Essentials of Husserl’s Method of Phenomenological Reductions

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Chysanthus Nnaemeka Ogbozo Essentials of Husserl's Method of Phenomenological Reductions Epistemological & Cultural considerations 220 Seiten. DIN A5. Hardcover. Preis 26,00 Euro. ISBN 978-3-941216-45-7. Rhombos-Verlag, 2010. It is most gratifying to see that the work that an editor of a Husserliana volume carried out in hiding for several years finally comes to fruition in various areas of phenomenological scholarship. Among these newly studies is Pater Dr. Chrysanthus Ogbozo’s splendid Essentials of Husserl’s Method of Phenomenological Reductions: Epistemological and Cultural Considerations. The book is a penetrating and at the same time easily comprehensible presentation of Husserl’s phenomenological Reduction, which the founder of the movement of Phenomenology himself considered the most important element of his entire philosophy. Indeed, the discussion whether Husserl could ever complete the Reduction, let alone give a definitive presentation of this method, continues to this day. My meagre contributions to this debate consist mainly in making Husserl’s late texts on this problem accessible in my edited volume of the Husserliana. If anything, the manuscripts assembled in this volume attest to Husserl’s unceasing efforts to work out this method in a satisfactory manner, and it also shows a thinker deeply immersed in his work and at times also existentially plagued by his inability to completely come to terms with this task. Ogbozo’s work nicely shows how Husserl’s method developed, how it was presented in various stages of his life, where the shortcomings lay in Husserl’s own mind, and, finally, how the phenomenological community has reacted to Husserl’s principal method. In a bold and original last chapter, Ogbozo lays out the implications of Husserl’s phenomenological method for cultural considerations, especially for the context of thought and communal life in contemporary Africa. Here, he moves Husserlian phenomenology into the direction of what he calls “encountering”, “participating”, and “presence”, phenomena he deems especially relevant to “the African person”. More specifically, the author shifts from a more specifically epistemological to a cultural-anthropological dimension. Since I have to confess to having little familiarity with Africa itself and its peoples, I cannot be a judge concerning the veracity of these analyses; but indeed, assuming that they have a salience for Africans themselves (at least the tradition Ogbozo has in mind), I have learned tremendously about the lifeworld of the African peoples and their experience. As one knows from his correspondence with the ethnologist Lévy-Bruhl, Husserl himself was very interested in the mentality of extra-European peoples and he surely would have welcomed the extension of his research into these areas. Though squaring Husserl’s transcendental eidetic method with empirical (cultural, anthropological) analyses remains a methodological challenge, I have read these passages with great interest and empathy. I applaud the widening of phenomenology’s scope towards what Dr. Ogbozo calls “participatory phenomenology”, and, if I may say so, I hope that it may not be limited only to the African peoples. But I do not take his thoughts on these matters, as much as he focuses on Africa, as exclusive to this continent. It is my hope that this work will help Husserl and his thought to be wider known in a region of the world where phenomenology might not have been much appreciated thus far. If this aim might have been aided to a small extent by my research, I shall be very pleased and consider my work as a researcher fully carried out.

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Chysanthus Nnaemeka Ogbozo
Chrysanthus Nnaemeka Ogbozo hails from Affa in Udi LGA of Enugu State, Nigeria and he is a Catholic Priest in the Congregation of Claretian Missionaries, Province of East-Nigeria. An Alumnus of Bigard Memorial Seminary, Ikot Ekpene and Enugu respectively, Dr. Ogbozo furthered his studies at the Jesuit Gregorian University Rome where he obtained his Licentiate and doctorate degrees in Philosophy and later to Albert Ludwig University, Freiburg-Germany for a post doctoral programme. Fr. Ogbozo lectures at the Claretian Institute of Philosophy, Nekede-Owerri, Nigeria, where he has been its Rector since 2007. He has contributed several Magazine and Journal articles and has been working on a number of themes for publication.

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