THE “LIVING WORLD” AND OUR “COMMON HOUSE”: HUSSERL´S AND LAUDATO SI CONTRIBUTIONS TO CONTEMPORARY ECO-ENVIRONMENTAL DEBATE

Abstract

This article aims to discuss and to analyse points of convergence and of fundamental difference between the concepts of world-of-life, by Husserl, and common home, present in the encyclical Laudato Si, as alternatives to the Cartesian and scientific narratives of modernity, whose consequence is the engendering of a project of determination and domination of nature. First of all, the article presents the Husserlian concept of the world-of-life as a critique of European science anchored in the supposed autonomy of reason, from a reading of the work The crisis of European science and transcendental phenomenology. Then, it highlights the way in which the encyclical expresses the conception of nature as a common home, a place in which human being maintains an inter-subjective relationship and reciprocal involvement with the world, as God`s creation to the good of all His creatures in a kind of cohabitation. Finally, it recognizes the relevance of science as construction of the human spirit, as an intermediary space for different voices, in addition to making critical considerations regarding the contribution made by these notions to contemporary eco-environmental debate as opposed to the technicism and scientistic view of the world.