LA PRIMA RICEZIONE DELLA FENOMENOLOGIA NEGLI STATI UNITI: UN'ANALISI STORICO-CRITICA

My research analyzes the characteristics of the first reception of husserlian phenomenology in the United States. The base of this work is a detailed historiographical reconstruction of this phase representing the point of departure of all those studies on phenomenological tradition that have been developed in the American academic world. Several institutions belong to the context in which this reception took place: the New School for Social Research as the original center for the teaching of phenomenology and a number of societies arisen since the sixties to diffuse Husserl’s philosophy in the United States (First Part: Chapter 2 and Chapter 3). This first reception, promoted since the late thirties by Kaufmann, Schutz, Gurwitsch, Cairns and Farber, must be distinguished from an earlier phase, presenting only the general approach to Husserl’s thought of some American scholars (Second Part: Chapter 1). The origin of the studies of each author undoubtedly typifies their promotion of husserlian phenomenology: Gurwitsch, Schutz and Kaufmann belong to the European tradition, (First Part: Chapter 1) while the Americans Farber and Cairns mainly owe the growing interest in Husserl’s thought to their studies in Freiburg (Second Part: Chapter 2). Nevertheless, during this phase of reception of phenomenology, the original adherence to his lesson – useful to distinguish them from others Husserl’s students emigrated in United States – gradually disappears from their critiques. The aim of my research is to single out the salient features that characterize the different interpretations of Husserl’s thought elaborated by each author, whereas their originality can be indicated as decisive for following developments (Third Part). Gurwitsch builds an interesting critique of Husserl’s whole-part theory, focuses his analysis on the noema, and elaborates a non-egological conception of consciousness. Schutz’s critique of transcendental phenomenology mainly refers to his concept of mundane intersubjectivity. For what concerns Cairns, his few writings published until now don’t allow to deepen the exam on his interpretation. After the arrival in the United States, Kaufmann concentrates his discussion on the relationship between husserlian phenomenology and the logic. Farber proposes a critique which is far from being an original interpretation, although his analysis remains bound to the interest in phenomenology until the end. With this work I want to explain how the interest about husserlian phenomenology began in the United States, who were its promoters, and also what kind of interpretations they developed in the American academic world. It must be considered that they hadn’t a decisive influence on further developments of phenomenological studies, but in any case helped bringing the attention on Husserl’s thought throughout their teaching.