The report is focused on bringing to light the essence of Husserl’s genetic phenomenology as the way which the historical dimension of consciousness reveals itself through for transcendental phenomenology.
The genetic analysis of consciousness results, on the one hand, in the interpretation of the world as a correlation of semantic references, i.e. as the universal and forming horizon, and on the other hand, in the doctrine of forming and individuating of the transcendental Ego in view of habitualizing, acquiring habits in the course of precipitating the meanings of the prior experiences, i.e. of the “internal historicity” of “the Self” as a transcendental monad. In the sight of passive genesis, such historicity came to be understood as the certainty of the field of kinesthetic capabilities, the field of “I can”, the course of previous kinesthetic experience starting with mastering one’s own motor skills and getting acquainted with their limits.
The further development of the problematics of historicity in phenomenology is associated with the transiting from “internal” history to “external” history, i.e. from the history of a monad to the very only history which everyone lives in. Such transition could become possible only through inserting the concept of “internal” history into the field of research associated with the development of the problem of intersubjectivity. In this regard, Husserl himself gives some indications in his manuscripts published in the volumes XIII-XV of Husserliana, which deal with transcendental phenomenological understanding of interests and instincts, birth and death, which results in the concept of the experience of generations, that apparently is the very transcendental phenomenological conception of “external history”.
Husserl distinguishes three eras of world history (Weltgeschichte) and, accordingly, three types of historicity (Geschichtlichkeit), i.e. three ways of constituting the thingish-cultural environment (Umwelt), the human community and oneself, which are characteristic of human Dasein. Designating the ways of constituting as the types of historicity is not in the slightest accidental, it is grounded in the underlying idea of Husserl’s The Crisis, asserting that the constituting life of transcendental subjectivity, i.e. human Dasein, considered with regard to a phenomenological attitude, is historical in itself. (See: Fink, E. Welt und Geschichte. In: E. Fink. Nähe und Distanz. Hrsg. von F.-A. Schwarz. 1. Auflage. Freiburg, München: Alber, 1976. S. 159 — 179).
The types of generativity (Generativität) constitute grounds for distinguishing types of historicity and, accordingly, the world eras. According to Husserl generativity means, “…eine Verkettung von gegenwärtigen und längst verstorbenen Personen, die, obschon verstorben, doch jetzt noch (mit ihren noch durch Nachverstehen nacherzeugbaren, beliebig oft wiederholbaren Gedanken und Werken) aktuell da sind, die Gedanken der Gegenwärtigen immer neu befruchtend, fördernd und ev. auch hemmend, jedenfalls sie in ihrem berufsmäßigen Dasein motivieren…” (“a chain of personalities present or long-dead who, although being deceased, …are still there, always fertilizing, promoting and possibly also inhibiting the thoughts of those present today …”) (Husserl, E. Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie / Husserliana. Bd. VI. Haag: Nijhoff, 1976. S. 488).
Husserl purposefully emphasizes the correlation between generativity within the meaning of phenomenology and historicity and its dissimilarity from generativity within the meaning of biology.
The mystery of generativity also represents the mystery of origination of something new in history, since, unlike it is inherent in the animal world, every new generation coming to the human world not only reproduces (“rehearses”) the cultural world inherited, but also develops it within its own culture-creating. Creating as the innovation, thus, appears to be correlative to the very concept of the generative world, implying that a certain human community has its history, that it is getting reproduced (tradited) and renewed through its forming, linking different generations in the unity of tradition.