This meetup will last for 6 weeks and we will be getting together every week. I (Philip) am drawing attention to this fact because all of the other meetups I do meet every second week.

We will be reading a short book about Husserl called:

• Husserl’s Phenomenology by Dan Zahavi (Stanford University Press 2002) — see link for further info about the book

Scroll to the bottom for the reading schedule and materials 👇👇👇👇👇

We picked this book for a few reasons:

1. It is very clear on the important topic of the difference between Edmund Husserl's early version of Phenomenology (found in his book Logical Investigations) and Husserl's later version of Phenomenology (found in the books he wrote from Ideas One onwards). If you want to understand the history of Phenomenology, understanding this distinction is crucial. Even though Jean-Paul Sartre and Heidegger were radically different Philosophers, they nevertheless shared a strong preference for the original version of Phenomenology Husserl gave in Logical Investigations. Other thinkers preferred the strikingly different later version of Phenomenology first formulated in Ideas One. The ongoing debate over which version of Phenomenology is better is a VERY important theme in the history of Phenomenology.
2. A while back I (along with Jen) gave a meetup on an introductory book on Phenomenology by Walter Hopp. During that meetup, some people compared Hopp's interpretation with that of Zahavi. I thought it would be intriguing to actually look at Zahavi since his name came up so frequently in that earlier meetup.

Here is some basic info about the meetup:

• This will be a 2 hour meetup, not a 3 hour meetup like I do on Sundays with Jen.
• The format will be my usual "accelerated live read". What this means is that each participant will be expected to read roughly 25-35 pages before each session. Each participant will have the option of picking a few paragraphs they especially want to focus on. We will then do a live read on the paragraphs that the participants found most interesting when they did the assigned reading.

People who have not done the reading are welcome to attend this meetup. However if you want to TALK during the meetup it is essential that you do the reading. We mean it! It is essential that the direction of the conversation be influenced only by people who have actually done the reading. You may think you are so brilliant and wonderful that you can come up with great points even if you do not do the reading. You probably are brilliant and wonderful – no argument there. But you still have to do the reading if you want to talk in this meetup. REALLY.

• Please note that this is a "raise hands" meetup and has a highly structured format, not an anarchy-based one. This is partly for philosophical reasons: We want to discourage a simple-minded rapid fire "gotcha!" approach to philosophy. But our highly structured format is also for disability related reasons that Philip can explain if required.
• This meetup will be highly accessible to people who are new to Husserl or new to Phenomenology. The Zahavi book is the only book you are required to read in order to speak in the meetup. However some people in the group might be sufficiently familiar with Husserl's texts that they might want to cite passages from Husserl himself. This is acceptable in the meetup. However to keep things manageable, I have picked three texts by Husserl and I am asking people who want to cite Husserl to limit themselves to citing only passages from these three texts:
  – a) Logical Investigation Number Six (Found on pages 181-334 of "Logical Investigations Volume 2" translated by J.N. Findley.
  – b) Ideas One (translated by Daniel O. Dahlstrom) - not the earlier translation.
  – c) Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (translated by David Carr)

Here is the reading schedule for this meetup (pdf of book here):

• Sept 3rd, Please read up to page 13
• Sept 10th, Please read up to page 42
• Sept 17th, Please read up to page 68
• Sept 24th, Please read up to page 93
• Oct 1st, Please read up to page 120
• Oct 8th, Please read up to page 144 and we are done! (It is a short book)