The puzzling case of alterity in Husserl's logical investigations

Bertrand Bouckaert

pp. 185-198

in: Dan Zahavi, Frederik Stjernfelt (eds), One hundred years of phenomenology, Deventer, Kluwer, 2002

Abstract

The following paper deals with the question of alterity or intersubjectivity¹ in Husserl's Logical Investigations.² The research is broken down into five main parts. First I will examine the present scholarly consensus to focus the study of Husserl's intersubjectivity on his writings done at Freiburg from 1917 until 1938, and not on those from Göttingen (1901–1916) or Halle (1887–1901). Then the reasons which seem to be at the origin of this present consensus will be critically examined. This will lead to the search for a kind of "intersubjective structure" in the Logical Investigations themselves. It will be shown that in this text, as in Cartesian Meditations, that such an "intersubjective structure" is present; however, from one text to the other this structure is—so to speak—"reversed". Finally, I will try to formulate some hypotheses to explain this development.

Cited authors

Husserl Edmund