Illuminating logical principles: From a phenomenological point of view

Abstract This paper examines Husserl's phenomenological understanding of logical principles, based principally upon his scattered remarks on the topic in his Logical Investigations . It aims to show how Husserl's phenomenological analysis ventures to shed light on logical principles in a way that preserves their ontological valence while unpacking the nature of our access to them. After recounting his view of how categorial intuitions in particular are said to ground logical principles, I argue that this view comes up short in regard to principles of negation and noncontradiction. The paper ends with a suggestion of how a phenomenological interpretation of logical principles might be redirected to make up for this deficit.