Defending Husserlian Phenomenology from Terry Eagleton’s Critique

Bailan Qin

Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies, School of International Studies, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

DOI: 10.4236/als.2013.12003                

Abstract

This article develops, illustrates, and defends Husserlian Phenomenology from a critique in Terry Eagleton’s Literary Theory: An Introduction second edition (1996). Husserlian Phenomenology is construed as a methodology of philosophical hunt for certainty and universal essences by pure perception through“phenomenological reduction”. Eagleton’s charge that Husserlian Phenomenology is a form of methodological idealism necessarily committed to a science of subjectivity and an imaginary solution to the world that leads to the sacrifice of human history. But Husserlian phenomenology insists that meaningful and potentially efficacious certainty must be connected to relevant entity and consciousness internal to the culture or social order at which the criticism is directed. Thus, to our defense, the complaint that phenomenological demand will likely limit actual historical backgroundwherecriticism is denied, and the ability of Husserlian Phenomenology to develop from pure phenomenon to unphenomenological thinking is defended and demonstrated.

Keywords

Terry Eagleton’s Critique; Historical Construct; Husserlian Phenomenology; Unphenomenological Thinking

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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