Phenomenology and terminology in Ideas I. What is natural in the ‘natural attitude’?

Abstract

This paper suggests that the analysis of philosophical texts may proceed from understanding two main kinds of difference, i.e., 1. the difference between terms, concepts and problems, and 2. the difference between analysis and interpretation. This method is here applied to Husserl’s work Ideas I, by singling out the difference between the style and terminological thesaurus of Ideas I and that of Logical Investigations as the object of inquiry. The author gives a critical reassessment of Husserl’s description of the so-called natural attitude and shows that Husserl’s account corresponds neither to the ordinary attitude nor to the naively scientific one. The concluding section discusses the correspondence of the natural attitude in Husserl’s interpretation to the basic modes of consciousness-perception and judgment.