Husserl: Truth

Husserl endorses ideal verificationism, the claim that there is a necessary correlation between truth and the ideal possibility of experience. This puts him in the company of semantic anti-realists like Dummett, Tennant, and Wright who endorse the knowability thesis that all truths are knowable. Unfortunately, there is a simple, seductive, and troubling argument due to Alonzo Church and Frederic Fitch that the knowability thesis collapses into the omniscience thesis that all truths are known. Phenomenologists should be worried. I assess the (...) damage by surveying responses that may be open to Husserl. In particular, I explore whether Husserl ought to have adopted intuitionistic logic and motivate a restriction of ideal verificationism on phenomenological grounds. (shrink)

In this essay, I discuss the essence of truth. In order to do so, I continue a fecund dialogue between Husserlian phenomenology, as recapitulated by Robert Sokolowski, and Aristotelian metaphysics, as developed by St. Thomas Aquinas. Integrating these phil­osophical approaches enables us to see that beings reveal themselves to us through their activities, both substantial and accidental, and that the active self-disclosure of things can be identified with their intelligibility. It is this objective yet potential intelligibility that we disclose and (...) activate when we think about things truthfully by articulating them in the medium of speech. I therefore define truth as the human person’s syntactic activation of the potential intelligibility of things, and I conclude by showing how these reflections lead us to acknowledge God as the highest and first Truth. (shrink)

This article aims to analyze the theory of truth contained in Edmund Husserl’s Logical Investigations. In my analysis, I start from a detailed description of conditions of the possibility of truth based on Husserl’s alethiology. I show that his theory assumes correlation, the parallelism between subjective and objective conditions of the possibility of cognition as a condition of truth. Based on this, I explain Husserl’s interpretation of the correspondence definition of truth found in Logical Investigations. I also provide arguments that (...) this interpretation presupposes the ontological definition of truth and the idea of the infinite intellect as the ideal of a direct and exhaustive presentation of the object of cognition. Nonetheless, my conclusions don’t provide a complete interpretation of Husserl’s alethiology because I refrain from drawing metaphysical consequences from it. That is to say, I neither answer the question about realism/idealism in Logical Investigations nor the question of whether the idea of the infinite intellect should be understood in some metaphysical way (e.g. theistic one) or only as a regulative idea in the Kantian sense. (shrink)

This paper examines the evolution of Husserl’s philosophy of nonintuitive intentions. The analysis has two stages. First, I expose a mistake in Husserl’s account of non-intuitive acts from his 1901 Logical Investigations. I demonstrate that Husserl employs the term “signitive” too broadly, as he concludes that all non-intuitive acts are signitive. He states that not only meaning acts, but also the contiguity intentions of perception are signitive acts. Second, I show how Husserl, in his 1913/14 Revisions to the Sixth Logical (...) Investigation, amends his 1901 theory of non-intuitive acts, which he now calls “empty” intentions. He there accurately distinguishes empty meaning acts from the empty intentions of perception. In the conclusion, I reveal how Husserl’s alterations to his theory of non-intuitive intentions can inform our understanding of a larger shift in his philosophy. (shrink)

This paper examines the evolution of Edmund Husserl’s theory of perceptual occlusion. This task is accomplished in two stages. First, I elucidate Husserl’s conclusion, from his 1901 Logical Investigations, that the occluded parts of perceptual objects are intended by partial signitive acts. I focus on two doctrines of that account. I examine Husserl’s insight that signitive intentions are composed of Gehalt and I discuss his conclusion that signitive intentions sit on the continuum of fullness. Second, the paper discloses how Husserl (...) transforms his 1901 philosophy in his 1913 revisions to the Sixth Logical Investigation, affirming that the occluded parts of perceptual objects are intended by empty contiguity acts. I demonstrate how he overturns the two core doctrines of his theory from the Investigations in these revisions, claiming that empty intentions are not composed of Gehalt and asserting that those acts break with the continuum of fullness. Husserl implements these changes to solve problems that arise from his recognition of two new kinds of intentions; darker and completely dark acts. Finally, in the conclusion, I cash out this analysis, by indicating that, in 1913, Husserl transforms his theory of fulfillment on the basis of his new insights about empty acts. (shrink)

