Humanity, Existence and Rationality: The Problem of Spiritual Being

Abstract

In Erste Philosophie,Husserl affirms that there are two possible ways to commence philosophy. The first way Starts with the certain and indubitable affirmation: “I am”; the second way, instead, begins from the contraposed, but at the same time complementary, affirmation which says: “The world is”.¹ If we follow the first way, a critique of the existence of the world becomes necessary. The world’s own being-there, its own reality, its independence from us, do not have indubitability, nor do they rest on any ground of evidence or certainty. Therefore, the world can be put into doubt regarding the validity of its being and thus fall under the absolute ɛπoXη following which the Ego cogito alone is given in its unique and indubitable certainty. This is the Cartesian way of the transcendental reduction which constitutes the inescapable and necessary beginning of any pure knowledge and any philosophical research.