“… the Fundamental Platonic Tenet …” Maximilian Beck’s Ideenlehre Within the Context of Early Phenomenology

The present paper is dedicated to the work of Maximilian Beck, a neglected member of the Munich circle of phenomenology. It will present the main characteristics of his doctrine of ideas by putting it back into the context of early phenomenology. Beck’s doctrine of ideas can be seen as a radicalization of some of the early phenomenological realist tendencies toward the recognition of an objective existence of ideas. However, it can also be regarded as an attempt to reject one of the main claims of early phenomenologists, namely, that ideas have an internal structure and content.