Husserl's Phenomenology

Husserl's Phenomenology by Dan Zahavi, 178 pages

Edmund Husserl was one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century.  The founder of the school of epistemology known as phenomenology, Husserl counted amongst his students such luminaries as Martin Heidegger and St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein).  Still, Husserl's reputation faded in the latter half of the twentieth century, even as his influence continued to be felt by thinkers as diverse as Jean-Paul Sartre and Dietrich von Hildebrand.

Zahavi's book is an attempt to remedy this, partially by re-presenting (there's a phenomenological word!) Husserl's thought and partially by addressing certain ingrained misconceptions and objections to Husserl's work.  He does an excellent job, especially considering that phenomenology, even more so than most German philosophy, has a tendency to invent technical terms for the purpose of precision, which tends to make it very difficult for a non-specialist to understand, and Husserl himself is famed for his "extremely involuted and, therefore, forbidding style" (in the words of Quentin Lauer, translator of Husserl's Philosophy and the Crisis of European Man).  This book is only an introduction, and it is mostly concerned with his method, but it is almost a must-read for anyone with even a casual interest in 20th century philosophy.