Husserl, Edmund

Bio Sketch

Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) was a German philosopher, founder of phenomenology. Husserl's method of phenomenological reduction sought to describe the structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view. His work influenced Heidegger, Gadamer, and Merleau-Ponty.

Key Works

• Logical Investigations (1900-1901)
• Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology (1913)

Key Concepts

• phenomenology
• intentionality
• lifeworld

Relevance to Geoffrey's Research

Husserl's phenomenology is the foundation for Heidegger's ontology and the phenomenological tradition in architecture (Norberg-Schulz, Pallasmaa). His work connects to themes of dwelling, perception, and the lived body.

Source Support

• kidder-gadamer-for-architects
• abell-freud-for-architects
• Semiotics and Hermeneutics of the Everyday (Yoka & Paschalidis eds. 2015) — the Introduction's verdict that Husserl "stopped short of unmooring the everyday from the fallacies [of] common sense" and so failed to validate it as the active basis for a critique of rationalism; the editors read Vaneigem and Lefebvre as radicalizing Husserl's "return to the things [them]selves" into a return to human praxis.