We show in this paper how three continental philosophers (Husserl, Heidegger, and Derrida respectively) respond negatively to the analytic correspondence theory of truth using different notions developed by them (i.e. the notion of Intentionality by Husserl, the notion of Dasein by Heidegger, and the notion of Trace by Derrida). We show that despite the fact that the three philosophers are united against the analytic correspondence theory of truth, there are still deep differences between them which stem from the different tools (...) they use to articulate the concept of truth. Also, we argue that Husserlian truth has an advantageous position over the other concepts of truth presented. (shrink)

In his new book, Lambert Zuidervaart argues that the concept of propositional truth remains one-dimensional and needs to be extended by and embedded in several versions of what the author calls “existential truth,” which he discusses in relation to phenomenology and critical theory. Zuidervaart focuses on key figures of twentieth-century German philosophy, such as Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Theodor Adorno, Jürgen Habermas, and Max Horkheimer. According to the author, his book “does not intend to be a historical narrative” ; nor (...) does it intend to present “a few nuggets of insights from continental writings”. Instead, Zuidervaart tries to reconstruct the primary material and immanently criticizes the... (shrink)

Theodor Adorno’s idea of truth derives in part from his critique of Husserlian phenomenology and Heideggerian ontology. This essay examines three passages from Zur Metakritik der Erkenntnistheorie and Negative Dialektik in which Adorno appears intent on wresting a viable conception of propositional truth from Husserl’s account of categorial intuition and Heidegger’s conception of Being. While agreeing with some of Adorno’s criticisms, I argue that he does not give an adequate account of how predication contributes to cognition. Consequently, he fails to (...) offer the viable conception of propositional truth required for both his critique of Heidegger and his broader idea of truth.L’idée adornienne de la vérité dérive en partie de sa critique de la phénoménologie husserlienne et de l’ontologie heideggérienne. Cet essai examine trois passages de Zur Metakritik der Erkenntnistheorie et Negative Dialektik où Adorno paraît vouloir tirer une conception viable de la vérité propositionnelle de l’explication de l’intuition catégoriale de Husserl et de la conception de l’Être d’Heidegger. Quoiqu’en accord avec certaines des critiques qu’avance Adorno, je maintiens qu’il néglige la manière dont la prédication contribue à la cognition. Par conséquence, sa conception de la vérité propositionnelle n’est pas viable étant donné sa propre critique d’Heidegger ainsi que son idée générale de la vérité. (shrink)

This essay explores Edmund Husserl's significance for contemporary truth theory. Focusing on his Logical Investigations, it argues that early Husserl's conception of truth unsettles a common polarity between epistemic and nonepistemic approaches. Unlike contemporary epistemic conceptions of truth, he gives full weight to “truth makers” that have their own being: objective identity, perceptible objects, and states of affairs. Yet, unlike contemporary nonepistemic conceptions, he also insists on the intentional givenness of such truth makers and on the complexity of the experiences (...) within which propositional truth claims arise. To develop this argument, the essay explains how early Husserl's conception of truth builds on his phenomenology of intentional experience and knowledge. By emphasizing an objective identity between what is signitively meant and intuitively given, Husserl's approach provides a way to resituate propositional truth within a broader and more dynamic conception of truth. (shrink)

This paper demonstrates that Edmund Husserl’s frequently overlooked 1890 manuscript, “On the Logic of Signs,” when closely investigated, reveals itself to be the hermeneutical touchstone for his seminal 1891 Philosophy of Arithmetic. As the former comprises Husserl’s earliest attempt to account for all of the different kinds of signitive experience, his conclusions there can be directly applied to the latter, which is focused on one particular type of sign; namely, number signs. Husserl’s 1890 descriptions of motivating and replacing signs will (...) be respectively employed to clarify his 1891 understanding of the authentic and inauthentic presentations of numbers via number signs. Moreover, his schematic classification of replacement-signs in Semiotic will illuminate the reasons why he believed the number system to be necessary for the operation of replacing number signs. (shrink)

