Professional Documents
Culture Documents
, 1990), pp. 43-66 Published by: Philosophy Education Society Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20128980 . Accessed: 02/10/2013 13:05
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Philosophy Education Society Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Review of Metaphysics.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
calls
Not
only
are
there
then take "cate may ti) and as to what Aristotle calls the of predica referring gorial" "figures in which characterize tion," the ways indicating predicates subjects, "what" the subject its its its is, relation, "where," quality, quantity, The term "intuition" and so forth.2 expresses "when," something to be defined, but primitive contrast the "emptiness" between too "fullness" teristic. Husserl's first of intuition A Edmund of Husserl's and metaphorical and the
a guide, focus upon substance considered is, (ousia) We second substance (ti esti).1
thought
successfully highlights should suffice couple of examples distinction. the difference, Consider vague between task as and a guide, plans first then of visiting
entertaining
experiencing
performing Husserl
or the difference
Taking
. . . for in one way it means the "Being [to on] is said in many ways a quality or is it' [ti esti] and a 'this' [tode ti], and in others it means or one of the other things that are predicated as these are. While quantity is in all said of it is that obvious these ways, among these being primary is the 'what is it' which the substance indicates Aristotle, [ten ousian]"; are my own. 1028al0-15. All translations of Aristotle Metaphysics 2 1017a23-8. 3 Ibid., trans. J. N. Findlay Edmund Husserl, Logical Investigations, (London: & Kegan Paul, 1970), VI, chs. 1 and 2; Formal and Transcendental Routledge 'what
Review Metaphysics of Metaphysics 44 (September 1990): 43-66. Copyright ? 1990 by the Review
of
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
of figures thing, of predication. say a red chair, the red quality's makes present Rather categorial belonging the modes
of presentation
of things.
In what
that Husserl's Aristotle's some
follows,
suggestions to account
as to how Husserl's
of these
philosophic
without
problems:
(1)
of words
to adapt be
of intelligibility
should seem istotle. the role noted been to have His of
It
not
directly unintentional
therefore, sitions.
structures kinship
testifies between
"The the
soul
is in a way
all
things."4
Aristotle than
thus
soul more
of its own.
its unrestricted
to the world, its unlimited of other of perception Its cognitive and intellectual powers things. insight to from the presen progress actuality potentiality by actualizing to Aristotle's forms of things. calls attention tational Rosen Stanley metaphors for this process. stone Aristotle first observes that it is not
by any fixed
possible
to become
not exist reader,
literally
this
identical with
in the
To the modern
See Robert Cairns Logic, trans. Dorion (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1969), #16. Meditations: How Words Present Sokolowski, Husserlian Things (Evanston: Northwestern Press, 1974), pp. 18-19. University 4 De Anima 431b21-2. 5 De Anima 431b30-432al.
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
45
them incorporates this impression,
space. compares
the human
with touch. We grasp knowledge hand grasps tools: "It follows that
the soul is like the hand; for just as the hand is the instrument
instruments, form of sensible soul that reaches the the intellect The forms a certain them. is the latter in the form of forms, and sense that and things."6 to grasp metaphor suggests
of
the the also
out
in the process
The
It discerns the thing's form by embracing the thing that it holds. its contours. Although the hand has its own form, its malleability is such that it can adjust to the form of anything that it grasps.
