The Beginning Philosopher | Husserl | Cartesian Meditations

Welcome to Back to the Text Themselves,' a series on phenomenology. This video examines sections 1 and 2 in Edmund Husserl's Cartesian Meditations.

In it, I address the following questions
01:04 Why did I choose Husserl's Cartesian Meditations over other possible texts?
04:23 What is it about Descartes' thought that Husserl finds so appealing?
10:49 What is the difference between talking about philosophy and doing philosophy?

This video is both the start of a new set of videos but also a continuation of a series that began with Heidegger's Being & Time. Here is a playlist of those videos:

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[admiralmurat]

I would like to thank you for giving me a go at it. Still wrestling with Husserl within the framework of my Scholastic Philosophy Education at the University.

[stephenanastasi]

Hero, I name thee. i completely agree that most people these days talk about philosophy, rather than doing philosophy. I will have to look up some of your work.

[davidtanphilosophy]

I’m really glad that you’re doing this book! It is foundational for understanding Being and Time and Being and nothingness since they both take aim at the Transcendental Ego.

[brucecmoore]

Just watched this again and got even more out of this lecture; I think of this absolute doubt as the movement of the negative. So reminds me of Kant's Category of Quality or Hegel Qualitative Absolute as Interpreted by Heidegger in his Phenomenology of Spirit lectures. Thanks Brian!

[OdoItal]

Great, looking forward to this series!

[stephenanastasi]

Very generous of you to choose the most verisimilous of paintings of Kant. Very much finding this work useful. Much better than ploughing through a book.

[brucecmoore]

An interesting take, I think on talking about philosophy and doing philosophy is Martin Heidegger’s published lecture ‘Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics’ ; so doing philosophy happens through being gripped or a fundamental attunement.

[OH-pcjx]

Is Derrida on the horizon? Reading his work has renewed my interest in Husserl

[peterblair]

Hey. Have you looked at Graham Harmon's book "Tool-being"? If l remember right l recall thinking that this work was more doing than writing about...He was trying to present a new metaphysics in which tool-being is the "in itself" of outer objects. I think he tries to develop a hard realism from Heidegger. I don't remember much else about it. I am glad you are looking at Husserl before Sartre. Be well.

[OH-pcjx]

on the topic of doing rather than studying philosophy: i would love to take, or even one day lead, a class which approached phenomenology by getting students, rather than writing exegetic papers on husserl or heidegger, to write instead phenomenological accounts of some phenomenon of their choice

[timadamson]

You seem to think of philosophy in a positivist sense, I.e., as thinking that produces knowledge, rather than criticizing or reflecting on what one is doing (talking about it). I don't see how these can be separated, especially for someone like Husserl.