An innovative, ambitious, tradition-crossing study drawing on the work of Husserl, Heidegger, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Habermas to propose a new and transformative concept of truth. The idea of truth is a guiding theme for German continental philosophers from Husserl through Habermas. In this book, Lambert Zuidervaart examines debates surrounding the idea of truth in twentieth-century German continental philosophy. He argues that the Heideggerian and critical theory traditions have much in common—despite the miscommunication, opposition, and even outright hostility that have prevailed (...) between them—including significant roots in the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. Zuidervaart sees the tensions between Heideggerian thought and critical theory as potentially generative sources for a new approach to the idea of truth. He argues further that the “critical retrieval” of insights from German continental philosophy can shed light on current debates in analytic truth theory. Zuidervaart structures his account around three issues: the distinction between propositional truth and truth that is more than propositional (which he calls existential truth); the relationship between propositional truth and the discursive justification of propositional truth claims, framed in analytic philosophy by debates between epistemic and nonepistemic conceptions of truth; and the relationship between propositional truth and the objectivity of knowledge, often presented in analytic philosophy as a conflict between realists and antirealists over the relation between “truth bearers” and “truth makers.” In an innovative and ambitious argument, drawing on the work of Husserl, Heidegger, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Habermas, Zuidervaart proposes a new and transformative conception of truth. (shrink)

The formula that gives expression to the “classical” Heidegger's conception of truth as unconcealedness is quite well known; however, the simple claim of the formula doesn’t make clear the dimension, sense and meaning of the concept of truth in Heidegger's work. Our aim in this paper is to examine, in a schematic way, that the “Being’s philosopher” understand by this concept, both in a part of “Logic: The Question of truth” and a part of “Being and Time”, following, beforehand, the (...) relevant remarks about the traditional conception of truth which places this in judgment and understands it as adaequatio. Finally, as an epilogue, we contrast the Heidegger's conception with Husserl’s view, from a reading of the Prolegomena to Pure Logic, contained in his “Logical Investigations”. (shrink)

This essay explores questions first posed by Ernst Tugendhat: Can Edmund Husserl’s conception of truth help philosophers connect the concept of propositional truth with a more comprehensive and life-oriented idea of truth? Can it do so without short-circuiting either side? If so, to what extent? I focus on the conception of truth in Husserl’s path breaking Logical Investigations, originally published in 1900-01. First, I review critical interpretations of Husserl by three influential post-Heideggerian philosophers: Emmanuel Levinas, Theodor Adorno, and Jacques Derrida. (...) Next, I examine selected passages in the Logical Investigations. Finally, I initiate a critical retrieval of early Husserl’s conception of truth, one that not only evaluates his contribution in light of influential assessments by Levinas, Adorno, and Derrida but also proposes revisions to it. (shrink)

Dieser Text geht von der Frage nach der Wahrheit, die durch die Rekonstruktion der Auseinandersetzung zwischen drei Vertreter des zeitgenössischen philosophischen Denkens dargelegt wird, nämlich: Edmund Husserl, Jean-Luc Marion und Jacques Derrida. Wenn bei Husserl das Problem der Wahrheit mit der Analyse der verschiedenen Modalitäten der Anschauung zusammengehört, in denen sich das Phänomen bewusst eintritt, wiederum mag Marion de Darstellungsweise des Phänomens mit dem Begriff „Gegebenheit“ umfassen: somit schließt diese nicht nur die Modalitäten der Anschauung ein, sondern auch die Intentionalität (...) selbst, die sich irgendein etwas wendet. Nun weißt Derrida durch die Dekonstruktion der phänomenologischen Begriffe Anschauung und Gegebenheit darauf hin, dass die phänomenologische Betrachtung nicht ausreicht, um Zusammenhänge und Umstände nachzudenken, in denen sich die Wahrheit ohne anschaulichen Zug, ohne subjektive Intentionalität und in Widerstand gegenüber ihrer eigenen Sichtbarkeit anzeigt. Solche Nuancen hebt Derrida hervor, indem er die Gegebenheit und die „Gabe“ kontrastiert, und schließlich, indem er der Wahrheit den Charakter des Zeugnisses zuschreibt. (shrink)

