Stein attempted already in her doctorate to complement Husserl’s work on phenomenology with a painstaking analysis of empathy, including its indispensable role in the constitution of the psycho-physical individual and the person. As Husserl’s assistant 1916–18, she edited his Ideas II, perhaps introducing into it a view of intersubjectivity adjacent to Husserl’s own. When Ideas II was finally published after Husserl’s death, Husserl’s dissatisfaction with her edition was visible in his many additions. The forthcoming edition of Ideas II provides an occasion to discuss Stein’s and Husserl’s respective contributions to the field of the phenomenology of the social to which they both contributed during the years 1916–25. The present work addresses this topic under four headings: 1. the text of Ideas II and the collaboration between Stein and Husserl; 2. intersubjectivity and social ontology; 3. the distinction between the adjacent positions of Husserl and Stein; and 4. the possibility of combining transcendental intersubjectivity with philosophical anthropology. The aim is to clarify the respective positions of the two authors on the matters addressed by Ideas II.