Bio

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Dan Zahavi is a leading phenomenological philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, selfhood, and the philosophy of mind. Currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen and director of the Centre for Subjectivity Research, he has been central in renewing and expanding Husserlian phenomenology for a 21st-century audience. Prof Zahavi’s research spans topics such as pre-reflective self-awareness, the structure of consciousness, intersubjectivity, and the methodological foundations of phenomenological inquiry. Through books like Self and Other, Husserl’s Phenomenology, and recently, Being We, he has become one of the most influential phenomenologists working today.

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References

https://www.sup.org/books/theory-and-philosophy/husserls-phenomenology

https://www.routledge.com/Phenomenology-The-Basics/Zahavi/p/book/9781032396378

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09672559.2016.1175101

https://academic.oup.com/book/59446

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Notebooks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_of_Perception

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Existentialist_Café

https://youtu.be/0dPL5T14xnM?si=LUr5gIH9F1_71Hyq

General questions

• You’re one of the preeminent living phenomenological philosophers, and known in particular for expanding Husserlian phenomenology for a 21st-century audience: Why did you focus your research on Husserl over the existential phenomenology of Heidegger (and Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, etc.)?—The latter, which is more in vogue at least outside of academic philosophy.
  • A question that cannot be answered simply, but where do you see Husserlian phenomenology differ most radically from the existential phenomenology? And do you think one needs a deep understanding of Husserl to study the existential phenomenologists?
• In Merleau-Ponty’s famous preface to the Phenomenology of Perception, which you dedicate a whole chapter for in Zahavi (2025b), Merleau-Ponty says, “Phenomenology is the study of essences; and according to it, all problems amount to finding definitions of essences…”:
  • Can you explicate your interpretation of this preface?
  • And along those lines, what did Husserl mean by “to the things themselves”?

Husserlian Phenomenology

• Where does Husserl sit within 20th century European philosophy?
  • For instance, how does Husserl’s critique of psychologism differ from that of Frege’s?

Husserl’s Phenomenology | Stanford University Press

• What is Husserl’s presuppositionless philosophy (Zahavi, 2003, pp. 94-95)?