xlii Introduction
überhaupt – a conception already elaborated in the First Edition) under-
stood as pure possibilities rather than in terms of any empirical instantiation
in animals, humans or other kinds of minds. In contrast with pure phe-
nomenology, Husserl now more sharply characterises all psychology as
empirical, as a causal science of physical organisms and their psycho-
physical states, e.g., ‘as the empirical science of the mental attributes and states
of animal realities’ (als Erfahrungswissenschaft von psychischen Eigenschaften
und Zuständen animalischer Realitäten, LI, Intro. §2, Findlay I: 169; Hua
XIX/1: 12), the science which studies ‘the real states of animal organisms in
a real natural order’ (LI Intro. §6, Findlay I: 176; Hua XIX/1: 23). Husserl
distinguishes both empirical and its sub-branch descriptive psychology from
pure phenomenology. While psychology is a valuable empirical science, the
reduction of meanings to their psychological states, i.e., ‘psychologism’, is a
natural, ever present temptation to the mind (‘at first inevitable, since rooted
in grounds of essence’, LI, Intro. §2, Findlay I: 169; Hua XIX/1: 12), which
can only be cured by phenomenological analysis. Only pure phenomeno-
logy, and not descriptive psychology, Husserl writes in the Second Edition,
can overcome psychologism (LI, Intro. §2, Findlay I: 169; Hua XIX/1:
11–12). Furthermore, Husserl departs from Neo-Kantianism, by stressing
that the grasp of the conditions for the possibility of knowledge comes
from insight into the essence of knowledge, that is from phenomenological
viewing.
In keeping with his new transcendental orientation, Husserl has more
appreciation in the Second Edition of ‘the pure ego’ (das reine Ich, LI V §§5,
8) of the Neo-Kantians (especially Natorp), which he had originally dismissed
as an unnecessary postulate for the unification of consciousness (see LI V §8,
Findlay II: 352; Hua XIX/1: 374). He also endeavours to improve his initial
attempts at drawing a distinction between the quality and intentional matter
of acts. In particular, he was unhappy with his original characterisation of
the sensuous matter of the act and the manner in which it is taken up and
interpreted in the act. His later account of the noema was offered as a
corrective (see, e.g., LI V, §16, Findlay II: 354; Hua XIX/1: 411).
In the First Edition, Husserl had characterised phenomenology as ex-
panding or as clarifying epistemology (e.g., LI Intro. §1 Findlay I: 166; §2, I:
168), in that it offered a kind of ‘conceptual analysis’ (Begriffsanalyse),
concerned with differentiating and disambiguating the different senses of
basic epistemological concepts (such as ‘presentation’, Vorstellung). In his
Introduction to the Second Edition, Husserl is now more aware of a possible
misunderstanding whereby this conceptual analysis would be misunderstood
purely as an investigation of language, in short as linguistic analysis, whereas
in fact Husserl is anxious to distinguish his ‘analytical phenomenology’
from linguistic analysis. Reliance on language can be misleading, Husserl
believes, because linguistic terms have their home ‘in the natural attitude’
(in der natürlichen Einstellung) and may mislead about the essential character