Abstract

Jacques Derrida's first book, Edmund Husserl's 'Origin of Geometry' : An Introduction, offers a critique of Husserl's phenomenology. An assessment of this critique has been attempted. The primary aim of this assessment has been to defend Husserl against Derrida's criticisms, however the latter have also been employed as a catalyst for eliciting and elaborating certain implications of Husserl's phenomenology. ;After a general discussion of the work of both philosophers, the above-mentioned text by Derrida and Husserl's essay "The Origin of Geometry" are each closely exposited and condensed to a number of main points. These points are then reintegrated in an overview, which serves as the basis upon which Derrida's criticisms are themselves critically examined. ;Derrida's observations are found to contribute to an understanding of the methodological interrelationships that make up the framework of Husserl's phenomenology, and to point to the need for further clarification of some of the aspects of phenomenological method. However, Derrida's claims that Husserl employs regulative ideas in the absence of sufficient evidence, that he suppresses factuality, and that phenomenology is methodologically incapable of achieving its aims are found to be unjustified