Abstract
Much has been said and written about the “Lebenswelt” and the Ego in Husserl’s thought, as thinkers have delved ever deeper into what seems to be the bottomless well of phenomenology in the search for sources of inspiration for new ideas. It comes as something of a surprise that this thought, even though complex, is a vein which is not as easily exhausted as it may first appear to be and that with the passage of time it seems to become, if anything, ever more topical. The same could also be said of Husserl’s ethics which, though little studied, appear to provide valuable and profound sources of reflection; both because they are intrinsically linked to the very meaning of phenomenology itself and, as we shall see, because they provide the necessary continuity for an investigation into subjectivity and the “world of life.” This is particularly the case in the contemporary historical context where there would seem to be a real need to find a grounding for ethical and moral rethinking in the praxis of the concrete world. Renewed vigour and force can be given to words like tolerance, society and politics in the selfaware thought to be found in phenomenology.
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Notes
The problem is discussed in detail not so much in The Crisis of European Sciences of 1936 as in the 3rd part of the Crisis published in French by Eugen Fink in 1954. Cfr. Edmund Husserl, La Crisi delle scienze europee e la fenomenologia trascendentale (Milan: II Saggiatore, 1987). For a historical and theoretical view of the problem see Hans Reiner, Die philosophische Ethik (1964); Italian translation: Etica e teoria (Rome: Armando 1971).
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Il movimento fenomenologico (Milan: Bompiani: 1990), p. 8.
The problem is studied by Husserl in his final years; these difficult works reach us through Eugen Fink and his Sixth Cartesian Meditation, the fruit of many years of research. Cfr. Eugen Fink, VI cartesianische Meditation (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988).
Edmund Husserl, Erste Philosophie 1923/24. Erste Teil: Kritische Ideengeschichte (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1956), Hua. VII. Also Emilio Baccarini, “Modelli di ragione e modelli di verità”, in E. Husserl. La “crisi delle scienze europee” e la responsabilità storica dell’Europa, ed. M. Signore (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1985), pp 203-210.
Edmund Husserl, La crisi delle scienze europee e la fenomenologia trascendentale (Milan: II Saggiatore, 1987).
Ibid, par. 72-72.
Xavier Tilliette, Breve introduzione alla fenomenologia (Lanciano: Itinerari, 1983) pp. 133 and 136. We also find in Tilliette a quotation from a letter which Husserl wrote to Dorion Cairns in 1930: “Consider that my books do not provide results which are to be formally learnt but foundations upon which autonomous methods of investigation can be built and problems be solved in one’s own.” Ibid., p. 134.
Edmund Husserl, Meditazioni cartesiane (Milan: Bompiani, 1994), par. 55-59.
Tilliette, op.cit. p. 107.
In Logica formale e trageendental, Husserl wrote: “Phenomenology is the science of transcendental subjectivity.” (Bari: Laterza, 1966), p. 12.
Husserl, Meditazioni cartesiane, op.cit., p. 124.
Aristotle, Metafisica (Milan: Rusconi, 1984), Volume. IV, (1008a-1009b).
Husserl, Mediatzioni cartesiane, op.cit., p. 124.
Husserl, Mediatzioni cartesiane, op.cit., par. 59.
Edmund Husserl, Vorlesungen über Ethik und Wertlehre 1908-1914 (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988), par. 4; Hua. XXVIII.
Alois Roth, Edmund Husserls ethische Untersuchungen. Dargestellt anhand seiner Vorlesungsmanuskripte (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1960).
Immanuel Kant, Critica della ragion pratica (Rome, Bari: Laterza, 1984).
Roth, op.cit., p. 11.
Mario Sancipriano, Edmund Husserl. L’etica sociale (Genoa: Tilgher, 1988), p. 112. Also M. Sancipriano “Les Sources de la vie morale” in Analecta Husserliana Vol. XXXV, pp. 13-43.
Edmund Husserl, “Die Gefühlsgrundlage der Moral” in his Vorlesungen über Ethik, op.cit. pp. 384–402.
Roth, op.cit. pg. 38.
Husserl, Vorlesungen über Ethik op.cit. p. 48.
Husserl, “Zur Phänomenologie des Willes”, in Vorlesungen über Ethik, op.ct. pp. 102–124.
G. Brand, Mondo, Io e tempo nei manoscritti inediti di Husserl, ed. Enzo paci (Milan: Bompani, 1960).
Alfred Schütz, La fenomenologia del mondo sociale (Bologna: II Mulino, 1960) and René Toulemont, L’Essence de la société selon Husserl (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1962).
Henri Bergson, Le due fonti della morale e della religione (Milan: Comunità, 1973).
Edmund Husserl, “La fenomenologia e i fondamenti delle scienze”, in Idee per una fenom-enologia pura e per una filosofia fenomenologica (Turin, Einaudi), Libro III, p. 119.
Ibid., p. 217.
Husserl, La crisi delle scienze europee, op. cit., p. 5.
Ibid., p. 270.
Husserl, La crisi, op. cit., Appendici XIII to XVIII (pp. 456–490).
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Bianchi, I.A. (2002). From the “Ego” to the “World” for a Community Ethic. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) Life Energies, Forces and the Shaping of Life: Vital, Existential. Analecta Husserliana, vol 74. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0417-6_27
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