Husserl and the concept of number

pp. 31-44

in: J. P. Miller, Numbers in presence and absence, Berlin, Springer, 1982

Abstract

What is number? What do we really mean by "number' in the most fundamental sense of the word? In Chapters II through IV of this study, we shall be concerned with Husserl's attempt to answer these ancient and difficult questions with the help of phenomenology. We shall see how Husserl uses phenomenological analyses to explain what numbers themselves truly are. In Chapters III and IV, we shall examine his analyses in considerable detail. In the present chapter, however, we shall deal with some preliminary questions relatings to Husserl's methodology. Here we shall seek only to explain in general terms what is meant by a phenomenological study of number.