Define Husserl’s lifeworld and how the concept of bracketing plays into it.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Edmund Husserl is commonly considered the founder of phenomenology. Husserl developed what he called “transcendental phenomenology,” which holds that there is no pure subjective subject or pure objective object. Rather, all consciousness is consciousness of something, Husserl used the term lifeworld (Lebenswelt) to refer to the world of existing assumptions as they are experienced and made meaningful in consciousness (Wagner 1973:63). Husserl (1913) explains how intentional consciousness, that is, directing our attention in one way or another, enables the phenomenologist to reconstruct or bracket his basic views on the world and himself and explore their interconnections. In doing so, Husserl made the lifeworld, or “thinking as usual” in everyday life situations, a legitimate object of investigation. Phenomenology investigates the systematic bracketing of all existing assumptions regarding the external world.