Dan Zahavi - Phenomenology: The Basics

PHENOMENOLOGY

THE BASICS

Phenomenology: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to one of the dominant philosophical movements of the 20th century. This lively and lucid book provides an introduction to the essential phenomenological concepts that are crucial for understanding great thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. Written by a leading expert in the field, Dan Zahavi examines and explains key questions such as:

What is a phenomenological analysis?

What are the methodological foundations of phenomenology?

What does phenomenology have to say about embodiment and intersubjectivity?

How is phenomenology distinguished from, and related to, other fields in philosophy?

How do ideas from classic phenomenology relate to ongoing debates in psychology and qualitative research?

With a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading, the book considers key issues in phenomenology, making this an ideal starting point for anyone seeking a concise and accessible introduction to the rich and complex study of phenomenology.

Dan Zahavi is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and the University of Oxford, UK, and Director of the Center for Subjectivity Research in Copenhagen. He is the author of Self-Awareness and Alterity (1999), Husserls Phenomenology (2003), Subjectivity and Selfhood (2005), Self and Other (2014), and Husserls Legacy (2017). He co-authored The Phenomenological Mind (2012) with Shaun Gallagher, and has recently edited The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Phenomenology (2012) and The Oxford Handbook of the History of Phenomenology (2018).

THE BASICS

Available:

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY

NANCY STANLICK

ANIMAL ETHICS

TONY MILLIGAN

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

KEVIN WARWICK

EVOLUTION

SHERRIE LYONS

FOOD ETHICS

RONALD SANDLER

FREE WILL

MEGHAN GRIFFITH

METAPHYSICS

MICHAEL RAE

PHILOSOPHY (FIFTH EDITION)

NIGEL WARBURTON

GLOBAL JUSTICE

CARL DEATH AND HUW L. WILLIAMS

HUMAN GENETICS (SECOND EDITION)

RICKI LEWIS

LOGIC (SECOND EDITION)

J.C. BEALL

BIOETHICS (SECOND EDITION)

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL

PHENOMENOLOGY

DAN ZAHAVI

Other titles in the series can be found at: www.routledge.com/The-Basics/book-series/B

First published 2019

by Routledge

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Translation 2019 Dan Zahavi

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Original Edition

Fnomenologi

Published in Danish by Samfundslitteratur/Roskilde Universitetsforlag, 2003.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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ISBN: 978-1-138-21669-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-21670-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-44160-3 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo and Scala Sans

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To Adam, Emil, and Julie

CONTENTS

Back in 2003, I published a short introduction to phenomenology in Danish. In the years that followed, the book was translated into German (2007), Icelandic (2008), and Japanese (2015). In 2016, I contacted Routledge and asked whether they might be interested in publishing an English translation. We quickly reached an agreement, but when I started translating the text from Danish, I came to realize that there were many ways in which the original text from 2003 could be improved upon. In the end, I decided to rework and rewrite the entire text completely. The result is a much longer and, I believe, far better book.

During the process, I have partially drawn on previously translated material from other introductory articles and book chapters of mine, including Phenomenology, in D. Moran (ed.), Routledge Companion to Twentieth-Century Philosophy (London: Routledge, 2008); Phenomenological Sociology: The Subjectivity of Everyday Life (with S. Overgaard), in M. Hviid Jacobsen (ed.), Encountering the Everyday: An Introduction to the Sociologies of the Unnoticed (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009); Intersubjectivity, in S. Luft & S. Overgaard (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Phenomenology (Routledge: London, 2011); Time, Space and Body in Bergson, Heidegger and Husserl (with S. Overgaard), in R. Baiasu, G. Bird & A.W. Moore (eds.), Contemporary Kantian Metaphysics: New Essays on Space and Time (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); Naturalized Phenomenology: A Desideratum or a Category Mistake? Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 72 (2013), 2342; and Varieties of Phenomenology, in W. Breckman & P.E. Gordon (eds.), The Cambridge History of Modern European Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).

***

Let me express my gratitude to Thomas Bestle, Alessandro Duranti, Magnus Englander, Simon Hffding, Piet Hut, Bente Martinsen, Kristian Moltke Martiny, James Morley, Sren Overgaard, Susanne Ravn, and my students in Copenhagen for various helpful suggestions to different parts of the text. A special and heartfelt thanks to Sara Heinmaa, who read and offered insightful comments to the entire manuscript.

Phenomenology counts as one of the dominant traditions in 20th-century philosophy. Edmund Husserl (18591938) One reason for its influence is that almost all subsequent theory formations in German and French philosophy can be understood as either extensions of or reactions to phenomenology. A proper grasp of phenomenology is, consequently, important not only for its own sake, but also because it remains a sine qua non for an understanding of subsequent developments in 20th-century theorizing.

Over the years, phenomenology has made major contributions to many areas of philosophy and offered groundbreaking analyses of topics such as intentionality, perception, embodiment, emotions, self-consciousness, intersubjectivity, temporality, historicity, and truth. It has delivered a targeted criticism of reductionism, objectivism, and scientism, and argued at length for a rehabilitation of the lifeworld. By presenting a detailed account of human existence, where the subject is understood as an embodied and socially and culturally embedded being-in-the-world, phenomenology has provided crucial inputs to a whole range of empirical disciplines, including psychiatry, sociology, psychology, literary studies, anthropology, and architecture.

Even though many of the by-now classical works in phenomenology were written in the first half of the 20th century, phenomenology continues to be a source of inspiration and has in recent years been the subject of renewed interest. Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to claim that phenomenology is currently undergoing something of a renaissance.