Husserl on psychology: The return to positivity.

摘要

The relationship between phenomenology and psychology in Husserl's writings has remained a controversial and unsettled issue. This work tracks the evolution of Husserl's understanding of this relation through the historical unfolding of his work, giving primary importance to the role of psychologism in both the determination of the nature of philosophical phenomenology and the requirements for an application of phenomenology to psychological understanding and practice. It is the conclusion of this historical exegesis and analysis of Husserl's work that psychology must take its place within the transcendental framework provided by philosophical phenomenology if both philosophy and psychology are not to be rendered psychologistic.;As a result, it is suggested that psychology operate through a return to the natural from the transcendental attitude, situating the psychic in the context of transcendental constitution. The context of Nature provided by naturalism is thus replaced by the "world of mind" in its historical and intersubjective constitution, and the concrete practice and understanding of psychology becomes informed by and infused with the social, cultural and historical aspects of the life-world which had been excluded by naturalism. Phenomenologically-informed psychology becomes in this way a "socio-cultural science.".;This work concludes with a discussion of examples of areas of psychological interest in which the contributions of a phenomenologically-informed psychology are elucidated. The significance of a phenomenological approach to psychology which is not psychologistic is demonstrated in the clarification of the distinction between psychological aspects of phenomena and the phenomena themselves which, while of psychological interest, are not themselves psychic in nature. As the life-world is rich and varied in its meanings, psychology must limit itself to a well circumscribed domain of the much larger whole which is our everyday lives, while at the same time remaining cognizant of the overall context of which it is only one part.;This work thus argues for a more humble yet generous psychology; aware both of its limits and of what it has to offer in the way of exploration of one among several aspects of human existence.