On The Different Ways Of Husserl's Transcendental Reduction

As the central conception of Husserl's methodology of phenomenology, transcendental reduction takes the important role of developing the way into transcendental subject. In that it can support apodeictic foundation and absolute starting point for knowledge. However, transcendental reduction is a difficult conception. When the transcendental turn was completed in Idear I, it met with lots of criticism and misunderstandings. In order to be better understood, Husserl modified the ways of transcendental reduction all his life.Husserl did not systematacially classify the ways of transcendental reduction, this topic which was considered very complicated in thirty or forty years. A different way was involved when he was expounding a specific way. In the postscript of Idear I written in 1930, Husserl declared that he did assume different ways to perform transcendental turn. In First Philosophy, R. Boehm considered that there may be eight possible way of transcendental reduction in editor's introduction, but it was difficult to classify them clearly.There are three main ways of reduction generally recognized in academic circles:the Cartesian way, the phenomenological psychological way and the ontological way (the way via life-world). But the relationship between the three ways are not agreed. Some scholars, like Landgrebe and Kern, think that with the development of Husserl's thought, the Cartesian way cannot accomplish the goal of transcendental reduction, but that only the way via life-world is the final one. This point of view focuses on the crack between the Cartesian way and the way via life-world. However, on one side it ignores Husserl's modification of the Cartesian way in Cartesian Meditations and First Philosovhv. on the other side it ignores the importance of the phenomenological psychological way, which is the important topic of Husserl's phenomenology from the beginning to the end.This paper will take the attitude of being faithful to Husserl's own works. Firstly, I will study the generation and development of "reduction", and try to grasp the meaning of transcendental reduction and eidetic reduction and further clarify the relationship between them. Secondly, I will discuss the basics of distinguishing the different way of transcendental reduction, and the concrete development of the three main way will be mentioned as well. This part will be mostly based on The Idea of Phenomenology, Idear I, First Philosophy, Cartesian Meditations, and Crisis. Finally, with the development of the interconnecting three ways and the criticism of other scholars'view, I will expound the meaning of each way and the relationship between them. As a result I consider that the Cartesian way takes precedence in the development process of Husserl's thought. It is the foundation of expanding other ways. And the attention on psychology is an important clue of the development of phenomenology. The ontological way was chosen by Husserl to perform transcendental reduction in an easily understood method. It will supply explanation of the pre-given life-world and it is an important enrichment and development of phenomenology. These three ways are all independent and complete, but they focus on different sides. Therefore, they complement each other and supply various perspectives for people to better understand the transcendental reduction.