Lifeworld, Cultural Difference and the Idea of Grounding

Abstract

That there exist different cultures in the world is an indisputable fact. Relating this fact to the phenomenological concept of lifeworld we might raise two questions: Do we live in the same lifeworld despite cultural difference? Or else, do we live in different lifeworlds because of cultural difference? The first question implies the singularity of the lifeworld, whereas in the second question the lifeworld can be lifeworld only in the plural. How is cultural difference related to the lifeworld after all? For Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), the founder of phenomenology, the lifeworld seems to be conceived of as the bare ground of the natural sciences and therefore valid for all mankind regardless of cultural differences. In contrast, for Alfred Schutz (1899–1959), who is more concerned with the foundation of human and social sciences than that of natural sciences, the lifeworld involves cultural difference because he comprehends lifeworld as the field of praxis with social and cultural characteristics.