Is There Any Soteriological Pattern in the Phenomenology? The Polemical Remarks on the Sketch by Arkady Yu. Nedel

Abstract

This article is a polemical response to the sketch by A.Yu Nedel (“Voprosy Filosofii”, 7, 2018). There we criticize his hypothesis of soteriological pattern of Husserl's phenomenology. We use the statements of Husserl and Vasubandhu on the strategic purposes of their researches as the arguments of refutation. Their statements demonstrate the fundamental differences between the purposes of both philosophers, the differences of the implicit presuppositions of their researches determined by their cultures (in particular, different views on consciousness: Husserl saw consciousness as intentional, and Buddhists saw it as non-intentional). We point out in the article the unclear meanings of Husserl’s thesis “Back to the things themselves”, the invalid interpretations of Sanskrit terms and too shallow generalizations made by the author, in particular, the identification of Husserl’s “pure consciousness” (reine Bewußtsein) with the Buddhist “pure consciousness” (anāsravā-prajñā).