The Phenomenology Reader
alongside Dermot Moran’s Introduction to Phenomenology (London:
Routledge, 2000) provide a much needed pair of texts to introduce readers to
the world of Husserlian phenomenology. 
One of the main challenges facing those interested in Husserlian
phenomenology is Edmund Husserl himself. 
Husserl remained resistant, to his death, to completing texts, thus, the
bulk of his work exists in volumes published after his death.  Although various editors have done admirable
jobs of working through his manuscripts and publishing them, one faces a
daunting range of volumes. 

In addition to problems
with understanding Husserl’s writing, one also faces Kluwer’s mafia grip on
Husserl’s works.  Kluwer produces lovely
books with astronomically high prices–usually a couple of hundred dollars per
book.  Unless you are at a research
university where these texts are kept, sheer financial limitations stop many
from reading Husserl.  (I have yet to
meet someone who works on Husserl who doesn’t own volumes of painstakingly
photocopied editions of his texts.) 
Thus, a well-chosen reader is a welcome addition to the field of
Husserlian phenomenology.

The Phenomenology Reader is
organized chronologically, beginning with Franz von Brentano and ending with
Jacques Derrida and Paul Ricoeur.  It is
Edmund Husserl who really created phenomenology as a method and a system, but
certainly his teacher Brentano provided the seeds of inspiration for ideas
about intentionality and the relationship between philosophy and
psychology/philosophical anthropology. 
Husserl, who justifiably takes the largest section of the book, did not
consider himself to be creating an entirely new kind of philosophy, but rather
to be the successor of Cartesian and Kantian philosophy.  None of the rest of the main figures in
phenomenology (Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, et al) remained completely
faithful to Husserl’s guidelines for phenomenology, most of them, in step with
the other revolutions occurring in 20^th century thought, strove to
take philosophy beyond the epistemological questions that primarily occupied
Husserl.  The text also includes some of
the more revolutionary thinkers of the last 50 years, Emmanuel Levinas and
Jacques Derrida, both of whom pushed the limits of language and questioned the
ability of philosophical system building. 
Mooney and Moran do an admirable job of collecting selections from these
diverse thinkers that express their own philosophies, but also reveal the
continuities in thought.

Other readers in phenomenology
exist.  One I also reviewed for Metapsychology
in May 2002 is Robert
Solomon’s  Phenomenology and
Existentialism (Roman and Littlefield, 2001).  (Solomon’s text is primarily phenomenology and existential
phenomenology, rather than existentialism proper, so a comparison is
worthwhile.)  One benefit of Solomon’s
volume over Moran’s and Mooney’s is that it includes some critical essays,
giving one an idea of how phenomenology is taken up by some contemporary
authors.  In addition, Solomon’s text is
thematic, not chronologically organized, making comparisons between phenomenology
and other kinds of philosophy easier. 

Nonetheless, I plan to change my
required reading for my undergraduate class in phenomenology from Phenomenology
and Existentialism to The Phenomenology Reader.  First, although limitations do exist to chronological
readers, it simply is the case that understanding figures like Levinas and
Derrida without previously having read Husserl is extremely difficult.  A phenomenological style of approaching
philosophical questions is built upon the Husserlian tradition.  Thus, the chronological approach in The
Phenomenology Reader is more instructive for new-comers to phenomenology
who would obviously the readers of a reader. 
In addition, beginning with Brentano helps elucidate how Husserl can be
approached both by scholars in the Anglo-American tradition as well as the
Continental one (although, it must be said that Moran and Mooney focus
specifically on the Continental reception of Husserl). Second, readers
themselves often involve hacking up books in a manner that will always appear
arbitrary to some scholars.  One needs
clear indications of where one should go when one wants to know more about the
selection.  Moran and Mooney have done
an admirable job of giving a comprehensive list of suggested reading at the end
of each selection, as well as useful name and subject indexes. 

As I mention in the beginning,
Moran’s Introduction to Phenomenology would be a worthwhile book to read
alongside this reader.  It is not a text
for the specialist in phenomenology or in European 20^th century
philosophy.  However, it is a great text
for an undergraduate upper-level course in phenomenology or for someone
interested to learn more about phenomenology and why it has become such a
diverse and vibrant movement in philosophy. 

© 2003 Talia Welsh

Talia
Welsh, Ph.D., Department of Philosophy and Religion, The University of
Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Categories: Philosophical, Psychology