Moreover, In a sense, the soul as Rosen therefore, no discernible out, the hand cannot points itself is formless. the hand shape. Unrestricted grasp with its own form. sense, to the In a similar regard
has
it relates,
a thing's
is to be (po
to us by its know when there are as
species-look
Although (a "this"). particular thing of predication, types of being as there are figures of being it is only is substance because (ousia), that be. other Within categories (such as quantity, the category of substance primary and substance secondary is the senses
quality, Aristotle of
between
that this prior unity is the condition for the subsequent distinction
second account have planatory is, and we or give an ex cannot We substance. identify of a primary substance without what it asking no access as instanced to secondary substance except
6 De Anima 432a2-3. 7 and Touch: A Note Rosen, Stanley "Thought 6 (1961):127-37. ima," 8Phronesis lbll-18. 1028al0-15; Categories Metaphysics ti in Aristotle," 35 (1921):19. Classical Review
on Aristotle's
De An utode
See J. A. Smith,
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
46 in some about since is why Aristotle This particular.9 manner to which we in the existence
RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
does have not raise questions accustomed
become
the development of Frege's for pred model argument-function as func construes introduced ication. concepts Frege by predicates names as arguments, and introduced individuals tions, by proper as of generality This approach indicators effectively quantifiers.10 the ontological
role of secondary substances. Considered as functions defined by exclusively extensional and therefore criteria, can no as cor be intensional concepts regarded coherently longer eliminates
relates of intuitively
of applicability
accessible
the range
Moreover, predicates. the candidates for the function-slots interprets tacitly no limit as "bare particulars." to the Since there is in principle over which the variables of values domain bound by the quantifier may be thought instances to range, it follows that particulars considered as can no longer coherently of concepts be regarded in the sortal features the relevant expressed by there senses is a tendency of being among to one. follow Frege's For example, of a variable," existence is
possible as already
sharing As a result,
the multiple
celebrated that to
being instantiation
"To be is to be the value maxim, to existence is reducible and that of a concept.12 about questions of For On this
no sense
to raise
or about the sense species-looks a "what." of "this" and its unity tence universal mary is inseparable nature. from
interpretation, the ontological status of to the "being" corresponding exis Aristotle, by contrast, to be is to share in some truly he considers the unity of pri intuited whole, he says that ana
and
the whole
secondary is both an
a nature.
Contemporary
9 K. W. Modrak, Aristotle: 1041a7-27. The See Deborah Metaphysics of Chicago Press, 168. Power 1987), (Chicago: University of Perception 10 on Math and Concept," Collected Papers Gottlob "Function Frege, et trans. Brian Max Black ed. Mc and al., ematics, Logic, Philosophy, Basil Blackwell, 137-56. Guinness 1984), (Oxford: 11 in detail These of Frege's in logic are developed more implications 58 and Analytic my book, Husserl Kluwer, 1990), Philosophy (Dordrecht: The Ethics See also David Rapport Lachterman, 71; 95-7. of Geometry: A 1989), 93-5. (London: Routledge, Genealogy of Modernity 12 There Is," Review Willard Van Orman Quine, "On What of Meta "A Critique of the Quan 2 (1948):32. F. Vallicella, See William physics The Thomist 47 (1983): 242-67. Account of Existence," tificational
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
47
it
ousia
sometimes
universal hybrid
properties beings
resultant
posites.
festation
Forms
rather
of intelligibility
to physical articulation
and mani
parts. to the in
analogous syntactical
propositions. intramental
is ordinarily directed upon Judging or features rather than upon concepts perceived a not to assent to To judge is therefore of synthesis an manner to in but rather articulate assertive contents,
from the "apart synthesis are therefore not arbitrary are encountered in the everyday which that a species is more called properly is a genus, more primary looks since the scientific
can hardly of judgmental conceive thus combined."14 things Species-looks constructs but natural kinds conceptual world. Aristotle a secondary a more delimited out points substance than
and therefore species yields to the is "What it?" the response question regarding This does not mean, of course, that casual substance.15
about them.
classifications
Initial
which
are subject to refinement in the light of further investigation. Nor does itmean that scientific knowledge is limited to the classification
of things according to their characteristic physical their motion shapes. or Fully
scientific definitions
telligible Moreover, are also principles in addition the
of physical
that account to the
things must
for
species-looks
