Meanwhile, here’s a heartbreaking tale about Husserl himself...(thread) https://twitter.com/ZoharAtkins/status/1350924533801381896

Heidegger was his grad student assistant and sent him a draft of his Being and Time (which he dedicated to Husserl) 2

During the Nazi years, Heidegger removed the dedication (Husserl was born Jewish though he converted to Christianity, likely out of opportunism—there were Jew quotas in academia) 3

The heartbreaking part though is this—when Husserl was taking notes in the margins of his copy of Being and Time he started to write “This is not Husserl” 4

He was expecting Heidegger to expand his ideas—not overturn them. 5

Heidegger pitched himself early on as a faithful exponent of phenomenology. But Being and Time was revolutionary in turning the method into “existential hermeneutics” 6

Which means Heidegger thought philosophy should be a commentary on oneself in which one embraces one’s situatedness in time, space, culture, history, mood...7

Husserl by contrast thought the task of the philosopher was literally to sit and “suspend” the natural attitude and observe oneself as if in a disassociated, dispassionate state. 8

A biography of Husserl would be contrary to what Husserl cared about, which was the universal experience of being a conscious ego, stripped of particularities. 9

It also would have likely offended Heidegger—for different reasons. The utility of a biography is small as compared to the thought itself. As Heidegger said about Aristotle, “He was born. He worked. He died.” 10

So here’s the moral of the story for me 11

Husserl himself created a lot of value but didn’t capture much of it himself...(he died with his university library borrowing privileges revoked under Nazism) 12

A Husserl biography captures even less value (even assuming it generates some) 13

Capturing value and creating value are tragically not the same...14

It’s easy to laugh or grimace or nod along in empathy at the story of the Husserl biographer—but he holds up a mirror to us all. 15

Create value but capture none and you’re a dupe or a martyr. Capture value while creating none of your own and you’re a parasite, an imitator. 16