Abstract

Husserl’s confrontation with Buddhism in his review »On the Speeches of Gautama Buddha« [»Über die Reden Gotamo Buddhas«] as well as in his manuscript »Socrates – Buddha« [»Sokrates – Buddha«] allows us to dene the essential characteristics, by which he dierentiates himself from the other important contemporary western thinkers. Although Husserl’s knowledge of Buddhism certainly was limited – and herewith he probably does not equal Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bergson, Russell, Jaspers, Heidegger and Scheler, who are by all means closer to the oriental thinking –, his endeavor all the more bears witness to the respectful attitude towards the Buddhist thought, insofar as his investigation is free of the arrogance of the scientic mind and is in its entirety driven by a genuine will to a better understanding of a foreign tradition