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Adobes Can 10 Dic 2023
Adobes Can 10 Dic 2023
1 Over view
.\tiirj
. . a Hart irno 's rnost recem b oo k repre sents a furthe r succe
cnnc. a l en°a ssful step in her study and
& geme m v,ith
. phe nome no Iogy app 1· d
1e to t h e ph1lo
· soph y of math emat ·
text is corn pose d of e1ght relatively indep ende nt chap ters 1cs. T he
and a brief conc lusio n. Chap ters
fro~ 2 to 6 f~llo w a rathe r defin ite chron ological seque
nce since each is devo ted to one
speci fìc st~~e m H usserl" philo soph ical trajec tory, from che
Philo soph y of Arithmetic up
to the Cn.sts o f European Sciences. T his resea rch does not
only show that the prob lem
?f the_ "'ma them atica l - is a recur ring conce rn far him bue
also that che different ways
in wh1c h he has addr essed it have alwa
ys shape d the genera i frame work of his philoso-
phy. Chap ters 1, 7, and 8 are dedic ateci to mo re gener ai
themes that embr ace Huss erl's
philo soph y of math emar ics in its enri rery, as they regar d,
respectively, che chara cteriza-
tion of his reflec ti\'e meth od in oppo sition to che limited
" scientific attitu de" typic al of
math emat ician s, an assess ment of Huss erl 's posit ions in
the light o f rhe main theories
avail able today conc ernin g che natur e of math ematics
and math ematical objects, and
the clarif ìcaci on o f his trans cend enta l point of view in relari
on, and in contr ast, to Kant .
Hart1 mo's appr oach is nor a mere ly histo rica l recon struc tion
that fights to find a privi-
leged piace for Huss ert ·s phen omen ology in che gallery of
past philo sophi es. Her rheor eti-
cal and exeg etica l analy ses have insre ad the merit of maki
ng Huss erl 's contr ibutio n vivid
and valua ble fo r today 's deba ted quest ions in vario us fie
lds . T his is of cours e specifically
rrue for che phen omen ologi cal resea rch, whic h has to
a certa in exten t fargo tten che
impo rtanc e o f a priori scien ces fa r rhc <lerer mina tion of
its ultim ate goals , and fa r che
philo soph y of marhemar ics, whic h has so fa r neglecte<l rhe
poten tial benefit that Huss erl's
meth ods and inves rigar ions cou l<l bring imo play . Harr imo's
cffor t has che ambi ti on to
impr ove che fruitf ul dialo gue berw ecn thcsc rwo, in truth
intim ately affin e, world s.
Inas m uch as phen omen ology is conc crnccJ, Hart imo provi
des a detai led readi ng of
Huss erl's publi shed boo ks as wel l as o f the archi pelag o of
materials comi ng from lectu res,
perso na! notes , etc. belon ging to his imme nse Nachlas~ .
By rakin g im~ accou ~t also _the
rechn ica l logic al resul ts of his rime and the most prom ment
math ematical-p hilos ophic al
work s chat were flour ishin g arou nd them especially dur ing
the 1920 s, she furni shes a new
and more comp lex view of Huss erl's cultu ra! back grou nd
. The addit ion of an accur ate
and imer estin g study of Huss erl's hand -writ ten mark s and
no tes in his perso na! copies of
chose w orks (rhe auth ors consi dered are Beck er, Hilbe rt,
Weyl , amon g other s) comp letes
che pictu re and supp orts some specu lation s abou t rhe hidde
n reaso ns behin d the trans for-
mati ons of his trans cend ental ideal ism in his more matu re
perio d.
6 0() ( ,'11/Jriclc 13aratelli , .
. . . . ric..:s Harrirn o comparcs I lusst: rl -; cl a1m~ with a kw
111 IIH· pl11losophy of 1~arhc.1_11,' 1 . ~ 'The analysis <lcmo nstratcs how profitablc it woul
wcll-.,sscsscd cortrl'lllPOra, Yposrtior_i. · . . hc <liscussion. lkca usc hc has anticipatc<l ma <l
. . . ·I ,·t s. •·1 r,•fcn:11cc
Iw ro I,a ve 11 11sst:1 " pornt "' .t h , J ·hatc h'1s p1,·1I osop h y shows that · 1· ny
'J I . . -rc11t
r 1escs :111lI I cas t iat arL cur . moncy inf t e he·matics
I '
has facc<l aftcr his <lcath rtA rvt, h
LIJ) tn rhe challc11gcs t Iiat t 1c P I os
·I . h I 'Ot"'hY
' o mat e I' . h'I . tt t
. . , . . . . e how Husscr s p I osop y cannot e reduct<l. h . h
samc time, l-fart11110 s argumcnts lfl d'icat . f h · ,, h
.. .
to rm e pos1t1011, as 1t 1.s rathcr a. .. com , bination vicw o rnat ernat1cs, t at 1•.s, a syncre-
. . ·
t1st1c account capah1e o f com 6lfllflg
. . . • "·onstruct1v1sm, vanous k'md so f. structura11sm ·
and
e · . , d b- · . ' .
