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Mathesis Universalis and the Life-World: Finitude and Responsibility

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Book cover The Phenomenological Critique of Mathematisation and the Question of Responsibility

Part of the book series: Contributions To Phenomenology ((CTPH,volume 76))

Abstract

Scientific philosophy may be objectively or subjectively oriented for Husserl . As the former, it develops in a third-person perspective and employs deductive-explanatory methods. As the latter, and in a first-person perspective, it may become truly critical and radically foundational in character, its ultimate source of evidence being intuitive experiences belonging to self-responsible subjects. Formalism and the problems related to the mathesis universalis arise within the first sense of science, whereas transcendental phenomenology is, according to Husserl , scientific philosophy in the second sense. This paper seeks to show that since human experiences (which are ultimately founding) are essentially ongoing, finite and uncompletable, scientific philosophy in both its senses can only claim partial and relative truths and validities. Thus the radical scientific philosopher as a transcendental phenomenologist is called upon to lay bare the ultimate, responsible causes for the meaning and validity of being, and the ‘ultimate foundations’ of philosophy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    German edition: Husserl 1984. Henceforth, cited with English and [German] page references, respectively. NB: translations cited in the course of this study have been modified (without notice) whenever it has been deemed necessary; all others stem from the author. NB in quotations throughout, emphasis is in original, unless otherwise stated.

  2. 2.

    German edition: Husserl 1962. Henceforth, cited with English and [German] page references, respectively.

  3. 3.

    German edition: Husserl 1970a, b, c. German page reference, which is indicated in the text of the translation.

  4. 4.

    German edition: Husserl 1979 [1891]a. Cited with German page reference, which is included in the margins of the translation.

  5. 5.

    This is Burt Hopkins’s argument (see Hopkins 2002: esp. 58–63).

  6. 6.

    German editions: Husserl 1979 [1891]b, 1979 [1891]c.

  7. 7.

    See also: Husserl 1979 [1891]b, 1979 [1891]c.

  8. 8.

    German edition: Husserl 1954b. Henceforth, cited with English and [German] page references, respectively.

  9. 9.

    See §6 of Galilei 1960. Italian edition: Galilei 1968 [1623].

  10. 10.

    See Husserl 1992: 205 – “The mos geometricus is…in fact mos arithmeticus.”

  11. 11.

    German edition: Husserl 1976. Henceforth referred to as Ideas I with reference to the pagination of the original German edition, which is included in the margins of both Husserliana edition and the translation.

  12. 12.

    See also Husserl 1886–1901: 28–44.

  13. 13.

    German edition: Gödel 1931.

  14. 14.

    See also Husserl 2003: 493.

  15. 15.

    German edition: Husserl 1975: A vi. Henceforth, cited with English and [German] page references, respectively.

  16. 16.

    German edition: Husserl 1974: §§29–30. Henceforth cited with page references to the original German edition, which are included in the margins of both the Husserliana edition and the translation.

  17. 17.

    German edition: Husserl 1954a.

  18. 18.

    German edition: Husserl 1985 [1938]: 38. Henceforth cited with English and [German] page references, respectively.

  19. 19.

    See the title of §6: ‘Experience as Self-evidence of Individual Objects. Theory of Pre-predicative Experience as the First Part of the Genetic Theory of Judgment’ (Husserl 1973: 27 [21]).

  20. 20.

    See also: Husserl 1969: §92a, 102.

  21. 21.

    German edition: Husserl 1950: 95. Henceforth cited with German page reference, which is included in the margins of the translation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Humanities Department, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Lima, Peru

    Rosemary R. P. Lerner

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  1. Rosemary R. P. Lerner
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Correspondence to Rosemary R. P. Lerner .

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  1. Philosophy, School of Arts, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia

    Ľubica Učník

  2. The Center for Theoretical Study, The Jan Patočka Archive, The Institute of Philosophy at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic

    Ivan Chvatík

  3. Philosophy, School of Arts, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia

    Anita Williams

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Lerner, R.R.P. (2015). Mathesis Universalis and the Life-World: Finitude and Responsibility. In: Učník, Ľ., Chvatík, I., Williams, A. (eds) The Phenomenological Critique of Mathematisation and the Question of Responsibility. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 76. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09828-9_10

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