VAKHTEL A. Phenomenology and Naturalism: From the Phenomenological Critique of Naturalism to the Naturalization of Phenomenology

The PhD thesis is dedicated to the analysis of the relationship between phenomenology and naturalism in the light of contemporary projects of the naturalization of Husserlian phenomenology. The motives for Husserl’s anti-naturalistic position are generalized. Under the “philosophical” motives were named Husserl’s doctrine of transcendental subjectivity, as well as Husserl’s rejection of the naturalistic objectivism. Under “scientific” motives were listed Husserl’s criticism of the possibility of constructing the phenomenology as a physics or as a mathematics of the lived experiences of consciousness. These motives, as it has been shown, can be considered in theoretical as well as in ethical terms, since the naturalization of consciousness also means for Husserl the naturalization of ideals, values, norms and of the free action. The methodological and ontological features of Husserl’s phenomenology were revealed, which are important for the estimation of the possibility of naturalization of phenomenology. The levels and kinds of phenomenological method are defined, and the ontological spheres subjected to its application are outlined. Methodological and metaphysical theses of Husserl’s phenomenology are expressed and criticized by the author. These theses regard the notions of the transcendental world and that of the immanent existence of consciousness. Husserl’s notion of “the world as an intentional correlate of consciousness” and his concept of “consciousness as the absolute being” are explained as the result of the absolutization of the role of phenomenological reductions. It is proposed to preserve the methodological division of phenomenology into phenomenological psychology and transcendental phenomenology, while not resorting to transcendental idealism.