of geometrical species-looks relationships, are clearly not reducible to the shapes which of the particular draw to The illustrate them. Aristotle geometer, ings designed observes, as though of a token triangle determinate often considers features they were 13 See indeterminate in order better to grasp the determinate
Gottlob Frege and Traditional Ignacio Angelelli, Philosophy 119-20. also See 1967), (Dordrecht: Reidel, Stanley Rosen, The Limits of York: Basic Books, 1984), 106-20. Analysis 14 (New On Interpretation 16b25-6. 15 1031b6-7. Categories 2b7-14; Metaphysics 16 184al0-bl4. Physics
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
sometimes make entirely use non of
in order
to think
of something
quantitative.17
Aristotle
situations. "ultimate
of ethical
that and politics deal with Indeed, that human actions. is, irreducibly particulars," unique as he describes in the every domain Nevertheless, power intelligence to discern is essential in the matters what under To investigation. have practical ticular ethical between wisdom decisions extremes, is to have with but a flair for making irreducibly a sure sense and with par of the
mean
elegance it is also
is essential
in human
in the practice of virtue. is in the work operative (nous) that to attend its reasonings to the yield sayings ethical
to enjoy the kind of insight affairs that comes from long ex Aristotle out that intuitive points of practical wisdom and adds to the that we because He include
persons universals.18 so as to
different types of essential intuition which yield different types of truth. To be satisfied in the ethical and political realms with the
modest extremes truth goal of striking is not to settle belongs assigns universals as a kind sensory when mean between demarcated imprecisely for mere to but the mode of opinion, enjoy to the realm of human action. properly we the principal role in the process by which as such to a mode of intuition which (epagoge) of reasoning perceptions one first and that advances from accumulated as a rout takes a to noetic then Just insight. another deserter an
that Aristotle
in battle
ends
individuals
cease
adopt a battle
to count and
formation
become comes arrange describes line of
differences
so also the process of eidetic again), a principle the intellect discerns of orderly Note that Aristotle sensible particulars.19 as a continuum. He does not draw any
they intuition
fixed
17 et Reminiscentia, De Memoria 450al-9. 18 Ethics Nichomachean 1142a23-bl6. 1094b24-7; 19 Posterior 99b34-100b5. See Modrak, Aristotle: The Power Analytics 165-76. The standard translation of epag?g?as "induction" of Perception, does not adequately conviction that epag?g? yields es convey Aristotle's sential insight.
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
49
of inar be
appreciation we
properties
belonging
the dis Under adds the Of
to
never understand subsequently features of things. and accidental could never be any do this, science. except He after for how we of transcendental of this
that fact,
deduction.20
course,
distinctions
as Wittgenstein a moment, a halt" to explanation and exhibit several different Since may any particular we must to the object sort out which belong properties of a species, and which others derive from some
comes There logical analysis. must when "call remarked, philosophy on fall back "seeing by seeing."21 properties, qua member attri
nonessential
therefore
brings requires scrutiny and nuanced distinctions. into play sophisticated sorting procedures case of forms in different embodied In the simple such materials, the form of a circle should the case, to those not in bronze be counted that or stone, it is easy to see that the as part of the essence of the circle. our acquaintance with circles were it would is not more be considerably a part of the circle as variants imagined from a bronze object its bronze and isos
ordered
as
however,
embodied
consider
limit-cases.
the property
remains thereby
however,
angles equal to two the object's triangularity, we may con property. Hence,
the property.
20 60-5. Rosen, The Limits of Analysis, 21 trans. G. E. M. Anscombe, eds. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Zettel, and G. H. von Wright of California G. E. M. Anscombe (Berkeley: University Press, 22 1967), #436. 1036a34-b3. Metaphysics
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
50
RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
One might object that we would produce the same effect ifwe were to bracket its figure or limit. No doubt this is true, Aristotle re sponds, but figure and limit are not the first differences whose sub
traction eliminates also Aristotle the discernment He objects. of proportionals the property in question.23 at an intuitive hints process apply law governing a : c : : b :d). such to any or which that culminates in
(If a :b : : c :d, then in determining he observes, when error, as a and first difference belongs essentially
a formal random
We might
qua
be tempted
or shown,
to numbers
similarly however,
properties,
is no name,
that by reason of which numbers, are identical. whereas Euclid Thus, of relation in respect need not of size
is "...
