Husserl reader of Bolzano

pp. 59-81

in: Denis Fisette, Husserl's logical investigations reconsidered, Berlin, Springer, 2003

Abstract

Can we imagine the impact of the Logical Investigations on its first readers¹ ? Although Husserl's complex syntax continues the style of the German idealism, he deliberately turns his back on the prevailing philosophical trends of his own time. Husserl not only moves away from idealism, be it Kantian, post-Kantian or neo-Kantian; he at the same time takes leave of the vast current of psychologism from which he stemmed. The problems of logic cannot be solved by the exploration of the origin of the concepts in our souls, but only by giving prominence to the structure of concepts, which does not depend on their particular subjective occurrences. According to Husserl, this goal can be obtained by a new kind of intuition, which is directed towards essences, Wesensschau. Terminological and conceptual innovations of the Logical Investigations, such as "sense-giving act-character", "fulfillment of acts by intuition", "meaning-intentions", "meaning-conferring acts" or "forming categorial acts" compounded the bewilderment of its readers.