Teleology Beyond Metaphysics: Husserlian Phenomenology and the Historical Consciousness of Modernity

This article examines the idea of historical teleology in the context of Husserlian phenomenology. Although Husserl derived this notion from the historical thinking of German idealism, the phenomenological concept of teleology differed radically from this current: instead of a deterministic idea signifying the inevitable progress of historical development, the phenomenological concept of teleology was to be understood as a fundamentally critical device of philosophical reflection—something that ought to liberate us from the yoke of the present moment. On the basis of these reformulations, the article defends the phenomenological idea of teleology as an inalienable tool of historical thinking.