a sort
between
magnitudes
enter species into
suggests
belong
dimension.24
II
makes
a radical
break
with
as a theater
works
metaphors of being. Yet even his earliest a revival of the pre-modern view
ancient
or medieval
that our perceptions and predications deal with real things and sit uations rather than with mental substitutes. As early as 1894, he
23 Posterior Analytics See John J. Cleary, "On the Terminology 74bl-4. in Aristotle," 30 (1985): 22-3. of 'Abstraction' Phronesis 24 Posterior ?d. T. L. Heath 74a4-25; Euclid, Elements, Analytics (New 3. The emphasis York: Dover, 1926), bk. 5, definition is mine. Lachterman to the requirement that Euclid's adherence of homogeneity tes suggests tifies to a mathematical the technical subordinates vir "prudence" which of pursuit, whereas praxis to ends that are worthy tuosity of mathematical modern mathematicians of the acces ends in function tend to determine The Ethics 32. sibility of means; of Geometry,
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
51
and sensa, beyond a intuition is be 'setting is before put actually object are phenomena for things. surrogates that that intuition for we cannot have the
in an authentic
us in such a manner
activity."25 presentations the British Against be reduced capacity Kant, to the ophy, edge he to the to discern claims that
deduced, and that they belong to the dimension of being rather than
of the subject. The fatal mistake of modern sphere philos he claims, is its assumption that the task of a theory of knowl a connection is to establish between mental accessible repre and question inaccessible things-in-themselves.26 the development of Husserl's that motivated was can provide what intuition the following: for those form, components of a proposition that for example, the in
belong cases,
to its categorial
prepositions,
conjunctions,
of syn Locke and Hume the correlates because regarded empiricism as of "ideas the tactical mind reflexion," operators produced by its "inner rather than impressed within upon the mind cabinet," by external intramental that we cesses things. They therefore Husserl towards such we held dismisses things rather that syntactical this thesis than If we terms name on the grounds towards inner pro "This paper is to
when
it is because
property belongs we surely use the term "is" in such a sentence Moreover, to the objective rather than to some "inner" situation psy
say
"white"
that being is no real Kant's Recalling saying happening. was no doubt re Kant Husserl observes that although predicate, as to being in the sense existence of "absolute understood ferring position," pulative his dictum is also or predicative to the use applicable that sense, is, as expressing of "is" the in its co belonging
25 Edmund Husserl, in the Elements Studies of Logic," "Psychological trans. Dallas Willard, The Personalist 58 (October, 1977): 304. 26 trans. William Edmund Husserl, P. Al The Idea of Phenomenology, ston and George Nakhnikian (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1964), 16-56.
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
of intuition, Husserl then
being white, paper's we see some that way terms, he adds, that cannot find Nouns, meanings verbs, which and
of white.27 components
Besides
syntactical
formal
'white' only
a of the appearing color-aspect object; finds nothing in the over, a form which Moreover, there are also statements
to ideal objects.
"a triangle" the subject-term which intuited particulars instances of particular for such terms.29 that we must
perceptions intuitions filling Husserl sensuous simple between distinctions their clarity
cannot
concludes
the
role
of non with
in tandem
of pred crucial
ication to intuitive
simple and
fulfillment.
categorial parts distinctions
His
intuition
account
puts
of the relationship
and wholes.
He first distinguishes between elegance. independent or "moments." or "pieces," and nonindependent Pieces parts, parts, are parts are parts Moments from their wholes. that are separable that they arable are so interrelated be presented extension with one another, For Parts or with cannot from their wholes, that color is example, insep that require other parts
separately. or surface.
27 Of course, use of the copula also Logical VI, #40. Investigations, an articulation to an interlocutor indicates that the speaker is executing as Robert Sokolowski to its truth. and tacitly assenting However, points It names the articulated out, the copula does not name these performances. between the predicated i.e., the way in which part and whole, relationship feature characterizes the object. Presence and Absence: A Sokolowski, and Being Indiana Philosophical Investigation (Bloomington: of Language 99-105. Press, 1978), University 28 I have slightly modified VI, #40. Findlay's Logical Investigations,
translation.
29
Ibid., #41.
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
53
A of
"founding" a founded
however, Sometimes, founding-founded rocal, as in the case of color and extension. inative process which reveals various
"free part-whole relationships one an For example, if feature of variation." nonindependent object we rec to be varied while another remains learn may unchanged, as them distinct moments.30 ognize
and their present objects are as yet and whose unity thus achieve the unified presen but do not present categorial intuitions the having integrate
within
and the
unified ensembles
founded articulations
the founding
of objects
simple
and
intuitions
properties.31
of wholes
Robert
Sokolowski
have a thing presencing presencing when we
to us, but we also have the presented . . It is this us.. to in its feature of the thing presented we experience, to the word in what 'is' that responds, us state about it is such before that and such."32 something
the work of presen thus effectively intuitions present Categorial senses terms and the of tation by surplus expressed by syntactical In short, intuitions terms and features. for objects pre categorial sent the modes of presentation that Aristotle had called the "figures of predication."
30 observes that dis Sokolowski III, #1-17. Investigations, Logical substance and modes, matter and form, Spinoza's tinctions like Aristotle's be and Wittgenstein's word and word usage also involve the relationship or between moments and wholes. tween moments, Robert Sokolowski, in Husserl's "The Logic of Parts and Wholes Investigations," Philosophy and Phenomenological 28 (1968): 541. Research 31 VI, #47. Logical Investigations, 32 Robert of Categorial "Husserl's Sokolowski, Intuition," Concept and the Human Sciences Phenomenology (formerly Philosophical Topics)
12 (1981):129.