For Michel Henry, the Cartesian notion of “videre videor” (“I seem to see”) provides the clearest schema of the type of self-affection in which life is experienced, and through which one can provide a properly phenomenological conception of life. It is above all in Henry’s exemplification of the ‘videor’ in terms of affective experience (in undergoing a passion, feeling pain) that one is able to pin down his two principle arguments concerning the nature of this self-affection. The one, regarding the (...) videor as a form of self-awareness, ultimately fails to convince, whereas the same cannot be said for Henry’s analyses of those types of affective experience whose primary characteristic is precisely a form of resistance internal to life itself. This leads to a demonstration of how Henry’s phenomenology of the videor founds an understanding of life that presupposes a form of impotence and limitation, and even finitude, as the very implication of its appearance. (shrink)

Als Erkenntnistheorie der phänomenologischen Erkenntnis versteht sich die folgende Untersuchung als ein zentrales Stück der von Husserl geforderten Selbstkritik der phänomenologischen Erkenntnis. Ausgehend vom normalsprachlichen Wahrheitsbegriff und dessen Explikation soll die prinzipielle Möglichkeit wahrer phänomenologischer Beschreibungen durch Rückgang auf das Phänomen der Wahrheit ausgewiesen werden. Im Anschluss an Husserls Analysen der vorprädikativen Erfahrung wird die explizierende Betrachtung (in Abgrenzung zum prädikativen Urteil) als die eigentlich erkennende, nämlich die kategorialen Strukturen der Phänomene erfassende und offenlegende Leistung exponiert, die einerseits anschaulich begründete (...) prädikative Urteile allererst ermöglicht und andererseits diese bewahrheitet. Die vorprädikative Erfassung liegt dabei auch der kategorialen Anschauung als einer bereits prädikativen Leistung konstitutiv zugrunde. (shrink)

Als Erkenntnistheorie der phänomenologischen Erkenntnis versteht sich die folgende Untersuchung als ein zentrales Stück der von Husserl geforderten Selbstkritik der phänomenologischen Erkenntnis. Ausgehend vom normalsprachlichen Wahrheitsbegriff und dessen Explikation soll die prinzipielle Möglichkeit wahrer phänomenologischer Beschreibungen durch Rückgang auf das Phänomen der Wahrheit ausgewiesen werden. Im Anschluss an Husserls Analysen der vorprädikativen Erfahrung wird die explizierende Betrachtung (in Abgrenzung zum prädikativen Urteil) als die eigentlich erkennende, nämlich die kategorialen Strukturen der Phänomene erfassende und offenlegende Leistung exponiert, die einerseits anschaulich begründete (...) prädikative Urteile allererst ermöglicht und andererseits diese bewahrheitet. Die vorprädikative Erfassung liegt dabei auch der kategorialen Anschauung als einer bereits prädikativen Leistung konstitutiv zugrunde. (shrink)

The subject of the paper is the issue whether the property of truth as ascribed to sentences and propositions is a real one, i.e. capable of being ascribed to entities such as physical objects, their properties, relations between them, sets of objects, properties of the sets of objects, etc. The point of departure for the analysis is Alfred Tarski’s definition of true sentence in a language L. His definition does not imply anything about the ontology of the property of truth, (...) but it implies instead that for each language there is a multitude of such properties . This claim, however, does have ontological consequences. For this reason a number of the so-called deflationary theories of truth have been proposed. According to them, the expression “property of truth” stands for a heterogeneous set of properties that make a sentence true in a given language, context, etc. The author of the paper argues that deflationary theories eliminate the notion of truth but, together with it, they banish also some other cognitive values which seems contrary to the original intentions of their proponents. The author concludes that the property of truth cannot be captured with the desirable philosophical generality if one holds on to the idea of truth as a property of sentences. Instead he proposes to interpret truth as a property of propositions. In this case it seems more reasonable to speak both of a property of truth and of a norm of truth. As he points out, however, the reasoning along these lines encounters some serious stumble blocks; he concludes that a further account of the predicate involves a shift from propositions to judgments, which in turn implicates one in a temporal structure of judgment-making. He asserts that such an intrusion of metaphysical or transcendental notions simply replaces one problem by an another instead of providing a genuine solution to the original one. He illustrates this fact by invoking Edmund Husserl’s position in Die formale und die transcendentale Logik and in his Erfahrung und Urteil. Since some of Husserl’s notions are incurably mysterious, the author ends up with rather skeptical conclusion that no account of the intuitive bond between the property and the normative character of truth is possible within inherited philosophical frameworks. Key words TRUTH, PROPOSITION, NORM OF TRUTH, PROPERTY OF TRUTH. (shrink)

