The Other Husserl

In this significant work, Edmund Husserl, the founder of 20th—century phenomenology, a highly influential theory of knowledge, receives a thorough and excellent analysis. Welton (SUNY, Stony Brook) surveys Husserl's published and unpublished complex writings in order to develop an alternative interpretation to the standard one promulgated by Husserl's critics and supporters. To accomplish this task, Welton undertakes to evaluate or reconstruct the phenomenological method as a whole. Although primarily very supportive, he also reviews some of the critiques or limits to the method. (Deeper criticisms could have been dealt with, though, especially from the analytic movement.) Husserl's relationship to Heidegger's Being and Time is also explored, and Cartesian and Kantian influences are discussed through Husserl's foundational philosophy. This technical study is an important contribution to phenomenology, to be read by specialists and perhaps by their students. Only those well versed in the field can determine whether Welton succeeds in offering a viable logical alternative to the standard Husserl, or if such a standard exists; this reviewer would have liked more concrete examples. Over 60 pages of notes and lengthy bibliography. Black and white photos. Recommended for Continental philosophy collections.

-- M. P. Maller * Choice *

In this significant work, Edmund Husserl, the founder of 20th-century phenomenology, a highly influential theory of knowledge, receives a thorough and excellent analysis. . . .This technical study is an important contribution to phenomenology . . .December 2001

* Choi