The central task of phenomenology is to investigate the nature of consciousness and its relations to objects of various types. The present book introduces students and other readers to several foundational topics of phenomenological inquiry, and illustrates phenomenology’s contemporary relevance. The main topics include consciousness, intentionality, perception, meaning, and knowledge. The book also contains critical assessments of Edmund Husserl’s phenomenological method. It argues that knowledge is the most fundamental mode of consciousness, and that the central theses constitutive of Husserl’s "transcendental idealism" are compatible with metaphysical realism regarding the objects of thought, perception, and knowledge.
Helpful tools include introductions that help the reader segue from the previous chapter to the new one, chapter conclusions, and suggested reading lists of primary and some key secondary sources.
Key Features:
- Elucidates and engages with contemporary work in analytic epistemology and philosophy of mind
- Provides clear prose explanations of the necessary distinctions and arguments required for understanding the subject
- Places knowledge at the center of phenomenological inquiry
Preface 1. Consciousness 2. Consciousness—A Look Inside 3. Intentionality and Meaning 4. The Mental Act 5. Meaning and Intuition 6. Perception 7. The Essential Inadequacy of Perception 8. The Content of Perception 9. Knowledge 10. Phenomenology 11. Phenomenology and Transcendental Idealism
Biography
Walter Hopp is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. He is the author of Perception and Knowledge: A Phenomenological Account (2011).
"This book is a tour de force – it’s the best phenomenological treatment of the selected topics I’ve ever read."
Søren Overgaard, University of Copenhagen, Denmark"The reception of Husserl's thinking has suffered from the complexity of his ideas and the awkwardness of his jargon. At long last our suffering is at an end. Walter Hopp has created an introduction to phenomenology that is at the same time a pleasure to read and accurate to its subject-matter. Here begins a new era of Husserl scholarship."
Barry Smith, University at Buffalo, NY, USA"Hopp's book is a terrific study, full of intriguing arguments within a broadly Husserlian approach to phenomenology. I applaud his critical approach to the problems of perception, knowledge, and reality: as Husserl's own results beckon us to extend phenomenology in a context of philosophizing today -- quite as in the spirit of this more than introductory study in phenomenology."
David Woodruff Smith, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
