Husserl's Phenomenology Of Aesthetic Research

It is usually thought that Edmund Husserl's Logical Investigations parts one and two (published in 1900-1901) set the standard for his later phenomenology, and more generally, for the entire phenomenological movement. A century later, Husserl's phenomenology serves as a great intellectual and spiritual resource for contemporary philosophers. In the course of phenomenology colliding with various traditional forms of thought its potential for creating new and fruitful modes of discourse has been clearly shown. However, we should not from this conclude that we now stand in a position to easily understand Husserl's thought. In fact, for us Husserl is the most difficult thinker to approach in the Western philosophical tradition. This is especially true when we attempt to use Husserl's thought to explicate the phenomena in aesthetic theory. Although Husserl dealt directly with aesthetics in his earliest works, it is by no means clear how his thought can give rise to such divergent interpretations in the realm of aesthetics. How can thinkers directly influenced by Husserl come to radically different aesthetic theories? Where exactly did Indgarden, Heidegger, and other important students of Husserl's take from his lectures on aesthetics? How did these students continue and criticize the thought of their teacher? This essay will attempt to answer these difficult questions. In this essay Husserl's three important works Logical Investigations, Phenomenology of Internal Time Consciousness, and Experience and Judgement. The themes of nature, horizon, and life-world will be explained and the contributions and criticisms of Indgarden, Heidegger, and Gadamer towards these three concepts will be analyzed.The first part of the essay will deal mostly with Husserl's life experience so that the reader can get a more thorough understanding of the man and his works. The second half of the essay will deal explicitly with the question of how various interpretations arose from Husserl's aesthetic theorizing and what caused this hermeneutical plurality. Section one will deal primarily with the predicament of aesthetic theory and the possibleinfluence of Husserl's thought. Section two, will deal with the content of Husserl's theory of nature and Ingarden's contribution to aesthetic theory. Section three, will deal with the notion of internal time consciousness and the concept of...