Contents: Philosophy as rigorous science (1911) ; and, Philosophy and the crisis of European man (1935)

This volume contains two essays: Philosophy as Rigorous Science (originally published in 1911), and Philosophy and the Crisis of European Man (originally delivered as a lecture in 1935).

As an introduction to Husserl's though, this book has the advantages of providing an instance of an earlier and later work, tied together by the critique of (reductive) naturalism and historicism--though in the Crisis essay, the focus is more explicitly on naturalism.

Husserl argues for the establishment of a scientific understanding of the human mind, or spiritual realm, as necessary for a truly scientific grounding for the natural sciences. A main concern of both essays is to attack the psychology of the day for presenting a shallow and distorting account of the mind and experience. ( )