Conversations with Husserl and Fink

125 Pages·1976·4.165 MB·English

by  Dorion Cairns (auth.)

Conversations with Husserl and Fink
PHAENOMENOLOGICA
COLLECTION FONDEE PAR H. L. VAN BREDA ET PUBLIEE SOUS
LE PATRONAGE DES CENT RES D'ARCHIVES-HUSSERL
66
DORION CAIRNS
Conversations with Husserl and Fink
EDITED BY THE HUSSERL-ARCHIVES
IN LOUVAIN.
WITH A FOREWORD BY
RICHARD M. ZANER
Comite de redaction de la collection:
President: S. I J sseling (Leu ven) ;
Membres: M. Farber (Buffalo L E. Fink t (Freiburg i. Br.),
L. Landgrebe, (Köln), W. Marx (Freiburg i. Br.),
J. N. Mohanty (New York), P. Ricoeur (Paris), E. Ströker (Köln),
J. Taminaux (Louvain), K. H. Volkmann-Schluck (Köln);
Secretaire: J. Taminaux
DORION C:AIRNS
Conversations with Husserl and Fink
EDITED BY THE HUSSERL-ARCHIVES
IN LOU·VAIN.
WITH A FOREWORD BY
RICHARD M. ZANER
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SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V. 1976
ISBN 978-94-015-6892-0 ISBN 978-94-015-6890-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-6890-6
© I976 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands in I976
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover ist edition I976
AU rights reserved, including the right to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form
T ABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Editor' s preface
I. Conversation with Husser!, 16/7/26 1
II. Conversation with Husser! and Becker, 24/6/31 1
III. Conversation with Becker and Kaufmann, 25 (26or
27)/6/31 2
IV. Notes on Husser! conversation, 27/6/31 2
V. Conversation with Husser!, 11/7/31 3
VI. Notes on conversation with Husser!, 18/7/31 5
VII. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 11/8/31 7
VIII. Conversation with Husser! and Ma!vine Husser!,
13/8/31 8
IX. Conversation with Fink, I7/8/31 11
x. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 17/8/31 16
XI. Conversation with Husser!, Fink and Miyake, 19/8/31 17
XII. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 22/8/31 20
XIII. Conversation with Fink, 24/8/31 24
XIV. Conversation with Husser!, 28/8/31 27
XV. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 1/9/31 28
XVI. Conversation with Husser!, 6/9/31 3°
XVII. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 11/9/31 31
XVIII. Conversation with Fink, r6/9/31 (?) 32
XIX. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 17/9/31 32
XX. Conversation with Fink, :21/9/3I 33
XXI. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 22/9/31 34
XXII. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 28/9/31 36
XXIII. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 3/10/31 37
XXIV. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 9/11/3I 37
xxv. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, I2/11/3I 38
XXVI. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 18/11/3I 41
VI TABLE OF CONTENTS
XXVII. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 20/11/31 42
XXVIII. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 24/11/31 44
XXIX. Conversation with Fink, 24/11/31 48
xxx. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 25/11/31 SI
XXXI. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 30/11/31 52
XXXII. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 4/12/31 53
XXXIII. Conversation with Fink, 7/12/31 56
XXXIV. Conversation with Husserl, 8/12/31 57
xxxv. Conversation with Fink, 14/12/31 57
XXXVI. Conversation with Fink, 19/12/31 57
XXXVII. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 22/12/31 58
XXXVIII. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 23/12/31 58
XXXIX. Conversation with Husserl and others, 26/12/31 60
XL. Conversation with Husserl, 28/12/31 61
XLI. Conversation with Husserl and Reiner, 31/12/31 63
XLII. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 5/1/32 63
XLIII. Conversation with Husser!, 13/1/32 64
XLIV. Conversation with Fink, 18/1/32 65
XLV. Conversation with Fink, 20/1/32 66
XLVI. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 26/1/32 67
XLVII. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 29/1/32 68
XLVIII. Conversation with Husserl, 3/3/32 69
XLIX. Conversation with Husserl, 7/3/32 69
XL. Conversation with Husserl, 11/3/32 7°
LI. Conversation with Husserl, 4/5/32 71
LII. Conversation with Husserl, 6/5/32 71
LIII. Conversation with Husserl, 9/5/32 73
LIV. Conversation with Husser!, 11/5/32 75
LV. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 31/5/32 77
LVI. Conversation with Husserl, 2/6/32 80
LVII. Conversation with Husserl, 4/6/32 82
LVIII. Conversation with Husserl, 8/6/32 83
LVIX. Conversation with Husserl, 13/6/32 84
LX. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 15/6/32 87
LXI. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 23/6/32 89
LXII. Conversation with Husserl, 27/6/32 91
LXIII. Conversation with Husserl, 29/6/32 91
LXIV. Conversation with Husser! and Fink, 15/7/32 92
LXV. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 20/9/32 93
LXVI. Conversation with Fink, 23/9/32 95
LXVII. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 25/10/32 97
TABLE OF CONTENTS VII
LXVIII. Conversation with Husserl, 2/11/32 99
LXIX. Conversation with Husserl and Fink, 15/11/32 100
Appendix
I. Topics, Husserl conversation, 24/6/31 103
II. Conversation with Husserl, 25/6/31 104
III. Conversation with Husserl, 27/6/31 105
