Lifeworld as a politically relevant notion

Abstract

The semantic field of the notion of the “lifeworld” extends onto ontology (“being-in theworld”), anthropology biology, life sciences in general, as well as sociology. Meanwhile, however, is another, journalistic and inflationary, usage of the term spread in everyday life, which in a way confirms its informal, “lifelike” character. This is both a strength and a weakness. That’s exactly why the Husserlian notion has been accused of being vague or downright contradictory. Indeed, it means a horizon of horizons, and in every instance a personal horizon, one of my own, which connects me, in my being-here, with the horizons of others. The present text departs from the observation that the Husserlian notion involves since the beginning a culture-critical as well as a science-critical potential, and that the appearance of direct obviousness that is so typical of the reference to the lifeworld quickly turns out a reaction to a crisis, and specifically a loss of transparency. It attempts to examine the relation between the notion of the lifeworld to politics and tests its analytical usefulness.