Hermeneutics and Reflection

Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann is known as a major figure in phenomenological and hermeneutics research: he was Martin Heideggers personal assistant for the last ten years of Heideggers life, and assistant to Eugen Fink, who in turn was primary assistant to Edmund Husserl. However, his own philosophical commentaries and readings of Heideggers work are not familiar to many in the English-speaking world. Von Herrmanns Hermeneutics and Reflection, translated here from the original German, represents the most fundamental and critical reflection in any language of the concept of phenomenology as it was used by Heidegger and by Husserl. It provides a careful rendition of Husserls essential contribution to phenomenology, then draws a clear demarcation between Husserls reflective phenomenology and Heideggers hermeneutic phenomenology. While showing the fullest respect for Husserls phenomenology, Hermeneutics and Reflection offers a full-fledged critique of Husserl from the perspective of Heideggers hermeneutic phenomenology.