How to investigate subjectivity

Natorp and Heidegger on reflection

Dan Zahavi

Københavns Universitet

pp. 155-176

in: Continental Philosophy Review 36 (2), 2003.

Abstract

Is it possible to investigate subjectivity reflectively? Can reflection give us access to the original experiential dimension, or is there on the contrary reason to suspect that the experiences are changed radically when reflected upon? This is a question that Natorp discusses in his Allgemeine Psychologie (1912), and the conclusion he reaches is highly anti-phenomenological. The article presents Natorp's challenge and then goes on to account in detail for Heidegger's subsequent response to it in his early Freiburg lectures, in particular Die Idee der Philosophie und das Weltanschauungsproblem (1919), Grundprobleme der Phänomenologie (1919/1920), Phänomenologie der Anschauung und des Ausdrucks (1920) and Phänomenologische Interpretationen zu Aristoteles (1921–1922). Heidegger's early views on reflection, selfhood, and pre-reflective self-awareness are expounded, and the article concludes with a discussion of the relationship between reflective phenomenology and hermeneutical phenomenology.

Cited authors

Heidegger Martin

Natorp Paul