“Rückfrage” And The Constitution Of Objectivity

The Origin of Geometry is a late manuscript of Husserl.It may appear to be similar to the backtracking of the origin of arithmetic in Husserl’s first book,Philosophy of Arithmetic,and thus contradicts the criticism of psychologism in Logic Investigations.But in fact,in "The Origin of Geometry",Husserl still criticizes historism and relativism.Besides,this criticism can be seen as the final solution provided by Husserl,after Logic Investigations and Philosophy as Strict Science,on this problem.What the significant problem of this manuscript is how to find the third path between objectivism and historism.There is a slightly more complex background to the backtracking of the origin of geometry:Husserl believes that the root of the crisis of European science lies in the mathematization or geometricalization of nature.That is,the world constructed by the ideal objects of mathematics replaces the only lifeworld in which we all live.Forgetting the lifeworld has made science lose its evidence,which will finally result in losing its objectivity and falling into relativism.The origin of modern science,Galileo physics,is founded on geometry,so the root of this crisis has been buried in geometry.But geometry is not destined to the end of relativism from the beginning.Geometry originated from an original evidence.And it always is revivable,which is the key to ensuring the objectivity of geometry.The initial acquisition of this kind of evidence was derived from the primal institution of the “first geometer” from the material provided by the pre-geometrical lifeworld.But backtracking to lifeworld does not mean returning from a scientific attitude to a pre-scientific natural attitude.On the contrary,it is precisely in the natural attitude towards the lifeworld that there is already a possibility of forgetting the original evidence.Therefore,this natural attitude still needs the transcendental reduction.The residuum of the reduction is the transcendental subjectivity.Only backtracking to this point,the lifeworld can be truly founded.In this chain of backtracking: “Galileo physics → geometry → lifeworld →transcendental subjectivity”,the backtracking form geometry to the lifeworld is most special.Because the crisis of European science in Galileo and the crisis hidden in geometry are the same one.Galileo just realized it.Backtracking form the lifeworld to the transcendental subjectivity,it is only a transformation of attitude.In fact,the lifeworld has always existed,and only the natural attitude is reduced to expose the essential relation between the subject and the world.But geometry and physics,which founded on geometry construct another ideal world to replace the only lifeworld.So,this chain of backtracking can be simply summarized in the “ideal world →lifeworld”,and this is precisely the backtracking to the origin of geometry.It is this backtracking that makes the objectivity of geometry can be founded.But it must be clear that there are two different kinds of objectivity in Husserl’s thought.The first kind of objectivity is the objectivity of the essential structure of consciousness exposed by phenomenological analysis,such as internal time consciousness and inter-subjectivity.This is the transcendental objectivity.It is not the de facto objectivity for members of Homo sapiens,but the objectivity for any possible subject.The objectivity of geometry is different from this,and it is founded on the transcendental objectivity.The latter ensures the possibility of geometry as a unified tradition and the possibility of revival of its original evidence.But forgetting of the lifeworld makes this revival impossible,and uniformities of geometry and modern science which founded on geometry are difficult to be maintained in their developments.So,European science is in crisis.Critics,including Derrida,have failed to clearly distinguish Husserl’s two kinds of objectivity,which has led to many unreal arguments.What Derrida calls "original contamination" cannot be a criticism of Husserl,which Husserl has pointed out.What’s more,this “original contamination” is precisely the key to making inter-subjectivity,and thus the objectivity of geometry,possible.