Levels of Teleology and History in Husserl’s Phenomenology

Husserl analyzes human history from three viewpoints and also deals with natural history. This article first considers the ground of human history, that is, a primal history that develops on the earth by means of a primal generativity in the domain of a familiar world. Secondly, it examines the way in which Husserl goes back from primal generativity to the reconstruction of the history of nature. Thirdly, on the basis of primal generativity, a primal historicity develops as an extended movement of institution and reactivation of meaning which takes place in different human communities or life-worlds. Attention is then given to the manner in which this movement renders possible, when humankind aims at infinite tasks, a higher stratum as a rational history connected with an open generativity. Finally, a parallel is drawn between Husserlian historicity and some characteristic traits of historical development according to Heidegger and Patočka.