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
out that Husserl Taminiaux points implies strongly is a reciprocal between founding-founded relationship and categorial intuition. On the one hand, Hus perception that
no concepts the concepts "state of affairs" (including or imaginary can arise unless actual and "being") instances of these our are On the before other "set he also hand, concepts eyes." stresses that the involves a intuition of any expression fulfilling describing a surplus of sense that exceeds what is intuited
or object. of the particular feature Husserl perception a this its function "form," surplus thereby explicitly associating of presentation with the work expressed by syntactical operators, the thesis that statements of perception and he also rejects simply calls mirror points formal is given in simple what exactly to the conclusion, that therefore, perception. Everything intuition of the categorial terms is a condition for the
surplus by descriptive expressed of particular and their features.33 objects perception account of categorial Husserl's intuition is thus He essentially restates Aristotelian than Platonic. count dicative of the relationship are articulations between fulfilled first by and two second
more ac Pre of
interdependent
modes
intuition: 1) the intuition of a particular through its specific look, and 2) the intuition of the look itself as instanced in the particular.
He also retrieves cannot the Aristotelian be disassociated notion from hints that existence ative sense being at the Aristotelian being in the in the sense of of predic roots of
Husserl's
Heidegger was that Husserl's "decisive noting position, discovery" than to transcendental to have rather looked to categorial intuition, our in order to account for of a perceived grasp thing's synthesis, to con He that Husserl's adds, however, tendency substantiality. strue suous categorial perception categorial intuition has after the model of obscuring the effect modes does sen of straightforward the ontological difference and appear in the
"belonging."
between The
genuinely
33 and VI, #44; Jacques Taminiaux, Logical Investigations, "Heidegger In Remembrance of Heidegger's Last Husserl's Logical Investigations: and Difference: Finitude inModern Seminar (Z?hringen, 1973)," inDialectic N.J.: (Atlantic Highlands, Thought, trans. Robert Crease and James Decker 70-1. Humanities Press, 1985),
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
55
in its earlier
between the ways in which does distinguish things are given to us: "The appearing of presentation of to us, we live through not itself appear it."35 However, to for in is well Husserl fails this context taken, point enough the difference between the oblique in
forcefully
tuition of a categorial
its features. Husserl's ably similar
intuition of a thing
is also remark in
essences role
of "subtraction"
at the that
of a species-look. Like Aristotle, an ordered of essences series requires in which we those cease bracket invariant to be what that essences this or that feature without features
of
imaginative of an object until finally we grasp in question which the object would he makes be regarded it clearer as than
does Aristotle
even after of being modes incomplete they are ren as subjects of predication. thematic and named dered Aristotle an essence as op remains too, that recognized, always incomplete, to the tode ti which is a complete his cele However, entity. posed brated remark that ". . . predicates that suggests relate taken of a predicate relate genera hold good of a to species in the and thus gives the predicates are
34 "Le s?minaire de Z?hringen," in Question See Fran?ois IV F?dier, See also Martin Heidegger, (Paris: Gallimard, 1976), 314-5. History of the Indiana University (Bloomington: Concept of Time, trans. Theodore Kisiel Lectures de l'ontologie fondamentale: Press, 1979), 47-89; Jacques Taminiaux, sur Heidegger Essais (Grenoble: J?r?me Mill?n, 1989), 81-8. 35 #2. V, Logical Investigations, 36 trans. James S. Chur Edmund Husserl, and Judgment, Experience chill and Karl Ameriks Northwestern Press, 1973), (Evanston: University of Saul Kripke's to conflate #82. in Rosen's critique Stanley tendency tuition and imagination does not apply to Husserl. Kripke's imaginative are limited only by logical rules which are thought to obtain in variations are like Aristotle's, all possible worlds. Husserl's imaginative variations, intuitions of things in this world. Husserl always guided by our ordinary of wildly does not indulge in the consideration scenarios improbable imag ined as taking place within See Saul Kripke, possible worlds. "Naming in D. Davidson and Necessity," and G. Harmon, eds., Semantics of Natural 73-89. Language 1972); Rosen, The Limits of Analysis, (Dordrecht: Reidel,
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
56
complete entities.
