Influence of the phenomenology of E. Husserl on social theory. Part 1

Abstract

The article is devoted to substantiation of the importance of the phenomenological project of E.Husserl for modern social theory. The goal of the work is not confined to the “transfer” of the sociological constructions of the authors that were influenced by E. Husserl; the subject of investigation is phenomenological philosophy itself as significantly transforming the look of classic metaphysics and therefore making possible a different philosophy of social. Thus, in our analyses we turn to the consideration of consciousness in phenomenology, and its most important characteristics: intentionality, temporality and intersubjectivity. In particular we show that from the perspective of the Self as absolute the phenomenology moves on to the idea of the compatibility of the original being. Thus, the term “life-world” is prefaced by our isolated existence: We are not the sum of our Self, on the contrary, the self is derived from our common perspective. Thus, phenomenology makes possible a different formulation of the problem of “social”: it is understood not as a “public space”, institutions and so on, but as the actualization of the compatibility of the original human being. Not “being community”, but a “community of being”, as it is formulated by the modern philosopher J.-L. Nancy. We have also shown that, from the point of view of phenomenology, the reality of the “life world” is the nearest reality to us, but it this that capacity was “looked over” and “not recognized”. As Martin Heidegger said, “what is ontically trivial ontologically is a problem”: the most important aspects of things are hidden in their simplicity and everyday life, they are “looked over” since they are always before his eyes. It is in this context we affirm that the phenomenology is reorienting the science of culture from considering “extraordinary” (Kantianism) on the analysis of “everyday”. From our point of view, consideration of social as a typical organized order of everyday life is an extremely important motive for a number of areas of modern social theory. And here, in our view, it is justified to perceive the influence of phenomenology.