ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the nature and constitution of cultural norms in Husserl’s phenomenology. It proceeds from a set of crucial conceptual and methodological innovations, including the concept of the lifeworld, a theory of communal person, and genetic phenomenology. These ideas provided the foundation for Husserl’s theory of generativity, that is, those forms of meaning-constitution that take place in intergenerational processes of co-operation. The article claims that the uniqueness of Husserl’s position rested on his new genetic articulation of the phenomenological correlation as a relation between “us” and the world. On the basis of this approach, Husserl went on to develop a theory of cultural norms as a normative individuation and thereby differentiation of the lifeworld into various cultural worlds. Instead of a purely idealistic or materialistic conception of culture, Husserl’s view on cultural norms was based on a fundamental intertwining of the nature and spirit.