partially versals Husserl's such responsible which has distinction He
for the pseudo-problem of the existence of uni to plague continued for centuries.37 philosophy between and moments eliminates all pieces asserts within that unambiguously the whole comprising an essence a "this" always and its
which fixes process an essence of liberates instance. An rather in some essence than
the
moment be given
is nonetheless
instances.38
Whereas
versals that
Aristotle
of higher uni
describes how of "formaliza the more fa
apply are originally such categories tion." He defines this process process series then from and
to heterogeneous
example, ization
of generalization. Generalization in an progresses a from some specific to con broader content, generic to an even more content comprehensive generic (for human to to Formal being, animal, living being). procedure and thus content which from a the outset formal brackets structure detached nevertheless content. all
can forms
apply may
to any be from
remain they,
any specific contents, without the complement incomplete moments rather too, are dependent
independent
Ill
Modern have generally as men philosophers regarded concepts tal representations. This notion has its roots in the earlier philo
sophic tradition.
Although
Plato assigned
a nonsubjective
status
37 A Categories lb9-15; Gottlob Frege, The Foundations of Arithmetic: into the Concept ofNumber, trans. J. L. Austin Logico-Mathematical Enquiry Collected (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1959), #53; "On Concept and Number," Papers,38 190. II, #36-9. 39Logical Investigations, Edmund Husserl, to a Pure Phenomenology Ideas Pertaining and to a Phenomenological Book I, trans. Frederick Kersten Philosophy. (The
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
57
thesis for the modern that to know is to the way remotely pared to forms within the mind's have access interiority. (ideas or concepts) access the to forms Aristotle that soul has claimed only By contrast, insofar he does as they are manifested in the things of this world. Moreover, to not seem to have it necessary any in thought postulate
Indeed, termediary between the intellect and the things it knows. he held that the intellect must itself be free of formal structure,
and forms things the way quently so far serious into hence of are for used empty things. of content, so that his the it can suggestion soul may (and more Medieval become that also somehow the have forms prepared subse the term the of Nevertheless, "within" position. "intentional"
philosophers frequently
"objective")
as they mistake
in
in the knower.
be a
this
interpretation to
tinction between
being was somehow
intentional
Aristotle's
physical
("inner word," object sort tions as a unique through clearly known: which maintained ". . . that itself and
"formal func "expressed concept," species") of intermediary, that is, as a transparent sign to reality. the mind is related Indeed, Aquinas that the intentional is the thing itself, as object which is understood of the can be said to be both Scholastic the intellect."40 Later
conception thing as of intentional also generally directedness thought philosophers in transcendent its ordinary terminus things. having Nonetheless, a are special was that concepts small it step from the notion only intramental representatives card signs to the modern inaccessible thesis forms that they are the accessible As Gabriel Pi of the of things.
the
species forerunner
scholastic "idea."41
and Transcendental
Logic,
app.
I, #3
Veritate,
p. 62,
q. 4, a. 2, ad 3.
n. 3.