•. ,, ( ,) Sh. mak,·s it clea r that th1s does not nee
pIaco111s111 p. 17 , 1 • e
. . that-..has becn d'isp elle<l by successive · to h'l e mterpreted as a srgn
h' J
of conceptual confus1011 . p
. · I osop 1ca progres . s.
Rathcr it rcvcals that Husscr I transcends t he current philosoph1ca . . . . l framework since 1,·
1s.
' .
analyscs are much ncher than w at t e curren h h e scholarly d1stmct1ons are able to capture
. .
· 1t
Bue · 1s
· prcc1scly
· h ·
bccausc 1s p I osop Ymar h · I h ks a di 11erence by cross mg the fì
eld from on e,
Il'
po int to che other that it is interesting.
nothing in Husserl's approach precludes new evid ences and new goals, and hence
. .
new mecho d s, from surfacmg m machematics • Cons·d · of a11 of them and
1 erat1on
1ate to each other and the transcendencal sub'Jec r·1v1ty · a um·fi ed
· g1ves
· theyf re 1 1· ·
how .
·
· un derstan d'mg 1ts
p1cture· o a pl'fura 1st1cally g1ven mathematics and should hel P m
pIace m our 1 e.
(p. 174)
4 Concluding remarks
h H · , book is an originai and tho ught-provoking
I hope to ha~e shown wl' Yh.l art1~0 ~f mathematics whose scope is never restricte<l
engagement w1th Husser s P 1osop Y . h h ·
. . h'I • I h as it always finds m t et eoret1ca l consequences lt">
·
to h1stonca 1or p 1o1og1ca t eses, , . h b .
the St udy of Husserl s philosop y ecomes an occa<;1on
deeper sense. That means that . h f
far usto find a new orientation for our questions and ~os 5ibly topa ~e t e way or a ~ew
philosophical exploration. This is precisely what Harttmo_ sugge 5rs_ in ~he end by askmg:
"what would phenomenological philosophy of mathemattcs look hke m the ~ enty~hr5t
century?" (p. 189). As she characterizes it, it seems that the "pheno_~enolog1cal d1ffer-
ence" brings in two great innovations with respect to the more trad1t1onal approaches.
Because "its task is to describe how, through their practices, mathematicians constitute
an open-ended and possibly pluralistic mathematical reality" (p. 190), it is ~exible,
as it can "capture the values guiding different mathematical practices" (p. 189 ) not
only in the current situation but even in the past. This is the condition to make sense
of the difficult problem of the historicity of a priori disciplines, that is, of the radical
transformations to which they undergo through the ages and that cannot be easily in-
serted into the comfortable scheme of linear progression. Second, it is not prone to the
uncond~tion~l aut?o_ri9: o~ mathematical results, even if it does not oppose an equally
do~m~t!c rat10~ahst1c ~~tl?s~phy-first" account: "Husserl 's transcendentally clarified
lo~1c _is first phtlosophy ;_ 1t 1s first' ?ut not o~ the basis of some a priori philosophical
prmc1ple~ but on th~ bas1s of reflect1on on sc1entific practices" (p. 18 8). Philosophical
freedom 1s here. .ach1eved by means of the "divis1'on of la b or " b etween p h'l 1 osop hers
d h
an mat emat1cians that precludes philosophy's seduct·ton b y t h e ca 11 o f t h e s1·rens of
· If
h
mat ematica ormai exactness Their I
Thus instead of embracing b·l. d "f ~oha ~ are complementary but essentially distinct.
'
foundation to mathemati'cs u ·
a m
h
a1t m formul " b
h
· · ·11 ·
as Y try1ng to g1ve an 1 us10nary
smg t e mat emat' 1 h d .
understand the goal as one of reco . . . . ic~ . met o , the ph1losopher has to
1
evidences. In this way the philoso nhci mgkits ob1ectivity with the plurality of subjective
. . p er ta es ma th . b ' d. .
PIme, wh1eh has to be complemented b . ematics to e 'an autonomous 1sc1-
p henomen oIogical dar ifica ti O n" (pp. [~ ;~~
5 5
bui It upo n, descr ip ti ve, psyeho Iogica I, 0 r