Editorial introduction historical a priori and the quasi-transcendental: Mapping the complexity of what is unfolding

The introduction situates the special issue within contemporary debates on the transformation of transcendental philosophy, by examining the historical a priori and the quasi-transcendental as two related attempts to rethink the transcendental question under conditions of historicity. It begins by outlining the problem of how transcendental conditions of possibility can be understood once they are recognized as historically constituted, socially mediated, and open to transformation. It then examines the notion of the historical a priori through the relation between Husserl and Foucault, focusing on their different accounts of historicity, subjectivity, validity, and critique. The following section turns to the quasi-transcendental, particularly in Derrida and its contemporary phenomenological reception, presenting it as a related attempt to rethink constitutive conditions without setting them as timeless foundations. The authors subsequently consider the implications of both notions for questions of history, normativity, critique, and freedom, arguing that they illuminate the tension between constitutive force and historical contingency. In this context, critique is understood as an interrogation of historically sedimented conditions that shape experience without ever fully determining it, while freedom is conceived as the possibility of reflecting upon and transforming these very structures. Finally, the editors introduce the contributions to the special issue, highlighting the different ways in which they address the relation between transcendental inquiry and historicity.