Husserl?s Concept of ?Urstiftung?. From Passivity to History

LUIS NIEL

Experiential Reason. Perception, Afectivity, and Voliton in Husserl?s Phenomenology

Springer

Lugar: Dordrecht; Año: 2017;

The aim of this article is to examine Husserl?s concept of ?Urstiftung?. Not only will it be shown the development of this concept along different contexts and thematic areas from the most basic fields of passive constitution up until the philosophy of history, but it will also be shown the connection with other concepts directly related to it, such as ?Nachstiftung?, ?Neustiftung?, ?Endstiftung?, etc. First, I will present some historical and etymological considerations on the German concepts of ?Stiftung? and ?Stiften?. Second, I will trace back the first references to this concept in the analyses of perception and the ?I? as correlate. Third, I will especially focus on the manifold genetic analyses of passivity. Third, I will address the constitution of the ?I?, and particularly of the ethical ?I?. Finally, I will analyze the problem of history and of the crisis of European rationality and mankind. It will be argued that the concept has its roots on the legal concept of ?Stiftung? that implies the idea of an active and ?legal? institution of sense, based on certain motivations and that pursue a specific aim established at the very moment of this institution. I will finally conclude with the idea that, despite its (passive) motivations, the ?Urstiftung? mainly implies an active commitment (as an answer) that has to be steadily renewed through ?Nachstiftungen? and thus shows its teleological leading force, but at the same time the inner fragility embedded in every institution of sense.