Edmund Husserl

This chapter highlights the systematic connections between Plotinus and Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology. The first part of the chapter deals with Husserl’s understanding of Plotinus’ work. Since he was not an avid reader, his knowledge was presumably second-hand. There are, on the one hand, a few concise and interested notes on Plotinus; on the other, Husserl raises the accusation of irrational mysticism against Neoplatonism. The second part of the chapter shows that there is nonetheless a deep and surprising systematic kinship between the two with regard to their conceptions of the Absolute – a connection already noted by Jacques Derrida.