Husserl’s Crisis Text and the Spatial Turn in Philosophy of Science

The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (Crisis) marks the culmination of Husserl’s Genetic Phenomenology and the beginning of a new philosophy of science, one that viewed science not as a fact but as a problem that needed philosophical understanding. For Husserl, the crisis...

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Main Authors: Koshy Tharakan, Vidya Mary George
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Éditions Kimé 2025-03-01
Series:Philosophia Scientiæ
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/philosophiascientiae/4605
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author Koshy Tharakan
Vidya Mary George
author_facet Koshy Tharakan
Vidya Mary George
author_sort Koshy Tharakan
collection DOAJ
description The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (Crisis) marks the culmination of Husserl’s Genetic Phenomenology and the beginning of a new philosophy of science, one that viewed science not as a fact but as a problem that needed philosophical understanding. For Husserl, the crisis of Galilean Science is born out of the severance of its relation to the life-world and the erroneous identification of “Nature” with its constituted mathematical or quantifiable object. In the phenomenological philosophy of science, science is a tradition formed through human praxis, like any other cultural enterprise. Objectivity in scientific praxis is a regulative principle constituted by the consensus of judgements of the scientific community. The continuity of scientific knowledge shows in its unity of propagated transference of meaning, the sedimentation of which is carried through language. Despite the scientific world being ontologically grounded in the life-world, Husserl sought to preserve the autonomy of both worlds. To fully appreciate the implications of Husserl’s contribution to the philosophy of science, this paper identifies the ‘spatial turn’ that Husserl brought in through his “less mathematical, more physical” notion of life-world with the 90° shift in the social studies of science that Latour proposed. The life-world fuses “Nature” and “Society” as one ontological entity that gives rise to science, moving away from a one-dimensional science that kept the ontology of science grounded in one of those poles alone. Despite the limits of Husserlian phenomenological epistemology, Crisis radically departed from positivism, the then-official philosophy of science, embracing historicity and language to broaden our discourse on science and even coming close to certain later developments in Philosophy of Science. Husserl’s meditations on spatiality also urged a transition to the contemporary understanding of space, opening possibilities of dialogue with Foucault.
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spelling doaj-art-7d0286d96c7742f99258ee75e604fdde2025-08-20T02:47:10ZdeuÉditions KiméPhilosophia Scientiæ1281-24631775-42832025-03-0129110.4000/13cnkHusserl’s Crisis Text and the Spatial Turn in Philosophy of ScienceKoshy TharakanVidya Mary GeorgeThe Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (Crisis) marks the culmination of Husserl’s Genetic Phenomenology and the beginning of a new philosophy of science, one that viewed science not as a fact but as a problem that needed philosophical understanding. For Husserl, the crisis of Galilean Science is born out of the severance of its relation to the life-world and the erroneous identification of “Nature” with its constituted mathematical or quantifiable object. In the phenomenological philosophy of science, science is a tradition formed through human praxis, like any other cultural enterprise. Objectivity in scientific praxis is a regulative principle constituted by the consensus of judgements of the scientific community. The continuity of scientific knowledge shows in its unity of propagated transference of meaning, the sedimentation of which is carried through language. Despite the scientific world being ontologically grounded in the life-world, Husserl sought to preserve the autonomy of both worlds. To fully appreciate the implications of Husserl’s contribution to the philosophy of science, this paper identifies the ‘spatial turn’ that Husserl brought in through his “less mathematical, more physical” notion of life-world with the 90° shift in the social studies of science that Latour proposed. The life-world fuses “Nature” and “Society” as one ontological entity that gives rise to science, moving away from a one-dimensional science that kept the ontology of science grounded in one of those poles alone. Despite the limits of Husserlian phenomenological epistemology, Crisis radically departed from positivism, the then-official philosophy of science, embracing historicity and language to broaden our discourse on science and even coming close to certain later developments in Philosophy of Science. Husserl’s meditations on spatiality also urged a transition to the contemporary understanding of space, opening possibilities of dialogue with Foucault.https://journals.openedition.org/philosophiascientiae/4605
spellingShingle Koshy Tharakan
Vidya Mary George
Husserl’s Crisis Text and the Spatial Turn in Philosophy of Science
Philosophia Scientiæ
title Husserl’s Crisis Text and the Spatial Turn in Philosophy of Science
title_full Husserl’s Crisis Text and the Spatial Turn in Philosophy of Science
title_fullStr Husserl’s Crisis Text and the Spatial Turn in Philosophy of Science
title_full_unstemmed Husserl’s Crisis Text and the Spatial Turn in Philosophy of Science
title_short Husserl’s Crisis Text and the Spatial Turn in Philosophy of Science
title_sort husserl s crisis text and the spatial turn in philosophy of science
url https://journals.openedition.org/philosophiascientiae/4605
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