ABSTRACT
We generally associate the Husserlian concept of Stiftung with the foundation of meaning. In a broader sense, Stiftung designates an event through which a history, discourse, or ordering structure comes into being: Something is created that did not previously exist. Its second meaning, as institution, is thought of as a political term in the sense of preserving the contingency of every founding act while granting permanence to a political practice. In reconstructing theoretical contributions to post-Husserlian phenomenology and the concept of Stiftung in the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Lefort, Castoriadis, Heidegger, Derrida, and Waldenfels, this article attempts a systematic reading of Stiftung as a political term designating a political event that performatively opens up a field of practice while only retrospectively being interpreted as such.
