Abstract

This dissertation addresses Husserl's conception of transcendental phenomenology's relation to the development of modern philosophy from Descartes to Kant as presented in Erste Philosophie. This is accomplished through an analysis of the relation of the lectures in volume one of Erste Philosophie to those in volume two. It is shown that the lectures of volume two cover in a systematic fashion the same three major themes covered in a historical fashion in volume one. These themes are the origins of the idea of philosophy, the Cartesian discovery of transcendental subjectivity through methodic doubt, and the relation of psychology to phenomenology and the phenomenological reduction. It is concluded that Erste Philosophie represents an attempt by Husserl to demonstrate how phenomenology resolves many of the problems that plagued philosophy after Descartes' turn to subjectivity, and to show that phenomenology completes the movement towards a science of subjectivity as First Philosophy initiated by Descartes