41 Gabriel Picard, "Essai sur la connaissance sensible d'apr?s Archives IV (1926): 1-93. de John Yolton lastiques," philosophie
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
is no need to assign a mediating
intuiting their
concepts object-ori
to regard
he calls
to Concepts belong the realm of meanings. The we turn are preoccupied from the onto adopt as mere whenever a re sup we
apophantic with things logical flective positions. explicitly claim that terlocutor. realm
at all when To
realm,
away we must
stance This
as propositions,
frame we
as sub not be regarded should therefore Propositions are of facts. facts duplicates Propositions objective jective simply are the same taken as supposed.42 and essences concepts Similarly, taken from different are attitudinal related stances (apophantic vs. are on re to essences as propositions
things
tological). Concepts lated to facts. Such mental that many is the power
as of concepts interpretation of its Scholastic intermediaries, predecessor (the theory are but media in concepts transparent determining quo) that as commentators nonetheless Husserl interpret ascribing of the modern and
clue to the transition to modern from medieval of inten interpretations in the exchange between Malebranche and Arnauld. tional presence On the premise at a distance" that "cognition is impossible, Malebranche that we can only know what is literally present within adopted the position our minds. He ridiculed Aristotle's theory that the mind somehow becomes the forms of things, the postulate of a "walking saying that it requires mind" about in material ed. space; Oeuvres capable of moving compl?tes, Rodis-Lewis Genevi?ve retorted (Paris: J. Vrin, 1972), I, p. 413. Arnauld that Malebranche conflates cognitive presence with spatial or local presence; Oeuvres de M. Antoine Arnauld p. 216. (Paris: Schouten, 1683), XXXVIII, view tended to prevail Malebranche's the British al among empiricists, contends that Locke's closer to that though Yolton position was actually of Arnauld than is generally recognized; Yolton, Perceptual Acquaintance toReid (Minneapolis: From Descartes of Minnesota University Press, 1984), 88-103. 62-8; 42 and Transcenden Logical Investigations, #67; Formal Prolegomena, tal Logic, #41-5. an identity observes Sokolowski that a fact is therefore within the manifold of three states. The selfsame fact comprised may be in its absence, intended in its presence, as a and considered registered Husserlian supposition (i.e., as a proposition); p. 52. Meditations,
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
59
They and
Acknowledging as mental of concepts that concepts strategy assigns functions The thesis based mysteriously that concepts on the
concepts an ontological to an his rejection in of the modern a entities, they typically adopt shift and propositions as a nonsubjective play that we of linguistic holds that some sort to a "third medium of
which
reference.43 role
is no doubt
conviction
that we Unfor
not address this question explicitly. to the following. To be he might agree use a term appropriately, is to be able to its dictionary a vast network to trace definition. This of distinctions completely, senses we
It seems
made with
by
it is impossible of the
but whose
be guided
on the forth
The
constantly
orientations
ability accounts
for
43 on In "Brentano and Husserl See, for example, Dagfin F0llesdal, tentional in Hubert and Perception," L. Dreyfus and Harrison Objects and Cognitive Science Hall, eds., Husserl: Intentionality (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 44 1982), 36. as mental calls the concept considered Sokolowski a intermediary "transcendental mirage" which never appears when we talk about objects, but only when we attempt to talk about how we use words and how we 40 (1987): 454-5. think; 45"Exorcising Concepts," Review of Metaphysics The divergent interests of various peoples make for variations in the discernment of species-looks, and therefore for variations in the se mantic with the signifiers values associated of different How languages. are such that ad between discriminations ever, the similarities linguistic are usually possible, equate translations though never unproblematic.
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
discriminations. linguistic intuitive manifests itself when and even conceptual Oc new rev
Like Wittgenstein,
competence of words, On of the other language presupposes but does not
therefore,
Husserl
holds
that
linguistic
meanings meanings. use the rules
appropriate of a language-game, guided upon what by categorial we see, what we are saying. The is to become
speak, and only marginally seeing, and propositions emerge only structures, of all things. for
flection. of being
intellect
its mode
IV
David
Lachterman
invention
of ana in which
lytic geometry radically had ancient geometry a context within worked is always individual to exhibit geometric
to be
regarded as tokens
which
are conic
concerned.
specific
generic
type in which
The
be said
does not spell out the characteristics equation a formula but instead for the pro presents shape, of the variables of shapes. Each evaluation bound within
a determinate conic section from a "continuum equation yields In short, to be modo geo for Descartes, of abstract possibilities."46 a to is bound variable. Descartes be the value of m?trico rejoiced in the emancipation of such formulae from the constraints imposed
46 Lachterman,
The Ethics
of Geometry,
199.
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
61
that free thought a to the geometer that emanci realized the constraints of
homogeneity
of what Leibniz
that and the that exclusive
later called
concern
to see
of order and measure questions in question the measure involves or any other whatever."47 object an echo of Hobbes's project
numbers, Lachterman
of an ontology
intelligibility.
He also
equa is
of his own interpretation the Kantian view that mathematics for the contemporary posits whose Descartes the
cultural
that
himself ontological
of "the
Cartesian Aristotelian
technique no longer in such a way that ". . . numbers and magnitudes ber, as chance objects count as basic concepts but merely of application."49 on Aristotle's does not comment Husserl of the per interpretation on his mutation of proportionals. observation Vieta sug However,
interpretation a way in which suggests by Vieta an be founded version of may upon geometry updated Husserl that Vieta's observes ontology. algebraic arithmetical of num liberated from the thinking concept
exaggerated Husserl's
of
of algebra that the invention took the process of formalization gests a step beyond was on at in Aristotle's what hinted commentary Eudoxus. Aristotle that the law of alternation of propor thought tionals nameless to any may such be extended to heterogeneous in which they share. common to classes objects no Vieta of objects. by reason of a
property property
longer
appealed to
According
47 Ren? Descartes, Rules for the Direction Works of Descartes, trans. John Cottingham, Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge University 48 The Ethics Lachterman, of Geometry, Prolegomena, ^Logical Investigations, Transcendental Logic, #26a.
