Single Idea 21214

[catalogued under 18. Thought / D. Concepts / 4. Structure of Concepts / b. Analysis of concepts]

Full Idea

Husserl said that the clarification of any concept is made by determining its psychological origin. He is concerned with the psychological origins of the operation of calculating cardinal numbers.

Gist of Idea

We clarify concepts (e.g. numbers) by determining their psychological origin

Source

report of Edmund Husserl (Philosophy of Arithmetic [1894]) by Victor Velarde-Mayol - On Husserl 2.2

Book Reference

Velarde-Mayol,Victor: 'On Husserl' [Wadsworth 2000], p.16


A Reaction

This may not be the same as the 'psychologism' that Frege so despised, because Husserl is offering a clarification, rather than the intrinsic nature of number concepts. It is not a theory of the origin of numbers.