| In the 1920s, Edmund Husserl called for the introduction of a psychological theory of inquiry that would parallel his transcendental phenomenology of the constitution of an object of thought. Although never fully realized, transcendental phenomenological psychology was to be contrasted with a descriptive psychology of the empirical manifestations of psychological phenomena, as well to an existential-hermeneutic psychology.; Husserl suggested that the “leading clues” for transcendental phenomenological psychology could be found in the phenomenological method proper. In its systematic presentation, transcendental phenomenological psychology would, in effect, constitute a “phenomenology of phenomenology.”; This introductory exposition begins with a phenomenological inquiry into the development of Husserl's most important concepts and theoretical constructions. A vital interpretation of Husserl's transcendental phenomenology is that he employs the methods of “pure psychology” as his own norms of practice for clarifications of the phenomenon of one's consciousness of something. Another vital interpretation is that transcendental phenomenological psychology cannot be done properly without adopting simultaneously both the phenomenological and the psychological attitudes within a dynamic “genetic phenomenology” of step-wise development of an object of thought.; A “phenomenology of phenomenology” is presented from the phenomenological-psychological attitude as the psychological ego's “first-person” view on each major reduction in Husserl's transcendental phenomenology. It is concluded that this theoretical approach returns both phenomenological philosophy and phenomenological psychology to Husserl's original intentions for a systematic sciences of essences.; Transcendental phenomenological psychology is a theory of inquiry into our intentional mental acts and psychological processes that are motivated by the universal spirit of humanity. Expressions of human spirit-life in Husserl's transcendental phenomenology represent the “soulish” autonomy and agency of the meaningful subject of the human sciences that tends to seek adequate evidence of an objective truth in thought and speech within intersubjective relationships. Transcendental phenomenological psychology represents the furthest yet development of Husserl's concept of “psychology with a soul.”... |
