XI.21 Elements of a Science of the Life-World Philosophy 157 G. J. Mattey ©2002

Investigating the Life-World The pre-given world is the starting point for all science To investigate the objectivity of science, we must investigate the life-world We must also investigate it as the center of our non-scientific lives But this cannot be done “objectively”

Science in General Science in general includes “objective” science It investigates the life-world and the way in which “objective” science is built on it This has never been done before It is also “objective,” though in a different way from the way of the “objective” sciences

Objective Science and the Life-World Science begins in and operates within the “life- world” common to all The basic activities of science, observing, measuring, etc. take place in the life-world The Greeks made the highest end of science the attainment of “objective truth” Objective science is “the bold guiding idea of the modern period” How is objective science related to the life-world?

Knowledge in the Life-World We have “occasional” knowledge which is useful for our ordinary practices This involves “good” verification procedures such as excluding illusion and using induction These are not to be understood in terms of “objective” psychology They are not “immediate sense data” They are subject-relative

Scientific Knowledge How can the subject-relative be used to ground the “objective?” The theories of science are directed at “truth in itself” There seems to be an essential conflict between the subject-relative and the truth in itself Truth in itself is supposed to explain the subjective, but the subjective is supposed to explain it: a paradox

Solving the Problem This cannot be solved through argumentation in the manner of Kant, Hegel, Aristotle, Aquinas We need to reflect our our practices, without prejudice This will involve suspending judgment (epoché,  ) in the truth or falsity of the “objective sciences”

Science as a Vocation The activities of the scientist are compared with those of the artist or soldier The present investigation is also a vocation This is not an intellectual game, as the “modern irrationalistic philosophers” would maintain It may lead to a momentous intellectual transformation, like a religious conversion

The Life-World There is a “horizon” of possible experience of things: stones, plants, people, products There is cross-cultural disagreement about much of this But there are invariants: “spatial shape, motion, sense-quality,” on which “objective” science rests The life-world has general structure that is not relative

The Structure of the Life-World There is a universal a priori of the life- world which is distinct from that of the “objective” science Even pure logic depends on the universal, pre-logical a priori The task here is to find “a pure theory of essence of the life-world”

The Most General Structures There are things distributed in the world- form of space and time Things are given within a world-horizon This difference suggests two ways of being conscious of the life-world

Two Modes of Consciousness The first is living toward the objects that are given, and this includes our goals The second looks toward the manner in which these objects are given Each lies within the world-horizon The second is not noticed initially, but it is what makes us conscious of a universal horizon

The Task Ahead The subject manner of givenness brings about coherent consciousness We investigate how this takes place We also investigate how it can be the basis of objectivity It is an historical investigation, but it is not undertaken “objectively”