Regional Ontologies: the Origin and Meaning of the Problem

Abstract

The theory of regional ontologies is a specific product, gaining prominence un­der the influence of Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology. As an important metho­dological concept, it is used mainly in the writings of Husserl himself, as well as in the works of his students. Martin Heidegger was the last major phenomeno­logist to use this concept in his philosophy. Subsequently, the concept of re­gional ontologies ceases to attract the attention of researchers, noticeably yiel­ding in popularity to the problems of the life world, time, intersubjectivity, the “crisis of sciences”, etc. The article discusses the origin of this concept in Husserl’s phenomenology, its role in the system of phenomenological philoso­phy, its role in relation to particular disciplines, as well as the subsequent fate of this problematic. Historically, the problem of regional ontologies adjoins the tradition of classification of sciences in Western philosophy. With Husserl, it originates in the logical theory of objectivity of the period of Logical Investi­gations and reaches its most detailed study in the three books of Ideas, in which Husserl needed to show the universal significance of his phenomenology not only as a variant of a new philosophy but also as a methodology, applicable to all systems of knowledge. These tasks lead to a marked ambivalence in Husserl’s explanations: on the one hand, phenomenology is quite often characterized as “true ontology”; on the other hand, there is a constant demarcation of phe­nomenology and ontology. One of the important reasons for the noted duality lies in the insufficient terminological distinction between the use of the expres­sions “transcendental phenomenology”, “phenomenological philosophy” and “phenomenologically founded philosophy”. Each of them denotes different tasks and levels of phenomenology, while only the first, as a study of a priori struc­tures of absolute consciousness, needs to be distinguished from ontology. Under the influence of Heidegger, in the subsequent development of phenomenology, the belief in the identity of phenomenology and ontology prevailed for a long time.