Edmund Husserl
Austrian and German philosopher who founded phenomenology.
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was an Austrian and German philosopher and mathematician who founded the school of phenomenology. Born into a Jewish family in Moravia, then part of the Austrian Empire, he initially studied mathematics, physics, and astronomy at the University of Leipzig, where he was influenced by the psychologist Wilhelm Wundt. He continued his mathematical studies in Berlin under Leopold Kronecker and Karl Weierstrass, and completed his doctorate in Vienna under Leo Königsberger with a dissertation on the calculus of variations. After a period as Weierstrass’s assistant, Husserl turned to philosophy, attending lectures by Franz Brentano, who became a decisive influence, particularly regarding the concept of intentionality. He earned his habilitation under Carl Stumpf at Halle with a thesis on the concept of number. Husserl taught as a Privatdozent at Halle from 1887, then as a professor at Göttingen from 1901, and finally at Freiburg from 1916 until his retirement in 1928. In his early work, he critiqued psychologism and historicism in logic through analyses of intentionality. His mature thought sought to establish a systematic foundational science via the phenomenological reduction, arguing that transcendental consciousness limits all possible knowledge, thereby redefining phenomenology as a transcendental idealist philosophy. In 1933, under Nazi racial laws, he was banned from the University of Freiburg library due to his Jewish ancestry and later resigned from the Deutsche Akademie. He died in Freiburg in 1938 after an illness. His ideas profoundly shaped 20th-century philosophy.
- born
- 8 April 1859, Proßnitz, Margraviate of Moravia, Austrian Empire
- died
- 27 April 1938, Freiburg, Germany
- field
- Philosophy, mathematics
- nationality
- Austrian and German
- known_for
- Founding phenomenology, transcendental idealism, phenomenological reduction
Lore & Background
Husserl studied mathematics, taught by Karl Weierstrass and Leo Königsberger, and philosophy taught by Franz Brentano and Carl Stumpf. He taught philosophy as a Privatdozent at Halle from 1887, then as professor, first at Göttingen from 1901, then at Freiburg from 1916 until he retired in 1928, after which he remained highly productive. In 1933, under racial laws of the Nazi Party, Husserl was banned from using the library of the University of Freiburg due to his Jewish family background and months later resigned from the Deutsche Akademie. Following an illness, he died in Freiburg in 1938.
Reader's Guide
Husserl was born in 1859 in Proßnitz in the Margraviate of Moravia in the Austrian Empire. He was born into a Jewish family. He studied mathematics, physics, and astronomy at the University of Leipzig from 1876 to 1878, then moved to Berlin to continue mathematics under Leopold Kronecker and Karl Weierstrass. He completed his mathematics studies at the University of Vienna under Leo Königsberger, obtaining his PhD in 1883. He was baptized into the Lutheran Church in 1886. He habilitated under Carl Stumpf at Halle in 1887. He married Malvine Steinschneider in 1887; they had three children: Elizabeth (born 1892), Gerhart (born 1893), and Wolfgang (born 1894). Husserl's thought profoundly influenced 20th-century philosophy.
Did You Know?
- Husserl was inspired by philosophy lectures of Wilhelm Wundt at Leipzig.
- He found a mentor in Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in Berlin.
- His habilitation thesis, 'On the Concept of Number', later served as basis for his first important work 'Philosophie der Arithmetik'.
- He was joint editor of the journal Logos from 1910.
- He gave four lectures on the phenomenological method at University College London in 1922.
Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)
"Edmund Husserl (8 April 1859 – 26 April 1938) was a philosopher from Moravia, then part of the Austrian Empire, known as the father of phenomenology." — Edmund Husserl "... bloße Erfahrung ist keine Wissenschaft." — Edmund Husserl "First, anyone who seriously intends to become a philosopher must "once in his life" withdraw into himself and attempt, within himself, to overthrow and build anew all the sciences that, up to then, he has been accepting." — Edmund Husserl "Husserl has shown that man's prejudices go a great deal deeper than his intellect or his emotions. Consciousness itself is 'prejudiced' — that is to say, intentional." — Edmund Husserl
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