Giovanni Piana's "Conversazioni" and some recent controversies on Husserl's "Krisis"

In this article I explore Giovanni Piana’s Conversazioni su “La crisi delle scienze europee” di Husserl (Piana 2013) and show that it contributes to three recent controversies regarding the correct interpretation of Husserl’s text. Piana addresses: (1) the precise sense of the crisis of the sciences, which he helpfully links to 19th century positivism, thereby showing that it does not make sense to distinguish a crisis of scientificity from a loss of meaning for life; (2) Husserl’s reading of Galieo Galilei as a Platonist, which Piana defends against past and recent critics; (3) the relationship between the lifeworld and the world of culture, which Piana interprets in a commendably deflationist way vis-à-vi s recent speculative conceptions of the lifeworld in post-Husserlian phenomenology. I conclude with a discussion of the systematic place of the lifeworld in Husserl’s late philosophy as it emerges from Piana’s text and in the context of my recent critical remarks on Landgrebe’s introduction to Husserl’s Experience and Judgment.