Manuel Quezada has read and reflected on recent papers by Thomas Byrne, such as the one in the references below: "The Evolution of Husserl’s Semiotics: The Logical Investigations and its Revisions (1901-1914)" As the abstract shows, he will once again help us interpret Husserl, this time with direct relevance of semiotics! All are welcome from 15:00 for short self-presentation. If you wish to continue at the "post-seminar" at Valvet, please notify Jordan no later than Monday, Feb 2.

After the publication of Ideas I (1913), Husserl began a review of his earlier works from the perspective of his transcendental phenomenology. The second edition of the Logical Investigations was part of this review. However, the revision of the Sixth logical investigation gradually expanded into a far more extensive project, ultimately amounting to a complete reworking. This revision was never incorporated into any published edition of Logical Investigations and remained unpublished until the appearance of the manuscripts in Husserliana XX/2 in 2005. In two papers, Thomas Byrne (2018, 2021) reconstructs and interprets this revision and argues that it constitutes a fundamental rethinking of Husserl's original theory of signs as presented in the published Logical Investigations. According to Byrne, Husserl comes to “overturn” (Byrne, 2018) central commitments of the original 1901 and 1913 (published) editions. Specifically, Husserl abandons the position that “signs execute their signitive operations in three steps” (Byrne, 2018), and also rejects the division between indicators and expressions, expanding it into indicators, signals, and categorial signs. On these revisions, categorial signs do not signify their objects by mediating beyond themselves (pointing toward meaning), but rather present their meanings directly in categorial consciousness (bringing meaning to consciousness).
 

In my presentation, I will first outline the theory of signs and meaning developed in the Logical Investigations and compare it with Byrne's reconstruction. I will then present Byrne's reading of the revised Sixth investigation. Finally, I will explain how the position articulated in the revisions, as Byrne presents it, both solves and creates problems for transcendental phenomenology. We must be aware, though, that these revisions remained as unpublished research manuscripts, and that, as Byrne notes, “[Husserl] is rather proposing new possible ways to think about experience, which may or may not be accurate” (Byrne, 2018).


Byrne, T. (2018). The evolution of Husserl’s semiotics: The Logical Investigations and its revisions (1901–1914). Bulletin d’analyse phénoménologique, 14, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.25518/1782-2041.1029
Hua XX–2. Husserl, E. (2005). Logische Untersuchungen. Ergänzungsband. Zweiter Teil. Texte für die Neufassung der VI. Untersuchung. Zur Phänomenologie des Ausdrucks und der Erkenntnis. U. Melle (Ed.). Den Haag: Kluwer Publishers.
Husserl, E. (2001). Logical investigations, (J. N. Findlay, Trans.). Routledge (Original work published 1900–1901).
Sokolowski, R. (2002). Semiotics in Husserl’s Logical Investigations. In One Hundred Years of Phenomenology: Husserl’s Logical Investigations Revisited (pp. 171–183). Springer.
Sokolowski, R. (2007). Review of the book Logische Untersuchungen Ergänzungsband. Zweiter Teil: Texte für die Neuaffassung der VI. Untersuchung. Zur Phänomenologie des Ausdrucks und der Erkenntnis (1893/94–1921), by E. Husserl & U. Melle (Ed.). Review of Metaphysics, 61(2), 425–426. Philosophy Education Society Inc.