Abstract

The paper argues that the structure of expression prevails in Husserl’s social phenomenology. We begin by considering Husserl’s concepts of _Individuum_ and _Urgegenstand_, and his project of grounding the human sciences. We then explore the expressive structure of the person in three interrelated aspects. First, expression indicates the peculiar manner of the constitution of the person as a spiritual subject. Second, there is an essential relationship between the person and her surrounding world, and hence not only is the person always given as a system of expressions, but also is a cultural object given as such. Third, the system “person–surrounding world” can also be an expression of communal spiritual life and culture—what Husserl calls “higher order personal unities”—once they are constituted through appropriate communal acts.