Toward a Phenomenological Politics

Abstract

The task of this chapter is to articulate a distinct understanding of politics as a transcendental force of subjective constitution. Beginning with Husserl's account of how the subjectivity of subjects is generated within “spiritual communities,” this chapter reveals politics to be primarily a matter of constitution (politeia) before it can be a matter of constituted things (e.g., the res publica). It therefore calls for the articulation of a “phenomenological politics,” akin to the “phenomenological psychology” of the early period of phenomenology's development. The task of such a phenomenological politics would be to explain the various means and processes by which individual subjects are constituted by the suprasubjective forces at work in a community and, conversely, the various means and processes by which communities are constituted by the activities of subjects, both individually and collectively. Phenomenology is therefore shown to have something essential to contribute to talk about collective action, structural oppression, and radical politics.