Overview of her philosophy

pp. 21-29

in: Mary C. Baseheart, Person in the world, Berlin, Springer, 1997

Abstract

From her early years, Edith Stein gave promise of becoming a philosopher. Always asking the why of all that happened in her world, she was never satisfied with the ready answers prevalent in her religious and social milieu. Later her university studies at Breslau generated the intense interest in philosophy which led her to the universities of Göttingen and Freiburg-im-Breisgau to study phenomenology under Edmund Husserl, in company with the famous scholars who engaged him in discussion and dialogue: Adolf Reinach, Fritz Kaufmann, Roman Ingarden, Theodor and Hedwig Conrad-Martius, and Martin Heidegger, to recall only a few. As Husserl's assistant at Freiburg, she transcribed and edited his voluminous works and prepared students for his classes. In this period her own philosophy was taking form which was basically phenomenological but often at variance with her master's views in substance, if not in spirit.