summary of The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology by Edmund Husserl:

Edmund Husserl’s The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology is a profound and wide-ranging critique of modern science, philosophy, and European culture, written in the later part of his career. Husserl argues that European science, despite its remarkable technical achievements, has lost sight of its philosophical and human foundations, leading to a “crisis” in meaning, purpose, and understanding. He maintains that modern science treats nature as a mathematically structured object, abstracting it from lived human experience, and thus fails to address the ultimate questions of existence, value, and meaning. Central to the book is the call for a return to phenomenology as a transcendental method, which investigates the structures of consciousness that make experience, knowledge, and science possible. By focusing on the lifeworld (Lebenswelt)—the pre-theoretical, everyday world of human experience—Husserl demonstrates that all scientific abstractions depend on, and are rooted in, the richness of lived experience. The work also engages with historical, cultural, and philosophical reflections, tracing how modernity’s overemphasis on objectivity and calculation has led to alienation, existential uncertainty, and a weakening of ethical and spiritual life. Ultimately, The Crisis of European Sciences is both diagnosis and prescription: it critiques the limitations of the scientific worldview while offering transcendental phenomenology as a rigorous method for reconnecting thought, knowledge, and human existence, aiming to restore meaning and coherence to modern intellectual life.