HUSSERL, EDMUND

(1859-1938) German philosopher; professor at Halle, Gottingen, and Freiburg; wrote Ideas . Phenomenologist who borders on mysticism . Philosophy is a rigorous science of the structures of meaningful conscious experience of "things themselves." The primary structure is intentionality. Attention is directed to "objects" insofar as they are intended by consciousness (i.e., the "ideal essences" of "things themselves"). These essences are neither ideal ( Plato ) nor psychological ( Hume ) realities. Transcendental phenomenology is the descriptive analysis both of the essences intended by consciousness and of the consciousness in the act of intending objects (i.e., giving meaning to the world). The "transcendental ego" is Husserl's name for the constituting intentionality of consciousness; it is concrete rather than formal, as in Kant . There is only one world (not things-in-themselves and things-as-they-appear, as in Kant ). The object (or world) is not constructed by consciousness under a priori categories; it is already tied to consciousness by intentionality in a "Life-World." The world gives itself to consciousness, which reciprocates by giving meaning. Nor is consciousness or the transcendental ego a "thinking thing," as in Descartes , which looks "out" at the world; it is immersed in the "Life-World" and becomes aware of itself reflexively in the act of intending the world and reflecting upon it.