A central aim of this conference is to become clear not only about the fundamental modalities of man’s life-world, but also how these modalities relate to the possibility of a cultural renewal. It was, after all, the central aim of Husserl’s unfinished Crisis to provide a way out of the crisis that has emerged in our modern civilization. Thus I want to ask, in what way does the disclosure of the fundamental modalities of the life-world help to overcome the crisis of culture? There are really two questions here, namely, the philosophical question as to the relationship between the modalities and action, and the factual question as to the efficacy of philosophers in the community. As for the second question, since it is not a philosophical question, I shall not try to make it into one. As to the first, I shall begin by presenting to you a possible way of thinking that exemplifies what Husserl meant by ‘the crisis of culture’. The reason is a purely structural one: I want to set the stage for sketching and discussing two views that have been suggested as answers to our question.