The history between koyré and husserl

Abstract

Alexandre Koyré (1892-1964) was a prominent member of the Göttinger Philosophische Gesellschaft, otherwise known as the Göttingen Circle. This group, who came together to study the work of Edmund Husserl, was responsible for the establishment and spread of the phenomenological movement. However, Koyré‘s place within this group and how his early training in phenomenology impacted his later works has not been fully explored. He left no autobiography. The accounts we do have tend to emphasize the impact of Adolf Reinach and realist phenomenology on Koyré‘s intellectual development and downplay the influence of Husserl and his transcendental phenomenology. After working with Husserl for roughly 3 years, Koyré submitted a draft-dissertation on the paradoxes of set theory. Husserl rejected the dissertation, and Koyré subsequently moved to Paris. Despite this change in location, Koyré kept in contact with his former Göttingen colleagues and, as I will show, never abandoned his phenomenological roots. Moreover, there is reason to believe that the historical-epistemological works that Koyré has become known for are a continuation of and a response to Husserlian phenomenology.