{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.04053452115812917, 'fraction_numerical': 0.01915367483296214, 'mean_word_length': 4.941798941798941, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 1, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Intentionality and Normativity

The main theme of Steve Crowell’s excellent Normativity and Phenomenology in Husserl and Heidegger is ‘the connection between normativity and meaning’ (p. 1), a central issue in both Husserl’s and Heidegger’s phenomenological philosophy, but not addressed as such by either of them (p. 3). Throughout the book, which is composed of thirteen brilliant essays, Crowell argues that phenomenology’s specificity relies on its ‘recognition that meaning (Sinn) is the proper topic of philosophical inquiry’ (p. 33). Contrary to what one might first expect, the kind of meaning Crowell has in view here does not exactly match the Husserlian terminology. One of the great achievements of Husserl is to have enlarged the scope of meaning (Bedeutung) to sense (Sinn). In Husserl’s eyes, phenomenology aims to elucidate the sense-structure of reality, not just its meaning for us. Husserl’s use of the word ‘sense’, which stands for noematic sense, thus goes far beyond the sole area of language or conceptual thinking. The broad meaning Husserl gave to the term ‘sense’ applies just as much to perceptions, series of events and state of affairs, etc. From Ideas 1 onward, sense is therefore considered as an inherent feature of being insofar as being manifests itself, that is to say, insofar as it is experienced. Correspondingly, the aim of phenomenology is to grasp reality in its sense or, better still, as sense, and not just to account for its meaning. The question of meaning (which Crowell uses to translate the Husserlian Sinn) thus looms large, especially when one also takes into consideration practical forms of sense-making like those we find in Heidegger’s and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology. The uniqueness of Crowell’s approach to elucidating this set of issues lies nevertheless elsewhere: for him, the question of meaning is inseparable from that of normativity, and how norms compel us in our actions and behaviours. Hence, the reader knows exactly what to expect right from the very first page: ‘the closer examination of the space of meaning in its character as a norm-governed International Journal of Philosophical Studies , 2015 Vol. 23, No. 2, 279–295, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09672559.2015.1023613