The present volume containing the dissertation of Dorion Cairns is the first part of a comprehensive edition of the philosophical papers of one of the foremost disseminators and interpreters of Husserlian phenomenology in North-America.
Based on his intimate knowledge of Husserl´s published writings and unpublished manuscripts and on the many conversations and discussions he had with Husserl and Fink during his stay in Freiburg i. Br. in 1931-1932 Cairns´s dissertation is a comprehensive exposition of the methodological foundations and the concrete phenomenological analyses of Husserl´s transcendental phenomenology.The lucidity and precision of Cairns´s presentation is remarkable and demonstrates the secure grasp he had of Husserl´s philosophical intentions and phenomenological distinctions. Starting from the phenomenological reduction and Husserl´s Idea of Philosophy, Cairns proceeds with a detailed analysis of intentionality and the intentional structures of consciousness. In its scope and in the depth and nuance of its understanding, Cairns´s dissertation belongs beside the writings on Husserl by Levinas and Fink from the same period.
