Husserl’s Early Concept of Metaphysics As the Ultimate Science of Reality Emiliano Trizio University of the West of England
[email protected] Reception date: 04-10-2017 Acceptance date: 13-11-2017 Abstract This article reconstructs the development of Husserl’s definition of metaphysics as the ultimate science of reality in the courses and lectures written up to the year 1905. The analysis of these texts casts light on Husserl’s philosophical self-understanding in the wider context of late Nineteenth Century German philosophy as well as on the fundamental role that metaphysical interests played in the development of his thought from its earliest stage. A particular attention is devoted to Husserl’s early views about the relation between the theory of knowledge and metaphysics, whose analysis is a necessary preliminary step to address the theoretical issue of the relation between transcendental phenomenology and metaphysics. Keywords: Husserl, Metaphysics, Theory of Knowledge, Phenomenology 1. Introduction The relation between Husserl’s thought and metaphysics has been approached in a number of different ways. The questions that, by far, have attracted more attention since Husserl’s own time revolve around the so-called metaphysical neutrality of phenomenology. In particular, readers of Husserl have tried to understand whether pre-transcendental phenomenology could be considered in some sense “metaphysically neutral”1 and whether and to what extent the 1 See, for instance, Benoist 1997, Zahavi 2001. transcendental turn implies forsaking such neutrality or, perhaps, even embracing a form of metaphysical idealism. Consequently, a number of publications address questions such as whether phenomenological idealism is itself a metaphysical thesis, or whether it has metaphysical implications at all2.