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 ~KOMT~ ~i-1i------'~ ..J.J'" ,'I,T~I A', -('t\ ~' ~ M·N~ 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.