Psychology and transcendental phenomenology

pp. 450-486

in: Theodorus de Boer, The development of Husserl's thought, Berlin, Springer, 1978

Abstract

I have already touched on the contrast between psychology and transcendental phenomenology — as well as the relationship between them — a number of times. In this chapter I will deal with this relationship in a more systematic way. In the process we must bear in mind the fundamental difference between empirical psychology and descriptive psychology, a difference we already encountered in Husserl's early work. Thus the question of the relationship between psychology and transcendental phenomenology becomes two questions. First, what is the relationship of transcendental phenomenology to descriptive psychology? Second, what is its relationship to empirical psychology? I will take up these two questions separately.