A critical review of Dreyfus's account of Heidegger's critique of Husserl's theory of intentionality

• Main Author: Mabaquiao, Napoleon M., Jr.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2007
• Subjects: Intentionality (Philosophy); Consciousness; Ontology; Philosophy
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/8168
• Institution: De La Salle University

This essay, in the main, disputes Dreyfus's account of Heidegger's critique of Husserl's theory of intentionality. More specifically, it raises objections to the three central claims of such account; namely: (1) that Searle's theory of intentional action can be used as a stand-in for Husserl's, (2) that Heidegger rejects the primordiality of the intentionality of consciousness, and (3) that Heidegger distinguishes between conscious and unconscious types of intentional actions and privileges the latter over the former. I show the first to be unwarranted owing to a lack of fundamental parallelisms between Searle's and Husserl's theories of intentionality. I show the second to be mistaken for failing to take into account Heidegger's strategic handling of the concept of consciousness and for contradicting Heidegger's concept of care as the essential meaning of Dasein's being-in-the-world. Lastly, I show the third to be highly problematic for lacking in textual evidence and explanatory power.