Husserl and Phenomenology

HUSSERL HAS NOT in the past had a good press in Britain. The London lectures which Husserl gave in 1922 seem, to have left little aftermath, although he was visited in Freiburg by several British philosophers in the late '20's. It is interesting to speculate why Husserl's ideas had so little influence on British philosophy. Spiegelberg believes that this may have been partly due to the fact that little attempt was made to show the connections between Husserl's new enterprise and British empiricism, especially as Husserl's early phenomenology arose from an intensive study of the British tradition. But what he thinks to be much more significant was the revolution which overtook British philosophy in the 30's under the banner of philosophical analysis, first in Cambridge and then in Oxford. No doubt Husserl's formidable terminology, which has not been helped by the absence of adequate translations, also kept British philosophers away. Nevertheless, there were over the years two Aristotelian Society symposia on phenomenology, one in the mid 30's and the other in the late 50's.3 Perhaps the most important factor in recent years which has led to an increase of interest in phenomenology in Britain has been the considerable interest shown in this country in such French philosophers as Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, especially outside philosophy departments, and particularly by French specialists influenced by these thinkers. This has naturally led to an increased study of such German thinkers as Husserl and Heidegger upon whom the writings of the former are based. A number of younger British philosophers who are dissatisfied with positivist trends in philosophy are now working in this field, and there has been a progressive demand by philosophy undergraduates for courses in phenomenology and existential philosophy. As a consequence of this increased interest in Britain in phenomenology, The British Society for Phenomenology was established in May 1967, and since then it has held regular meetings at various University centres in Britain and also Annual Conferences. In conjunction with The Royal Institute of Philosophy, it organized the "Philosophers into Europe" Conference at the University of Southampton, September 26-28, 1969. This conference had as its aim to bring about an interchange of views between, on the one hand, a number of British philosophers interested in Continental philosophy, and, on the other, Continental philosophers who had some acquaintance with analytical modes of thought. The proceedings of the Conference are being published by Macmillan under the title Linguistic Analysis and Phenomenology. The Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, was one of the first projects of the Society. It was founded as a trimestrial publication, the first issue appearing in January 1969. It was clear from the start that whereas there were quite a number of people interested and writing in this field, especially among younger thinkers, outlets for this work hardly existed in Britain. A number of special issues devoted to such topics as Sartre, Husserl and Structuralism have already been published. Despite all that has been written about the difference between British and Continental ways of thinking, British philosophy has always had links with that of the Continent, even although at times it looked as if they were