EDMUND HUSSERL

EDMUND HUSSERL Husserl’s highly complicated philosophy is not easily translated in to sociological concepts and, indeed, a good portion of it is not directly relevant to sociology. We discuss here a few of his main ideas that have proven useful to sociological Phenomenologists. The term phenomenology was used by Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) in his most famous philosophical treatise, Ideas: introduction to Pure Phenomenology (1913) that includes the principle of philosophical and scientific method. Husserl challenged the method usually used by natural science. The usual method of natural science proceeds from a body of accepted truth and seeks to extend its conquest of the unknown by putting questions to nature and compelling it to answer. The phenomenological methods adopt a softer approach. Setting aside all presuppositions and suppressing hypothesis, it seeks to devise techniques of observation, description, and classification, which permit it to disclose structures and connections in nature, which do not yield to experimental techniques. Husserl pointed out that it seems innocent enough to explain consciousness in terms of natural causes until we recollect that matter and the laws which govern its behaviour are themselves part of our experience. He talks of “suspending” our natural beliefs, including the fundamental conviction of every healthy mind that there is world “out there”, that there are other selves, and so on. We are asked to ‘alter’ this natural standpoint, to ‘disconnect’ our beliefs about causation and motion, to ‘put them out of action’. This is, of course, only a methodological procedure, in order to help us to overcome our animal bias and make it possible for us to take a coolly intellectual view of things. Greek philosophy used the term epoche to indicate the suspension of judgment. Husserl presses this term in his service. As we shall immediately see, the phenomenological approach in sociology is based upon this particular philosophical foundation. Reserved by Rakhesh.C.K. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of Rakhesh.C.K.