ABSTRACT
It is widely known that Ideas I,1 appearing in 1913, was the first publication in which Husserl explicitly argued in favor of a phenomenological idealism. It is also well known that this standpoint immediately incited dispute as well as astonishment, with the controversy surrounding it still alive today. The surprise of the students and first readers, as well as the fact that Ideas I never uses the term ‘idealism’ by name to characterize the nature of transcendental phenomenology, managed to make it seem as if it came about as a result of a sudden or at least hastily made about-face on Husserl’s part, and not through a decision that had been extensively reflected upon. Thanks to a recently published volume of Husserliana which compiles the principal texts by Husserl on transcendental idealism,2 we can take account of how the Husserlian position concerning phenomenological idealism had, for the most part, already been established by 1908. Likewise, the famous “Nachwort” to Ideas I written in 19303 clearly shows that Husserl maintained his idealism up until the end of his days-all the while insisting that Ideas I had gone astray in suggesting that such a form of idealism coincided with a solipsistic conception of transcendental subjectivity.
