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(1976) Comparative studies in phenomenology, Dordrecht, Springer.
The problem of psychologism
pp. 22-49
About ten years before the Logical Investigations appeared in print Husserl had published his first book, the Philosophy of Arithmetic, in which he himself adhered to the doctrine of psychologism, i.e. the doctrine that logic can be ultimately reduced to psychology. He discusses there the mathematical notions of number, plurality and unity, and he claims that many of the conceptual difficulties involved are based on the "psychological constitution" of these concepts. This need not imply that an analysis of this constitution is sufficient for a complete analysis of these concepts, but the suggestion that a psychological analysis is at least necessary comes from other passages in the book where Husserl insists that the verbal exposition of these concepts should bring the reader into such a disposition that he is able to perform those "psychical processes, which are necessary for the construction of the concept."1 On the same page he says also that it should have become clear that these concepts are based on elementary psychical data.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-9999-2_2
Full citation:
(1976). The problem of psychologism, in Comparative studies in phenomenology, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 22-49.
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