életvilág

Életvilág, or lifeworld, is a term in phenomenology describing the pre-theoretical, lived world that forms the background for all experience, interpretation, and inquiry. It encompasses everyday practices, social norms, language, artifacts, and shared meanings through which objects and events present themselves as intelligible. The lifeworld is not produced by scientific theories; rather, science presupposes a lifeworld that is intersubjectively constituted through practical coping and everyday intentionality.

The concept originated with Edmund Husserl (Lebenswelt), who argued that modern science abstracts from the lifeworld, but all scientific practice presupposes it. The idea was later developed by philosophers and sociologists, notably Martin Heidegger (being-in-the-world) and Alfred Schutz (phenomenology of everyday life), emphasizing the situated, embodied, and culturally embedded nature of experience.

In phenomenology, the lifeworld is characterized by intersubjectivity, practical know-how, and the horizon of meaning that underlies perception, judgment, and action. It is dynamic and historically shaped by language, culture, and institutions and can be studied through descriptive reflection, ethnography, and interpretive analysis.

Impact of the concept extends to phenomenology, hermeneutics, sociology, anthropology, education, and cognitive science, where it is used to examine how everyday life conditions and constrains knowledge, identity, and social action, and how disruptions to the everyday world can alter perception and meaning.

In Hungarian scholarship, életvilág is used to translate and discuss Husserl's Lifeworld and related phenomenological ideas, forming part of discussions on everyday life and the foundations of knowledge.