Abstract
This paper will address the issue of the scope and legitimacy of the view “that Husserl’s philosophy throughout its different stages and phases is informed by his belief in language as calculus.”2 Toward the end of investigating this issue, the conception of language as calculus is contrasted with the conception of language as a universal medium. This opposition was originally proposed by Jean van Heijenoort in his 1967 paper, “Logic as Language and Logic as Calculus,” in order to classify two main streams of contemporary logic. Not long afterwards Jaako Hintikka extended its application from logic in the strict sense to language in general.3
I wish to thank Dr. Potter for his kind help in the linguistic formulation of this paper.
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Reference
M. Kusch, Language as Calculus vs. Language as Universal Medium ( Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1989 ), p. 9.
Jean van Heijenoort, “Logic as Language and Logic as Calculus,” Synthese, 17 (1967): 324–330. Jaako Hintikka, The Intentions of Intentionality and other New Models for Modalities (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1975), pp. 192–222, 223–251; “On the Development of the Modeltheoretical Tradition in Logical Theory,” Synthese, 77 (1988): 1–36.
Heijenoort, op. cit., p. 325..
Hintikka, “On the Development of the Modeltheoretical tradition,” op. cit., p. 1.
According to Kusch there are eight points of departure between the two conceptions of language, but these are not important for our present purposes.
As opposed to Frege’s criticism of Hilbert’s program of the axiomatic method because of its belief in real space as the only domain to which geometry is to be applied, Husserl writes: “Frege does not understand the meaning of the Hilbertian ‘axiomatic’ founding of geometry, namely that it is a purely formal system of conventions, whose theory form is equal to the Euclidian” (XII, 448. Every quotation without an author’s name is from the Husserliana. A Roman numeral indicates the volume, and an Arabic numeral the page number. The line number, when necessary, is indicated as, for example, 1.3.). Moreover, Husserl also conceived a theory of definite manifolds which is quite similar to the Hilbertian conception.
Kusch, op. cit., p. 70.
N. Goodman, Ways of Worldmaking (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1978), ch. 1.
Edmund Husserl, Logische Untersuchungen (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1975 and 1984), 2 Band, Band 1, §35. (Hereafter cited as, respectively “LU/1” and “LU/2.”)
Edmund Husserl, Formale und transzendentale Logik (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974), §65. (Hereafter cited as “Logic.”)
Edmund Husserl
G. Patzig, “Husserl on Truth and Evidence”, in Readings of Edmund Husserl’s Logical Investigations, ed. by J.N. Mohanty ( The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1977 ), p. 196.
Ibid., p. 179
E. Tugendhat, Der Wahrheitsbegriff bei Husserl und Heidegger (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1970 ), p. 181.
Edmund Husserl, Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie (Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976), Erstes Buch, p. 316. (Hereafter cited as Ideas I.)
Tugendhat, op. cit., p. 43.
Ibid.
See also Edmund Husserl, Analysen zur passiven Synthesis (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1966), p 102, (Hereafter cited as “APS.”), Cartesianische Meditationen und Pariser Vorträge (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973), p. 95. (Hereafter cited as “CM.”)
Husserl himself has considered that even for God things can be given only through appearances (Ideas I, pp. 97, 98, 101, 271, Tugendhat, op. cit., p. 76).
See also Logic, pp. 284, 286 and CM, p. 34.
Edmund Husserl, Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1952) Zweites Buch, pp. 63–4. (Hereafter cited as “Ideas II.”)
Tugendhat, op. cit., p. 79.
See K. Rosen, Evidenz in Husserls deskriptiver Transzendental-philosophie ( Meisenheim am Glan: Verlag Anton Hain, 1977 ), p. 53.
See APS, pp, 110, 203, CM, p. 95–6, Logic, p. 164. See also Tugendhat, op. cit., p. 234.
I stressed this point at the Japanese-American Phenomenology Conference in Seattle, 1991. Cf. S. Nuki, “On the self-sufficiency of Language.” It seems to me, incidentally, that by this reformulation Husserl has also overcome “Kant’s archetypal mistake” as Hintikka called it. By Kant’s mistake Hintikka means the identification of cognition of a particular being and sensual perception. Cf. J. Hintikka, “Wittgenstein’s semantical Kantianism,” in Ethik Grundlagen, Probleme und Anwendungen (Wien 1981), p. 376. “Das Paradox transzendentaler Erkenntnis,” p. 135.
D. Davidson, “True to the Facts,” in Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984 ), p. 47.
Ibid., p. 48.
A. Tarski, “Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages,” in Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics (Indianapolis, 1983 ), p. 155.
W.v.O. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism,” in From the Logical Point of View ( Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963 ), p. 33.
Tugendhat, op. cit., pp. 246f.
Edmund Husserl, Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976), p. 169fn.
K. Held, “Husserls neue Einführung in die Philosophie: Der Begriff der Lebenswelt,” in Lebenswelt und Wissenschaft, ed. C.F. Gethmann (Bonn: Bouvier, 1991).
Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, A 58, B 82.
M. Dummett, “Truth,” in Truth and Other Enigmas ( Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980 ), p. 7.
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Nuki, S. (1998). Phenomenology as Calculus?. In: Hopkins, B.C. (eds) Phenomenology: Japanese and American Perspectives. Contributions to Phenomenology, vol 36. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2610-8_1
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