Abstract
This chapter explores the essence of Edmund Husserl’s genetic phenomenology as a means of revealing how the historical dimension of consciousness manifests for transcendental phenomenology. Genetic analysis of consciousness leads, on one hand, to the interpretation of the world as a network of semantic references—a universal, ever-forming horizon—and, on the other hand, to the doctrine of the formation and individuation of the transcendental Ego. This occurs through habitualization, the acquisition of habits in the course of precipitating the meanings of prior experiences, i.e., of the “internal historicity” of the Self as a transcendental monad. The further development of historicity in phenomenology involves a transition from “internal” history to “external” history, i.e., from the history of a monad to the very history experienced by everyone. Such a transition can become possible only by situating the concept of “internal” history within research on intersubjectivity. Husserl himself gestures toward this in his manuscripts published in volumes XIII–XV of Husserliana, which examine transcendental phenomenological understanding of interests, instincts, birth and death. These reflections culminate in the concept of generational experience, which can be seen as Husserl’s transcendental phenomenological account of “external history.” Husserl specifically emphasizes the connection between phenomenologically understood historicity and generativity. The chapter concludes by outlining the main threads in Husserl’s late work in posing the problem of generative relations or the generational bridge.
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