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Starting from Husserl: Communal Life According to Edith Stein

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Book cover Women Phenomenologists on Social Ontology

Part of the book series: Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences ((WHPS,volume 1))

Abstract

Such an idea of communal life is already to be found in Husserl , Edith Stein ’s “Master.” It is well known that Stein not only studied and wrote her doctoral dissertation with Husserl , but she also became his assistant for about a year and a half, with the task of transcribing his stenographic manuscripts and putting them in order. Among the numerous manuscripts which she worked on there are also writings on social ontology .

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Husserl (1973a, 90–110).

  2. 2.

    Ibid. 92–93.

  3. 3.

    Husserl (1973b, 260).

  4. 4.

    Stein (2000, 130).

  5. 5.

    Ibid. 2.

  6. 6.

    Although the recent publication of some latest manuscripts has shed a new light on the extent of Husserl ’s research field. Cf. Husserl (2014).

  7. 7.

    Stein (2000, 143).

  8. 8.

    Ibid. 144.

  9. 9.

    Husserl (1973a, 95).

  10. 10.

    Stein (2000, 169).

  11. 11.

    Ibid. 194–195.

  12. 12.

    Ibid. 95.

  13. 13.

    Stein (2000), 145.

  14. 14.

    Ibid. 175.

  15. 15.

    Ibid. 187.

  16. 16.

    Ibid. 189.

  17. 17.

    Husserl (1973a, 96).

  18. 18.

    Stein (2000, 169).

  19. 19.

    Ibid. 170. In her autobiography Stein reports that Husserl talked about reciprocal notification (Wechselverständigung) already in his lecture on Nature and Spirit (summer semester 1913). Cf. also: Stein (2009, 360, 386–391).

  20. 20.

    Husserl (1973a, 95).

  21. 21.

    Husserl (1989, 223 ff).

  22. 22.

    Stein (2000, 170).

  23. 23.

    Ibid. 263.

  24. 24.

    Stein (2000, 281).

  25. 25.

    Husserl (1973a, 104).

  26. 26.

    Stein (2000, 203).

  27. 27.

    Stein (2001, 18).

  28. 28.

    Stein (2000, 206).

  29. 29.

    Ibid. 219.

  30. 30.

    Stein (2000, 222).

  31. 31.

    Ibid. 214.

  32. 32.

    This aspect is also to be found in Scheler : “No association without community “ (Keine Gesellschaft ohne Gemeinschaft). Scheler (2014, 647). For the distinction between community and association Edith Stein also refers to Ferdinand Tönnies ’s book Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft: Grundbegriffe der reinen Soziologie (1887).

  33. 33.

    Stein (2000, 171).

  34. 34.

    Ibid. 270. In this sense, a mass can never be a genuine community , because it has no inner communality. Cf. ibid. 255.

  35. 35.

    Husserl (1973a, 98).

  36. 36.

    Husserl (1973b, 219).

  37. 37.

    Stein (2000, 222).

  38. 38.

    Ibid. 225.

  39. 39.

    Ibid. 272.

  40. 40.

    Stein (2000, 275).

  41. 41.

    Ibid. 273.

  42. 42.

    Husserl (1973b, 206).

  43. 43.

    Husserl makes similar considerations too. Moreover, he identifies several levels, underlining that customs create the first layer of “legal unity” (Rechtseinheit), namely the ethical unity. Cf. Husserl (1973a, 106).

  44. 44.

    Stein (2000, 274).

  45. 45.

    Stein (2000, 167).

  46. 46.

    Husserl (1973a, 101 no. 1).

  47. 47.

    Husserl (1989, 206).

  48. 48.

    Husserl (1973a, 99).

  49. 49.

    Stein (2000, 206).

  50. 50.

    Ibid. 292.

  51. 51.

    Husserl (1973a, 245, 473).

  52. 52.

    Ibid. 473.

  53. 53.

    Husserl (1989, 204). Husserl had already made considerations of that kind – almost in the same terms – in the texts of 1910 which were mentioned in the introduction of this article. Cf. Husserl (1973a, 98).

  54. 54.

    Husserl (1989, 207).

  55. 55.

    Stein (2000, 276).

  56. 56.

    Ibid. 278.

  57. 57.

    Ibid. 281.

  58. 58.

    Husserl (989, 182).

  59. 59.

    Stein (2004a, 147). Similar remarks are to be found in Husserl ’s Krisis, in relation to what he calls Beruf, translated as both profession and vocation . Cf. Husserl (1993, 364).

  60. 60.

    Stein (2004b, 278).

  61. 61.

    Husserl (1973a, 110).

  62. 62.

    Husserl (1973b, 207–216).

  63. 63.

    Stein (2004a, 130).

  64. 64.

    Stein (2000, 285–286).

  65. 65.

    Stein (2013, 350).

  66. 66.

    Ibid. 350.

  67. 67.

    Ibid. 351.

  68. 68.

    “Wenn nicht die Liebe—trotz allem—auch unter uns das Übergewicht hätte, wäre, glaube ich, unser Gemeinschaftsleben überhaupt nicht möglich.” Stein (2006, 443). Husserl too underlines the importance of love for the communal life, for example, in some writings published posthumously. He talks about “communities of love ” in terms of communities of being for one another, defining the love for the others (Nächstenliebe) as original, genuine unification . Cf. Husserl (2014, 512, 433).

  69. 69.

    “Das Ewigweibliche zieht uns hinan.” Faust II, 12110–12111.

  70. 70.

    “Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis.” Faust II, 12104–12105.

  71. 71.

    Stein (2001, 167–168).

  72. 72.

    Ibid. 31. Stein makes this consideration within the discussion on meaning and tasks of the work of social education (soziale Bildungsarbeit) in a conference that she gave in Nürnberg (1930).

  73. 73.

    Stein (2013), 427.

  74. 74.

    Montale (1998, 199).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy

    Alice Togni

  2. Université Paris Sorbonne IV, Paris, France

    Alice Togni

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  1. Alice Togni
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Correspondence to Alice Togni .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Sebastian Luft

  2. Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, Institut für Humanwissenschaften, University of Paderborn, Paderborn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Ruth Hagengruber

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Togni, A. (2018). Starting from Husserl: Communal Life According to Edith Stein. In: Luft, S., Hagengruber, R. (eds) Women Phenomenologists on Social Ontology. Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97861-1_5

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