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Is There a Metaphysics of Consciousness Without a Phenomenology of Consciousness? Some Thoughts Derived from Husserl's Philosophical Phenomenology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2010

Eduard Marbach
Eduard Marbach
Affiliation:
University of Bern, Switzerland
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Abstract

The paper first addresses Husserl's conception of philosophical phenomenology, metaphysics, and the relation between them, in order to explain why, on Husserl's view, there is no metaphysics of consciousness without a phenomenology of consciousness. In doing so, it recalls some of the methodological tenets of Husserl's phenomenology, pointing out that phenomenology is an eidetic or a priori science which has first of all to do with mere ideal possibilities of consciousness and its correlates; metaphysics of consciousness, on the other hand, has to do with its reality or actuality, requiring an eidetic foundation in order to become scientifically valuable. Presuming that, if consciousness is to be the subject-matter of a metaphysics which is not simply speculative or based on prejudice, it is crucial to get the phenomenology of consciousness right, the paper then engages in a detailed descriptive-eidetic analysis of mental acts of re-presenting something and tries to argue that their structures, involving components of non-actual experiencing, pose a serious problem for a materialistic or physicalistic metaphysics of consciousness. The paper ends with a brief comment on Husserl's broader view of metaphysics, having to do with the irrationality of the transcendental fact, i.e. the constitution of the factual world and the factual life of the mind.

Type
Papers
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 67 , October 2010 , pp. 141 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2010

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References

1 In this context, I am also reminded of Seager's, WilliamMetaphysics of Consciousness (London and New York: Routledge, 1991)Google Scholar.

2 In Husserlian phenomenology, the term ‘experience’, ‘Erlebnis’ or ‘Bewusstseinserlebnis’, covers sensory as well as cognitive, emotional, affective experiences.

3 See, e.g. Husserl, E., Phenomenology and the Foundations of the Sciences, translated by Klein, T. E. Jr. and Phol, W. E. (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1980), §8, 41Google Scholar. See also Husserl, E., Erfahrung und Urteil. Untersuchungen zur Genealogie der Logik, edited by Landgrebe, Ludwig (Hamburg: Meiner, 1985), §96Google Scholar.

4 Husserl, E., Thing and Space. Lectures of 1907, translated by Rojcewicz, Richard (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1997), §40, 119Google Scholar.

5 Compare draft of a letter to Karl Joël, 11. III. 1914 in Husserl, E., Briefwechsel, Band VI. Philosophenbriefe. In Verbindung mit Elisabeth Schuhmann, herausgegeben von Karl Schuhmann (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1994), 205fGoogle Scholar.

6 Compare Husserl, E., The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, translated by Carr, David (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970)Google Scholar. §52, 178; translation slightly amended.

7 See, e.g. Husserl, E., Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie. Erstes Buch. Allgemeine Einführung in die reine Phänomenologie, edited by Schuhmann, Karl, Husserliana III/1 (Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976), 178Google Scholar; compare also Einleitung in die Logik und Erkenntnistheorie. Vorlesungen 1906/07, edited by Melle, U., Husserliana XXIV (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1984)Google Scholar, §40, 236ff.

8 See E. Husserl, Erste Philosophie (1923/24). Kritische Ideengeschichte, edited by Boehm, Rudolf, Husserliana VII (Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1956)Google Scholar, 187f., note 1.

9 See Husserl, E., Phänomenologische Psychologie. Vorlesungen Sommersemester 1925, edited by Biemel, Walter, Husserliana IX (Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1962), 35ffGoogle Scholar.

10 See, e.g. ibid., 37: ‘… dass es zum Wesen des Bewusstseinslebens gehört, anstelle des räumlichen Aussereinander, Ineinander und Durcheinander und räumlicher Ganzheit ein intentionales … ineinander meinend Beschlossensein in sich zu bergen…’.

11 Ibid.

12 Cf. e.g. Chalmers, D., The Conscious Mind (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)Google Scholar.

13 Crane, T., Elements of Mind. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 89Google Scholar.

14 See, e.g. Wollheim, R., The Mind and Its Depths (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993), 188Google Scholar and Peacocke, C., ‘Depiction’, The Philosophical Review 96:3 (1987), 383–410Google Scholar, discussing earlier proposals by Wollheim.

15 See E. Husserl, Erste Philosophie, op. cit., Chapter 3: ‘Rationalismus und Metaphysik der Neuzeit’, 188n.

16 Husserl, E., Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität, Dritter Teil 1929–1935, edited by Kern, Iso, Husserliana XV (Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973)Google Scholar, Nr. 22, 385f.

17 E. Husserl, The Crisis, op. cit., see note 6 above.

18 I would like to thank Pauline Phemister for carefully editing and linguistically improving my text; my thanks also go to Pierfrancesco Basile for his help, and to all the organizers for extending the invitation to participate in the Conference in Honour of the late Timothy Sprigge.