S. Ferrarello, Husserl's ethics and practical intentionality

William Koch

pp. 483-489

Review of:

Ferrarello Susi, Husserl's ethics and practical intentionality, Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2016.

In Husserl’s Ethics and Practical Intentionality Susi Ferrarello has performed a great service for both the world of Husserl studies and for phenomenology in general by making clear the centrality of a social and ethical problematic in Husserl’s life-work. After clarifying early in her book that “we name as ‘ethical’ all that entails willing” (p. 38), Ferrarello quotes from a letter from Husserl to Arnold Metzger the claim that “intellect is servant of the will” (p. 215). As surprising as this might be for some of us to hear from Husserl, Ferrarello convincingly reveals that phenomenological practice is servant to a larger ethical call. Indeed, once the content of several as yet untranslated works by Husserl are fully considered by Ferrarello, it becomes clear that the project of phenomenology itself is part of a larger ethical and social telos and it is from this ethical perspective that we might come to understand the ultimate purpose of phenomenology.