The metaphysical neutrality of the Logical Investigations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47456/sofia.v15i2.52274Keywords:
phenomenology, metaphysics, presuppositions, evidence, theory of knowledgeAbstract
This article aims to clarify and defend the metaphysical neutrality of phenomenological descriptions within the framework of the Logical Investigations. To this end, it offers an interpretation of the meaning and the systematic role of the well-known “Principle of the Absence of Presuppositions” articulated by Husserl in the Introduction to that work. This principle comprises two basic requirements: first, that phenomenological descriptions be grounded in a full intuitive attestation of what is described; and second, that they admit as presuppositions no notions that have not attained the same kind of grounding. In order to elucidate these two requirements, the article undertakes a general consideration of the type of judgment that Phenomenology seeks to formulate in its descriptions—namely, judgments concerning the in specie structures of psychological immanence—as well as of the general concept of “presupposition” and its equivocities. On this basis, it becomes possible to delimit clearly the position of Phenomenology not only with respect to the positive sciences, such as Physics and Psychology, but also, and especially, with respect to Metaphysics.
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