The Political Ethos of Phenomenology

Andrzej GNIAZDOWSKI

Zespół Antropologii Filozoficznej i Antropologii Społecznej, Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, ul. Nowy Świat 72, 00-330 Warsaw, Poland , Poland

Abstract

The aim of this paper is a reconstruction of Edmund Husserl’s ‘political worldview.’ The main subject is the relationship between this worldview and Husserl’s idea of phenomenology as strenge Wissenschaft, understood here as science sensu stricto. Unlike Martin Heidegger, who saw in that idea nothing but a ‘pathetic banality’ out of touch with reality, the author of the present paper aims to interpret it as the very expression of Edmund Husserl’s political attitude. He supports the thesis that the core of that attitude was radical political critique which also today enables confronting Husserl’s phenomenology with the main currents of contemporary political philosophy.

Keywords:

phenomenology, science, political philosophy, worldview, Husserl, Heidegger