ABSTRACT
To evaluate Sartre’s critique of Husserl in The Transcendence of the Ego we need a grasp of some central tenets of Husserl’s phenomenology, and the role of the transcendental ego within it.1
Husserl’s philosophical motivations may be understood as partly Cartesian and partly Kantian. Indeed, this is how he frequently depicts them himself. Husserl shares Descartes’ aim of placing all knowledge upon secure foundations; finding some indubitable and incorrigible truths upon which all true beliefs depend for their truth. Like Descartes Husserl is, in a way, an intensely first person singular philosopher but unlike Descartes, Husserl eschews mind-body dualism. Indeed, it is an ambitious but essential part of his phenomenological method to suspend or put in parentheses any metaphysical commitment.
