Clark Moustakas’ Husserl

Authors

Thomas Byrne, Laboratory for Phenomenological Research, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USAFollow

Abstract

This paper critically examines Clark Moustakas’s presentation of Husserl in Phenomenological Research Methods. I argue that Moustakas’s account misrepresents two core elements of Husserl’s phenomenology – intentionality and the transcendental reduction – in ways that directly compromise the foundations of qualitative phenomenological research. First, Moustakas treats intentional meaning as something private, located within the individual, rather than as given in the world. This misreading severs the connection between experience and a shared world of meaning, leaving qualitative researchers unable to clarify participants’ accounts beyond private expression. Second, Moustakas reduces the transcendental reduction to introspective reflection, overlooking its function as a method for revealing how experience becomes meaningful at all. This strips qualitative inquiry of the very tool it needs to examine the conditions of experience. Together, these misinterpretations remove both the philosophical grounding and the methodological framework that make qualitative phenomenological inquiry possible.

Keywords

phenomenology, qualitative methodology, methodological critique, conceptual analysis, education research methods

Author Bio(s)

Thomas Byrne (ORCID: 0000-0002-8809-3664) is Research Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he directs the Laboratory for Phenomenological Research. His work explores the philosophical foundations of qualitative research, with particular emphasis on clarifying the relevance of Husserlian phenomenology to education and the human sciences. He is the author of numerous studies on intentionality, subjectivity, and the methodological integrity of phenomenological approaches. Please direct correspondence to ThByrne@Illinois.edu

Publication Date

2-15-2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2026.8402

Recommended APA Citation

Byrne, T. (2026). Clark Moustakas’ counterfeit Husserl. The Qualitative Report, 31(2), 5089-5105. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2026.8402

ORCID ID

0000-0002-8809-3664