First Paper Topic

Philosophy 157

Winter, 2005

Due: Monday, February 14, in class

Write an essay of roughly 5 pages on the following topic. Use the assigned readings as the basis of your work. Be sure to quote the text whenever you attribute a claim to either of the philosophers. You may make references to page numbers in parentheses ('EH' for Husserl and 'BW' for Heidegger). Papers not turned in on the day due will be penalized progressively, with the penalties increasing each two working days overdue. Each penalty is an increment of a letter grade (e.g., A- to B+). Papers should be double-spaced (3 lines per inch) with ample room in the margins for comments.

Both Husserl and Heidegger described their philosophical activity as phenomenological. Explain what each of them meant by this, illustrating it with an example from each. Why did they take the phenomenological method to be the correct way to do philosophy? What differences, if any, can you find between the two approaches to phenomenology?