The Structures of the Life-World

Abstract

The following considerations concern the structure of what Husserl calls the “life-world” (Lebenswelt) in which, in the natural attitude, we, as human beings among fellow-beings, experience culture and society, take a stand with regard to their objects, are influenced by them and act upon them. In this attitude the existence of the life-world and the typicality of its contents are accepted as unquestionably given until further notice. As Husserl has shown, our thinking stands under the idealities of the “and so forth” and “I can do it again.” ** The first leads to the assumption that what has proved valid thus far in our experience will remain valid in the future; the latter to the expectancy that what thus far I have been able to accomplish in the world by acting upon it I shall be able to accomplish again and again in the future. Therefore we can speak of fundamental assumptions characteristic of the natural attitude in the life-world, which themselves are accepted as unquestionably given; namely the assumptions of the constancy of the structure of the world, of the constancy of the validity of our experience of the world, and of the constancy of our ability (Vermoglichkeit) to act upon the world and within the world.