Works by Husserl mentioned in the Conversations I07
Index 0/ names lOg
Index 01 subiects III
FOREWORD
This is an unusual volume. During his periods of study with Ed
mund Husserl - first from I924 1.0 I926, then from I93I to I932
- Dorion Cairns had become imnlensely impressed with the stri
king philosophical quality of Husserl's conversations with his
students and co-workers. Not unlike his daily writing (five to six
hours a day was not uncommon, as Husserl reports herein, the
nature of which was a continuous searching, reassessing, modi
fying, advancing and even rejecting of former views), Husserl's
conversations, especially evidenced from Cairns's record, were
remarkable for their depth and probing character. Because of
this, and because of the importaIlt light they threw on Husserl's
written and published works, Cairns had early resolved to set
down in writing, as accurately as possible, the details of these
conversations. Largely prompted by the questions and concerns
of his students, including Cairns, the present Conversations (from
the second period, I93I-I932, except for the initial conversation)
provide a significant, intriguing, and always fascinating insight
into both the issues which were prominent to Husserl at this time,
and the way he had come to view the systematic and historical
placement of his own earlier studies.
Cairns had often insisted - principally in his remarkable lec
tures at the Graduate Faculty of the New School1 that attaining
-
a fair and accurate view of Husserl's enormously rich and complex
1 Cairns's lectures between 1956 and 1964 are especially important. He addressed
himself to such topics as: "Husserl's Theory of Intentionality" (a four-semester
course); "The Phenomenology of Thinking"; "Epistemology"; as weIl as several
courses dealing with ethics and value-theory, and major figures in the history of
philosophy (especially Locke, Kant, Hume, and 19th century thought). These lec
tures, most of which were written out in fuIl, form an important part of Cairns's papers
which, it is expected, will be prepared for publication over the next years.
x FOREWORD
body of work required that one begin one's studies with those
works which were written at the peak of Husserl's philosophical
powers, and then one could sensibly turn to the rest of the cor
pus, always reading it, however, in the light of tl1e former. This or
der, Cairns maint ained, placed the Ca rtesian M editations2 first, fol
lowed by the Fortnal and Transcendental Logic·3 only after mas
J
tering these, could oue meaningfully study Ideas, 14 (with a focus
on Part 11, since I-Iusserl rightly had serious reservations about
Part I, which he regarded as too unclear). After this, one could
then turn to the largely pre-philosophical (and certainly pre
transcendental) Logical I nvestigations, 5 alld then the rest of
Husserl's works, published and unpublished.6 The present Con
versations confirm precisely this interpretation, and moreover
give the rationale for it: as is amply clear herein, it was only in
the light of his labors in the 1920'S culminating in the first two
works mentioned above, that Husserl came to a level of genuine
philosophical maturity from the perspective of which the earlier
studies and inquiries could be viewed systernatically and assessed
as to their approximation to, or failure fully to achieve, a ge
nuinely philosophical significance. Hence, if for no other reason,
these Conversations have both historical and systematic impor
tance for understanding Husserl's own views of his work. Coming
2 Edmund H usserl, Cartesianische Meditationen und Pariser Vorträge. Herausge
geben und eingeleitet von Prof. Dr. S. Strasser. Husserliana Band 1. Haag: Martinus
Nijhoff, 1950. Eng. tr. by Dorion Cairns. The Hague: IVlartinus Nijhoff, 1960.
3 Edmund H usserl, Formale und transzendentale Logik. Versuch einer Kritik der
logischen Vernunft. Halle: l\iax Niemeyer Verlag, I929. Eng. tr. by Dorion Cairns.
The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1969.
4 Edmund Husserl, Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen
Philosophie. Erstes Buch: Allgemeine Einführung in die reine Phänomenologie. Her
ausgegeben von Walter Biemel. Husserliana Band II!. Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1950.
5 Edmund Husserl, Logische Untersuchungen. Halle: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 19001
OI (Vierte Auflage, I928). Eng. tr. by J. N. Findlay (in two volumes), from the 2nd
edition of 1913. New York: The Humanities Press, I970.
6 Such as "Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft," Logos, I (1910-1911), pp. 289-
341 (Eng. tr. by Quentin Lauer, published along with another of Husserl's articles
under the title: Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy. New York: Harper
Torchbooks, The Academy Library, 1965, pp. 71-147). Other works by Husserl have
been carefuBy edited and published under the auspices of the Husserl Archives, in the
series entitled Husserliana, published by Martinus Nijhoff.
These other works, Cairns often insisted, must be read in the light of the Formal
and Transcendental Logic and the Cartesian Meditations; especially is tbis the case
with Erfahrung und Urteil, Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzen
dentale Phänomenologie, and aB the studies lett unpublished by Husserl during his
lifetime.