On Hume and Husserl: An Analysis of Phenomenology as a Development of the Humean Science of Man

There is an acknowledged link between the philosophies of Edmund Husserl and David Hume, in that Husserl expressed on several occasions his admiration for Hume’s work, and on one notable occasion, claimed that all the problems Hume tackles in the Treatise on Human Nature in fact belong to the field of phenomenology. Nevertheless, these two philosophical traditions have generally been considered as separate schools of thought, even on those rare occasions when both schools enter into the same discussion. Consequently, there has been a dearth of research into the apparent relationship between Humean thought and Husserl’s phenomenology. If we suppose that this relationship does exist, and that Husserl thought of Humean ideas as a sort of proto-phenomenology, then there are three main questions which we need to answer. First, to what extent does Hume himself exhibit signs of phenomenological thought? Second, to what extent does intentionality – a concept central to phenomenology – represent an innovation on Humean philosophy? Third, to what extent is Husserl able to resolve problems in Humean theory with his phenomenological approach? To answer these questions we will begin in chapters 1 and 2 with an overview of the core principles of each theory, before discussing the problems in Hume’s theory which necessitate Husserl’s intervention in chapter 3. Next, in chapter 4, we introduce the discussion of intentionality, and in chapter 5, we explore its possible presence in Humean philosophy, after which we discuss the manner in which Husserl articulates the nature of intentionality with his concepts of ‘noesis’ and ‘noema’ in chapter 6. In chapter 7, we move on to a detailed analysis of how Husserl attacks Hume’s ‘theory of meaning’, and replaces it with his own, before concluding in chapter 8 with a demonstration of how this new theory bypasses the problems inherent to Hume’s system of thought.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Brown, Daniel

Contributors dc:contributor

• O'Brien, Daniel

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/egmz-bz41

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:95525f39-22c3-47b2-89ee-e606c0b6e27b:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1