Pour résister à la destruction de la vérité qui menace la pensée contemporaine, on se propose de revenir à la thèse de Husserl : à la position d’un point de vérité qui s’identifie à l’évidence absolue de l’ego cogito, telle qu’il se donne dans sa chair. Mais cette évidence apodictique n’est pas forcément adéquate : il faut alors se demander ce que doit être la vérité de l’ego pour s’entrelacer à de la non-vérité et ce que doit être la chair (...) pour que l’auto-donation incarnée de l’ego se dissimule à elle-même. Une reconstruction transcendantale de la théorie merleau-pontyenne du chiasme tactile permettra de répondre à ces interrogations.In order to resist the destruction of Truth in contemporary Thinking, we need to come back to Husserl. According to him, there is a point of Truth which is identical to the absolute self-evidence of the Ego Cogito, giving itself in its own Flesh. However, this apodictic self-evidence is not necessarily adequate. What could be the Truth of the Ego, if it intertwines itself with Non-Truth ? And what could be the Flesh, if the carnal self-giving of the Ego could conceal itself to itself ? A transcendental reconstruction of the Merleau-Pontyan theory of the tactile chiasm will help us to answer those questions. (shrink)

Las "Investigaciones Lógicas" han marcado la filosofía contemporánea como quizá ningún otro libro lo haya hecho. Sin embargo, la edición original se ha interpretado casi siempre desde la segunda, es decir, desde un estadio posterior y esencialmente diferente del desarrollo de la escuela fenomenológica. Edmund Husserl, en efecto, no permitió que su gran obra se reeditara sin modificarla muy hondamente, de acuerdo con las tesis nuevas de la fenomenología transcendental. Tampoco consintió traducciones que no se hicieran sobre la edición corregida. (...) De este modo, el contenido real de las primitivas Investigaciones se olvidó. No se tuvo presente en su justa medida hasta qué punto la psicognosia y la metafísica de Franz Brentano habían influido en Husserl. Este libro permite leer los Prolegómenos a la Lógica Pura tal como aparecieron primitivamente. Además, ofrece ya una clave hermenéutica global sobre el conjunto de las Investigaciones, cuya traducción comentada queda reservada para un volumen futuro. (shrink)

Husserl’s Idea of Phenomenology is his first systematic attempt to show how phenomenology differs from natural science and in particular psychology. He does this by the phenomenological reduction. One of his achievements is to show that the formal structures of intentionality are more akin to logic than to psychology. I claim that Husserl’s argument can be made more intuitive if we consider phenomenology to be the study of truth rather than knowledge, and if we see the reduction as primarily a (...) modification in our vocabulary and discourse and not as simply a change in attitude. I briefly compare Husserl’s concept of philosophy with those of Plato and Kant. (shrink)

The article analyses the concept of truth from the point of view of intentionality as it was developed by Edmund Husserl. The first step of the analysis consists in deploying the specific features of intentionality in the sense of directedness of the consciousness towards something, with its constitutive moments such as the intentional object, intentional sense, quality or different modes in which an object is given. The intentional living experiences conceived in this way are therefore objectifying acts charged with a (...) certain claim for truth. The justification of that claim can only be found in the original given-ness or in the intuitive fulfillment. Truth is the fulfillment of an empty signifying intention. Through the extension of the concept of intuition to the realm of the categorial, there is also an extension of the notion of truth. Truth is the noematic correlate of evidence understood as synthesis of coincidence. In this sense truth is the fulfillment of the intention of a state of affairs. Truth has a 'history' made up of different syntheses of coincidence which occur in a passive way. The passive syntheses guide or determine the way the categorial acts are performed and organized. They structure the prepredicative experiences necessary for the constitution of the predicative knowledge of truth. (shrink)

