Reduction and Firstness: A Peircean Contribution to French Phenomenology

This chapter proposes a reframing of the current debate in French phenomenology over the “theological turn” by contrasting Husserlian reduction with Peirce’s method of Musement in “A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God.” It proceeds by first situating the “theological turn” in the context of the historical reception of Husserlian phenomenology in France and examining the core views of three participants in the controversy: Jean-Luc Marion, Michel Henry and Dominique Janicaud. The place of reduction in Husserl’s phenomenology is then examined more closely and understood from the point of view of its relation to intuition at the heart of the Husserlian “principle of all principles” in Ideas I. Peirce’s methodological approach of Musement is then contrasted with that of reduction in the French Husserlians to show how the correlative role of the category of Firstness in Peirce’s phaneroscopy is in this respect relevantly distinct from that of intuition in Husserl.