Neo-Husserlian Idealism

Abstract

In recent years forms of idealism influenced by Berkeley, Leibniz, and Mill have been defended, and metaphysicians and philosophers of mind have begun to appreciate some distinctive advantages that idealism has over materialist realism. One historical idealist has been conspicuously absent in this idealist revival: Husserl. Starting from Aron Gurwitsch’s interpretation of Husserl in The Field of Consciousness, I develop and defend a new version of idealism using contemporary resources. According to neo-Husserlian idealism, material objects are mereological bundles of what Mark Johnston calls sensible profiles. I argue that neo-Husserlian idealism has all the advantages that two recent idealists—Helen Yetter-Chappell and Michael Pelczar—claim for their views, as well as some unique advantages of its own.