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THE PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION OF EUGEN FINK’S ARTICLE “THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY OF EDMUND HUSSERL AND CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM”

Abstract
In the preface to the translation of E. Fink’s article “The Phenomenological Philosophy of Edmund Husserl and Contemporary Criticism” I explicate the historical and problematic context of the work. The article was planned by Fink as the first part of a two-part polemic with two philosophical schools: criticism (neo-Kantians) and “philosophy of life”, but the second part wasn’t written. Eugen Fink uses the metaphoric of a trial and writes a kind of “Apology of Phenomenology”. He points out the erroneous insinuations against Husserl’s phenomenology and explains that they are based on a misunderstanding of the basic ideas of phenomenology. In the second half of the article, Fink presents his interpretation of Husserl’s phenomenology. It coincides mainly with the contents of the VI Cartesian Meditation. The article can be understood as a non-technical presentation of the main themes of the VI Meditation, aimed at a non-phenomenological reader. Very interesting is the preface to the article by E. Husserl, who expresses complete agreement with the interpretation of phenomenology provided below. Husserl has made numerous polemical comments on the VI Meditation, but authorizes the same ideas presented in the “Kant-Studien” article. Nevertheless, the Husserl’s recommendation of this article, as shown, was not a tactical move; it is confirmed by the praises in Husserl’s private correspondence. Such a creditable preface makes Fink a kind of porte-parole of Husserlian phenomenology, and the article becomes one of the most influential texts for the interpretation of Husserl’s phenomenology in France in the 1940s–1960s.

Keywords
E. Fink, E. Husserl, phenomenology, criticism, reduction, world, transcendental philosophy.

References

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