Kant and Husserl

✍ Scribed by J. N. Mohanty

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 702 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-9848
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00117141

✦ Synopsis

Husserl wrote to Cassirer on April 3, 1925: "My own development originally was opposed to Kant [Meine eigene Entwicklung [die] urspr~nglich Kantfeindlich war], but gradually I came to recognize the value as well as the limits of Kant." ~ Since when did this change take place? As early as 1908, Husserl wrote to the neo-Kantian Cohn (dated October 15, 1908): "For several years (and since the appearance of my Logical Investigations, with heightened energy) I have been working on a Critique of Reason, to be built up actually from its foundation. ''2 This idea that Husserl intended to write a Critique of Reason (he does not call it Critique of Pure Reason) provides me with the guiding clue to undertake this enquiry into the relation between Kant and Husserl. I will divide this article into three parts. In the first, I will try to offer a brief sketch of the Critique as Husserl would have written it. In the second, I will likewise present a sketch of the Phenomenology of Pure Consciousness which Kant may be regarded as having given us. In the third part I will single out some central points of difference between the two philosophers-differences which erupt within a common horizon. This shall also show us a path for the future of transcendental philosophy.