Husserls Phänomenologie ist als Erscheinungslehre auf den logischen Urteils- und Formenkanon angewiesen und partiell mit ihm identisch. Darüber hinaus ist sie als transzendentale Logik die Begründung jeder formallogischen Urteilstätigkeit, d. h. sie ist eine Wahrheitslehre vor dem Hintergrund der Bestimmung und Anwendung des Urteils sowie seiner Verlaufsgesetze. Die Analyse der einschlägigen Schriften und Vorlesungsmanuskripte Husserls von den Logischen Untersuchungen bis hin zu Erfahrung und Urteil soll dazu dienen, den bislang oftmals zu Unrecht vernachlässigten, aber gleichwohl konstitutiven Zusammenhang zwischen Phänomenologie, Urteilslehre (...) und Wahrheitserkenntnis aufzuweisen. (shrink)

The major part of this paper is devoted to the task of showing that Husserl's account of knowledge and truth in terms of a synthesis of fulfilment falls prey neither to a form of “metaphysics of presence” nor to a “myth of interiority” or mentalism. Husserl's presentation of the desire to know, his awareness of irreducible forms of absence at the heart of the intuitive presence of the object of knowledge and his formulation of general rules concerning the possible accomplishment (...) of a synthesis of fulfilment are therefore carefully examined. Special attention is also given to the fact that the determination of knowledge and truth provided by the Sixth Logical Investigation rests on an account of an original interweaving between the thing, consciousness, and language. Unlike in Husserl's earlier and later works, no attempt is thereby made to subordinate any of these three elements involved in all knowledge to one of the others. (shrink)

L'articolo usa la teoria delle parti, del tutto e dei contomi per elaborare alcune relazioni cruciali tra la «psicologia ecologica» di J.J. Gibson e la fenomenologia di Husserl. Presenta, inoltre, una teoria ontologica dei contomi spaziali e delle entita spazialmente estese, applicandola al cam po visivo, qui concepito come un' entita spazialmente estesa dipendente dal soggetto che percepisce. Su questa base e possibile formulare un nuovo tipo di definizione teoretico-correspondentista della verita per gli enunciati del linguaggio naturale.

In this paper we compare the thesis of underdetermination of theories with the thesis of indeterminacy of translation. Drawing upon this comparison, we argue that, in the context of Quine’s philosophy, the thesis of indeterminacy of translation can only be maintained if it is taken as establishing an indeterminacy in the logical form of sentences. Consequently, we contend that Quine lacks a solid argument for indeterminacy of translation.

This dissertation provides a global interpretation and evaluation of Husserl's evolving position in relation to relativism. A particular concern is to investigate whether despite Husserl's early virulent opposition to relativism, relativism does not in fact emerge as a consequence of his own phenomenology, and thereby finding a point of entrance into the modern philosophical tradition. With this concern in the background, Husserl's responses to the problems of relativism of truth in general and relativism concerning the truth attainable by philosophy in (...) particular are analyzed in three main moments: his critique of relativism; his reinterpretation and positive defense of 'absolute' truth by way of phenomenology; and his later attempt to accommodate both absolute and relative conceptions of truth in terms of the analysis of the lifeworld. It is argued that although in his earlier writings Husserl polemically attacks relativism, and then strives to develop an epistemically justified, absolute conception of truth, the analysis of the lifeworld itself gives rise to a limited affirmation of relativism on Husserl's part. However, contrary to critical attacks in the literature, it is shown that the final position attained by Husserl successfully reconciles and provides a limited phenomenological defense for both relative and non-relative conceptions of truth, so that source of the relativism characteristic of the later phenomenological tradition cannot be said to lie in Husserl's phenomenology itself. (shrink)

