Theory of wholes and parts: Husserl and Zubiri

Abstract

This paper proposes that an ontology which be able to satisfy the current philosophical necessities has to be understood like a theory of wholes and parts, just like that developed by Edmund Husserl. Comparison is made between this theory and Xavier Zubiri's theory of the substantivity, that try to enlarge the classic theory of the substance: the basic structure of the reality is not the one of the substances that support accidents, but the one of the substantivities, that are exactly wholes formed by parts. The problem is that Zubiri ignores the decisive husserlian distinction between independent and non independent parts.