Abstract
Is it at all legitimate to subject phenomenology to questions of such a pragmatic, if not utilitarian, nature as that of its human uses? Isn’t it below the dignity of a true science and particularly of a philosophy which started out with the ambition of being a rigorous science to submit to this kind of a cross examination? In fact, Edmund Husserl in his historic manifesto article on “Philosophy as a Rigorous Science” solemnly disclaimed all pretensions that it could bring aid and comfort to modern man in his dire need for a philosophy of life (Weltanschauung).
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References
The Phenomenological Movement. 2nd Edition. The Hague, Nijhoff 1965; also separate edition under the title The Essentials of the Phenomenological Method.
At this point I have simplified the account of my book by not distinguishing between the closely related steps of “investigating essences” and “apprehending essential relationships.”
Prescription for Survival, (New York, 1957), p. 76.
J. William Fulbright, The Arrogance of Power (New York, 1967), p. 171.
“Am farbigen Abglanz haben wir das Leben”
See, for example, a similar passage in Goethe’s essay “Versuch einer Witterungslehre” (1825) to the effect that “we can never know the true directly; we intuit only in the reflection (Abglanz), in the example, in the symbol, in single and related appearances. We become aware of it as incomprehensible life and yet we cannot abandon the wish to comprehend it.” (my translation from Jubilaeumsausgabe, vol. 40, p. 53).
Husserliana VI, 140. 2nd édition. The Hague, Nijhoff, 1962.
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Spiegelberg, H. (1970). On Some Human Uses of Phenomenology. In: Smith, F.J. (eds) Phenomenology in Perspective. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-4447-8_2
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