Description: In a penetrating and lucid discussion of the enigmatic relationship between the work of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, Steven Galt Crowell proposes that the distinguishing feature of twentieth century philosophy is not so much its emphasis on language as its concern with meaning. Arguing that transcendental phenomenology is indispensable to the philosophical explanation of the space of meaning, Crowell shows how a proper understanding of both Husserl and Heidegger reveals the distinctive contributions of each to that ongoing phenomenological project.

Crowell identifies the underlying affinities between the work of Heidegger and Husserl, while at the same time sharply outlining their differences. Chiefly, he characterizes Heidegger as a transcendental phenomenologist in a Husserlian vein. Supporting this thesis with a reading of Heidegger's writings, from the early publications and lecture courses through Being and Time -- and considering them in terms of the philosopher's later work -- Crowell offers a comprehensive view of Heidegger's philosophical itinerary. This book calls into question many well entrenched ideas about Heidegger. In contrast to the common view of Heidegger as a mystic or a philosopher of life, Crowell details the important influence of neoKantian transcendental philosophy on the young Heidegger and traces Heidegger's criticism of neoKantianism on the topics of intentionality, Evidenz, logic, and subjectivity. Crowell also challenges the received view that Heidegger rejects the reduction, the transcendental ego, and Husserl's turn to idealism in Ideas I.

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