Radical Empiricism and Husserlian Metaphysics

Seth Vennatta, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Introduction

In "A World of Pure Experience," William James wrote of his method of radical empiricism: "If it is ever to grow into a respectable system, it will have to be built up by the contributions of many cooperating minds" (Essays 91). Minds such as Edgar Sheffield Brightman and Edmund Husserl have, in my estimation, helped build radical empiricism into a respectable system. With James's method as my jumping off point, I plan to expose some significant methodological parallels between Brightman's and Husserl's philosophies. While many philosophers and scholars appreciate the method of Edmund Husserl's phenomenology, Brightman's philosophy lacks the same scholarly appreciation. However, the two philosophers share some enticing kinships, and I believe an examination of them together will be fruitful to scholars of each. I present the project at hand in two parts. Part I consists of a comparison of the method, perspective, and certain arguments of Brightman and Husserl and an exposition of some of the niceties of Brightman's metaphysics in order to speculate as to what an Husserlian metaphysics might look like. Part II includes a defense of Randall Auxier's proposal that the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead fits Husserl's philosophy (Auxier Letter).