I. Perception : Starting from Husserl's concept of truth this text begins by showing how immediate evidence is always covered by cultural patterns and networks, which can be studied by sociology, history, psychoanalysis, linguistics. This thesis is illustrated by a consideration of the concept of truth that reveals itself through the use of certain epistemological examples like 'The cat is on the mat' — examples which are not harmless at all, but loaden with unproved practical, esthetical and theoretical presuppositions. II. (...) Proposition : 'Philosophy' exists as a library of texts and contexts presenting possible interpretations of our reality. To what extent do the 'truths' suggested by philosophy differ from the 'truths' of literature ? Is it possible to overcome the realm of doxa by a metaphilosophy reaching for the radical truth behind the variety of propo sed ‘truths’ out of which our philosophical traditions are composed ? Or must we choose between a restaurative conservatism and a strategic deconstruction ? Against all forms of reductive metaphilosophy it is argued that a. they are defenseless against the application of a similar metatheory to their reductions and b. that it is impossible to proclaim the end of philosophy and its search for real truth. III. Commitment : The impossibility of staying within the realm of undecided propositions implies a subjectivity which in a special sense is transcendental. The activity of the philosophical subject does not however exclude its receptivity and gratitude towards the praepositions and propositions of its philosophical traditions. A discussion of certain attempts to replace philosophy by a neosophistic rhetorics and of a theory of truth as consensus in the style of Habermas prepares the end of this paper, which is a beginning : I talk to you about our common desire for truth. (shrink)

In this Habilitationsschrift a comparison is drawn between the concept of truth in Husserl and in Heidegger in order to elucidate the problem of truth in our time. According to Tugendhat, truth in the nominalistic sense of neo-positivism and truth in the vague mysticism of Heidegger have moved so far apart that it is now impossible to speak of either of them in terms of the other. Furthermore they have both lost their guiding role in human life. Tugendhat is convinced (...) that the reason for this dissolution of truth is the absence of precisely that sense of critical responsibility which he finds so conspicuous in Husserl--and of which the sixth volume of his Logical Investigation is a good example. Though the emphasis on this investigation is fully justified, the promise of far-reaching analysis never materializes. The comparison of logical and linguistic terminology and doctrine is confined to a few side remarks, the most interesting of which are about C. I. Lewis. The treatment of Heidegger is based primarily on Being and Time, On the Essence of Ground, and On the Essence of Truth, with some negligible references to later writings. Heidegger's theory of language is very much neglected. Even the question of propositional truth, which the author is avowedly trying to keep in the foreground, receives keener exposition than commentary.--A. M. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to investigate some aspects of what Husserl means by “Apriori” in the light of recent considerations concerning the nature of necessary truth. I shall first discuss some of the results of the dispute between Carnap and Quine about analytic sentences. These results bring to the fore linguistic aspects of the problem of necessary truth. It can be shown, I believe, that Husserl’s position is substantially in accord with the basic agreements issuing from the Carnap-Quine (...) controversy. In Husserl’s view this clarification of the analytic-synthetic distinction opens up a whole new area of investigation, an area in which phenomenology would be able to locate important necessities and universalities. I have selected an instance of the explication of such an essential necessity, and I shall relate this explication to current views of necessary truth. My position will be that Husserl is in general agreement with contemporary linguistic philosophy as regards the area toward which philosophical attention should be directed, but that Husserl fails to provide a method for such investigation. The appropriate method is that of the linguistic philosophers, and I shall close with a few comments on the way in which Husserl’s phenomenology may be construed as implicitly linguistic. (shrink)

It is stated that husserl's theory of truth is ambiguous. When husserl attacked psychological interpretations of truth, A logicism seemed to be predominant; later he inclined toward intuitionism, Where truth is constituted by the real presence of the object. Purely logical relations in an eternal order of truth, Independent of things, Seems to conflict with the idea of evidence, Which is a psychological experience. It is concluded that truth is the result of an intuition in which the thing itself is (...) given. Finally, Parallels are drawn between husserl's double truth and leibniz's truths of reason and truths of fact. (staff). (shrink)