ABSTRACT

We have studied Husserl's views in the core philosophical fields of logic, ontology, phenomenology, epistemology, and ethics, tracing their interconnections within Husserl's system of philosophy. In this chapter we look at Husserl's place in the history of philosophy and assess how certain Husserlian theories fare today. First, we survey Husserl's role in 20th-century philosophy, in the two traditions called “continental” philosophy and “analytic” philosophy.Then we turn to 21st-century concerns about consciousness, its place in nature and in culture, and the ontology of ideal contents of consciousness.Accordingly,we appraise Husserl's theory of meaning (Sinn) — thus his crucial notion of noema — amid contemporary issues concerning the nature of human experience and its place in the world.