Who Is the Subject of Phenomenology? Husserl and Fink on the Transcendental Ego
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology October 8, 2018 D. Hobbs 4 citations
The article addresses a longstanding puzzle in Husserlian phenomenology: the identity of the transcendental ego, the subject of transcendental phenomenology, and its relation to the empirical ego of the individual phenomenologist. Drawing on Eugen Fink's concept of a "personal union" between these two egos in his Sixth Cartesian Meditation and on Husserl's First Philosophy lectures, the author develops an account in which the transcendental ego is a mode of self-investigation by the phenomenologist. This interpretation, the author argues, preserves the transcendental status of phenomenology while deflecting certain criticisms.