Four Phases in the Reception of Phenomenology in French Philosophy, 1910–1939

This chapter distinguishes four phases in the reception of phenomenology among French academic philosophers between 1910, when Husserl’s work was first mentioned in a French publication, and Husserl’s death in 1938 and the outbreak of World War II the following year—the period that Herbert Spiegelberg has called the “receptive phase” of the French phenomenological movement. Following Husserl’s own lead, French academic philosophers interpreted phenomenology as representing a continuation of the Cartesian tradition. This trend is shown through the discussion of essays published by the eight thinkers who did the most to introduce Husserlian phenomenology to French philosophical circles prior to 1939. In order to organize and highlight their variously nuanced interpretations of phenomenology, they are grouped into contemporaneous pairs representing four distinct phases in the awareness and appreciation of Husserlian phenomenology among French philosophers: Leon Noel and Victor Delbos , who introduced Husserl as a combatant against psychologism ; Lev Shestov and Jean Hering , who debated the Platonic and idealist character of phenomenology; Bernard Groethuysen and Georges Gurvitch , who offered popularizing accounts of phenomenology against the backdrop of contemporary German philosophy; and the original appropriations of phenomenology by Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Paul Sartre . Where appropriate in the overall chronological framework of the chapter, other relevant events are introduced, such as the publication of Husserl’s own works, visits by Husserl and Scheler to France, and translations of essays by German phenomenologists, including Heidegger . A concluding section calls attention to the contributions of a few other scholars not mentioned elsewhere in the chapter.