Philippine E-Journals

Husserl’s Critique of the Mathematization of Nature: From Philosophy of Arithmetic to the Crisis of European Sciences

Lubica Učník

Discipline: Philosophy

 

Abstract:

In this paper, I will argue that Husserl’s critique of the method of natural science, as he outlines it in The Crisis of European Sciences, is a continuation of his critique of science, which he first considers in Philosophy of Arithmetic. Husserl’s many enquiries are guided by his effort to secure knowledge against the claims of scepticism and relativism. He starts with the critique of science leading him to posit the primacy of the life-world, Lebenswelt. According to Husserl, we cannot understand the physical nature constructed in thought unless we show that scientific explanations of the world grew out of the world in which we live. In this context, I will also argue that in order to be responsible for our knowledge we must acknowledge that the Lebenswelt is the foundation from which all our knowledge proceeds.