Logical Investigations, Volume 1 (International Library of Philosophy)

Rating:
Summary: That Was The Philosophy That Was (What Are You Gonna Do?)
Review: The reprinting of Findlay's translation of Husserl's *Logical Investigations* (in an attractive and reasonably affordable paperback format) was one of the more welcome events in the recent history of Anglo-American publishing; this was the book which started the intellectual 20th century off with a bang -- Freud's *Interpretation of Dreams* was not widely read until much later -- and it still contains much of value. It is "generally understood" that Husserl's early work is irrelevant by contemporary standards, but on a considered view of intellectual history this is wrong: in fact, the philosophical doctrine known as "anti-psychologism" was nowhere as effectively expounded as in the *Prolegomena To Pure Logic*, the first "book" of the *Philosophical Investigations*. There's a reason for that. Husserl's expository prose there is lucid and compelling, even in fact (as he admits) in contradistinction to the rest of this rather massive book; the six studies which follow seem today to be by turns antediluvian and futuristic.

This is correct, but those claiming an interest in the intellectual history of the 20th century should stop and think exactly why one should not find such material compelling. Not only did Husserl found the philosophical school of phenomenology, dedicated to a science of non-causal ideal connections already meeting all of the Kantian criteria for *Afterphilosophie* (lacking a both a strong *theoretical* eros and naturalistic pretensions), the great logicians of the century (yes, that's right) got their *ideas* from Husserl rather than (the later) Frege -- and if this is to be snorted away, perhaps discussion of the relative merits of Tarski and Carnap should then focus on somewhat other characteristics (on pain of rational reconstruction of English being along somewhat other lines). In other words, *Logical Investigations* could be well be dubbed "Big Gred": a truly *liminal* text, both separating and influencing two fields (philosophy and formal logic); and Routledge has done the reading world a great service by making it accessible to young Anglophone readers.