ABSTRACT
This paper provides an analysis of the discussion of essence in Stein’s contribution to Husserl’s Festschrift for his seventieth birthday in the light of her later work on essence and eidos. It also makes, in the light of Stein’s early work on intersubjectivity, an eidetic analysis of the intersubjective occurrence of dialogue. It is argued that Stein’s understanding of essence, and of phenomenology as a collaborative enterprise, is rooted in the practical function of the eidos, which, by enabling dialogue about something and also about essence, despite differing worldviews and concepts of essence, renders eidetic analysis possible in any intersubjective setting.
