In a well-known quotation from the manuscripts on intersubjectivity, Husserl states that “monads have windows” (Hua XIV, 260). It is argued here that this quote can easily be misinterpreted: That is, the quote seems to suggest that ready-made, complete monads, with their established worlds, are able to start communicating with others through intropathy—if they chose so. In contrast, it is argued here that a genetic analysis reveals that monads have always already developed together, in an interconnected motivational community. This embedded becoming of the monad can be described in terms of the interrelations between my and the other’s “appearance of” the world, which are in continuous mutual correction and aspire toward the one and same objective world (c.f. Hua VI, 166-167; Hua I, 137). In this context, one’s own concrete appearance of the world has to be distinguished from the primordial world which results from the abstraction of everything alien (Hua I, 137).
On the basis of Husserl’s manuscripts on intersubjectivity (mainly Hua XIII-XV), this paper will attempt a systematic overview of the different ways in which different monads can affect each other (Hua XIV, 268f), and transform each other’s appearance of the world through their mutual contact. For this task it will be central to distinguish different motivational relations between monads. These distinctions will be guided by oppositions such as active versus passive genesis, bodily and pre-predicative communication versus linguistic communication and positive versus negative motivation, given that it is not necessary that monads tend to harmony when coming across a discrepancy. Hence, as an elaboration of Husserl’s theory of intersubjectivity, this paper will show in detail how the monadic community is already ingrained in every monad, including in their respective world.