LONGING FOR COMMUNITY - PHENOMENOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY OF POLITICS AND THE DILEMMAS OF EUROPEAN CULTURE

Phenomenology enjoys striking popularity in Eastern Europe. For those concerned with phenomenology before the collapse of communism it was a n antidote to Marxism in its Soviet version. Its popularity was due to the perhaps naive striving for a true philosophy not manipulated by p olitics, in that its idealism was interpreted as a protest against the materialistic degradation of the human being. What would Husserl sav if he was told about this role of phenomenology? Perhaps he would it c onsider it as self-evident. His allegedly completely apolitical philos ophy had political ambitions, since the struggle for phenomenology was for him not merely a philosophical discussion, but a political strugg le with pragmatists, advocates of Realpolitik, nationalists and tradit ionalists.This paper analyses phenomenology as a radical social philos ophy which aimed at the revolutionary renewal of European culture. Wel l-known for his inclination to work on details and for an arduous theo retical analysis, Husserl was not an advocate of small steps in politi cs. His political philosophy is then contrasted with that of Helmuth P lessner. From Plessner's point of view Husserl's programme can be seen as a manifestation of the striving for the abolition of society and i ts replacement by community. In his defence of society, Plessner devel oped a philosophy of the public sphere as a sphere of social roles, pr estige ceremonial, tact and diplomacy, in which the absolute character of the Ego is negated in contact with others. The paper poses questio ns such as which of these philosophies is more adequate for our time a nd whether the way shown by Husserl in his programmatic writings is st ill open to us today.