Totality and Horizon in Husserl’s Account of the World.

Analysis and Critique of the Anti-Cartesian Interpretation

Abstract

The article deals with the philosophical concept of the world from its determination as a totality and object of experience in Husserl’s phenomenology. The analysis revolves around the possibility of sustaining these characterizations that, according to the anti-Cartesian interpretation, damage the phenomenological-transcendental structure of the world. It begins by briefly exposing certain aspects of Husserl’s thought from which the possibility of drawing a comparison between objects and the world is opened and then some descriptions are selected that mark a halt to the comparison and even put it into question. The anti-Cartesian position is then presented on the basis of criticisms by Held, Brand, Steinbock, Welton and Claesges. Finally, a distance is taken from this approach on the basis of the critical considerations of Aguirre and Walton, which avoid a break between the various stages of Husserlian thought.