In his last work, "Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology", Edmund Husserl formulated a radical new approach to phenomenological philosophy. Unlike his previous works, in the "Crisis" Husserl embedded this formulation in an ambitious reflection on the essence and value of the idea of rational thought and culture, a reflection that he considered to be an urgent necessity in light of the political, social, and intellectual crisis of the interwar period. In this book, James Dodd pursues an interpretation of Husserl's text that emphasizes the importance of the problem of the origin of philosophy, as well as advances the thesis that, for Husserl, the "crisis of reason" is not a contingent historical event, but a permanent feature of a life in reason generally.

Abbreviations of Husserl's works. Acknowledgements. Introduction: Science and Reflection. Reflection as Besinnung. The claim of science. Critique and Besinnung. The 'grip' of meaning. Life and world. The theme of history. One: The Concept of Crisis (Crisis §§1-7). Is there a crisis? 'Vernunft wird Unsinn, Wohltat Plage'. A brief history of the concept of crisis. Two readings. Two: The Manifold Sense of Foundation (Crisis §15). Establishment and Sedimentation. Ur-Stiftung, Nach-Stiftung, End-Stiftung. Three: Galileo and Modern Science (Crisis §§8-10). The history of 'obviousness' (Selbstverständlichkeit). What Galileo took for granted. The strange new idea of nature. Technique and induction. Galileo's 'fateful omission'. Four: The Origin of Geometry. The indifference of ideality and language. Tradition and the problem of the 'first acquisition'. The primacy of the I and the proto-community of geometers. Writing and the 'seduction of language'. The problem of the reactivation of origins. The origin of philosophy. Five: The Problem of the Lifeworld (Crisis §§28-34). The givenness of the world. The question of the world. Modality, problematicity, apriori. The subjectivity of the world. Six: The Phenomenological Reduction (Crisis §§ 35-55). Epoche, conversion, and still-life. Reduction as phenomenalization. Difficulties. The paradox of subjectivity. Conclusion. Summary of the interpretation. Some questions: Besinnung, Einströmen, and Innerlichkeit. References. Index.