in The Philosophical ofMind, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Press, 1984), I, p. 19. 17-24; 178-9. #54. See also Formal and
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
radical theories sense rather that than it focuses to their
thus Vieta objects. pure mathematics.50 siders "theory forms" from faltigkeiten) an as ordered theory of such groups being a series of objects governed an
to the apophantic focus proper adopted con to mathematics pure Husserl, According and their correlative "manifolds"
(Mannig a Husserl defines apophantic perspective. Formalization series of propositions. deductive are a what he calls form. Manifolds theory yields whose status is determined exclusively forms. The apophantic theory all concern about the ontological is why mathematicians may by their focus of pure status of talk their as such in the can frame sense his
legitimately about
raising possibility:
actuality . . .does
ontological questions ". . . the mathematician possible multiplicities, ... he concretely extension does
to presuppose
not at all
involve
Husserl that it of such possibilities."51 concludes assumption to describe of the object non-Euclidean is inappropriate ge regions were as spaces, not talking for Riemann and his successors ometries or possible but rather about man actual about regions, ontological ifolds adds defined that exclusively even Euclidean form. as the correlates may cease of theory be reduced to be forms. Husserl by formalization a theory of intuited
to a theory
world
the
uniquely by
and out formal the hier to ob
formalized Husserl
ontology. archically
proper
jects
domain tology that any
(that
Formal
is, a
on
arrangements
the relationship
50 in Presence and Absence: A Study of See J. Philip Miller, Numbers Mathematics Husserl's 1982), 109-13. (The Hague: Nijhoff, of Philosophy 5i an? Transcendental Formal Logic, #51. 52 in Presence and Absence, See Miller, Numbers pp. 113 Ibid., #40.
20.
53 Ideas
I, #9-10;
Formal
and Transcendental
Logic,
#24-5,
27b.
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
63
as follows: and formal Pure pure mathematics, logic, ontology in principle mathematics remains with apo exclusively preoccupied Formal on such con phantic logic focuses consistency. principally sistency, Formal but also maintains an interest in ontological reference. an considers ontology categorial focus. He characterizes ontological from within logic as
relationships traditional
"formal
apophantics"
between various
in order to highlight
propositional the formalized forms,
matical
directed
shifts
blur
involved in the in
By contrast, the differences be a result, when example, As
domains.
they attempt
a clear facts, they fall
to deal with
into
the truth-values
of propositions
without
understanding
between and relationship propositions obscure and inconsis fundamentally paradoxes of the example to define properly the relation con and ontological domains. Frege as the value is best described of a concept Analytic he observes, geometry, of a value-range. If the argument, as the correspond point of the resultant as an instructive
of the
tencies.54 extensional Frege's confusion that ensues ship tends range between that the logic provides from a failure
apophantic extension
( Wertverlauf) us with provides we construe the and the numerical of the "an
of a point any
with the associated of the value together same curve If two different function." functions the for what yield ever number we we may take as the argument, say that the two argument functions the pairs have the of same value-range. A value-range is therefore ordered ensemble a function's the correlations, completed and resultant truth-values.
of arguments For ex comprised the value-range of the concept would be the ample, "being German" set of paired correlations between all possible and the arguments
truth-values:
(Napoleon,
the False),
#23b; #52-4.
(Frege, the
See Soko
54 Formal and Transcendental Logic, #11, lowski, Husserlian pp. 271-89. Meditations,
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
64 True), analysis
RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
the False), and so forth.55 This (The Washington Monument, the distinction blurs between the apophantic of domain forms and manifolds and the ontological domain of essences There is no way to make the transition from the apo
phantic notion of a value-range (which is exclusively defined by the theory form of Frege's logic) to the ontological notion of a family
of things which share some would property. subjectivize renders his Unless that Convinced logic, Frege the move logic tacitly from relies that any to cognitive intuitions eliminates appeal the
ontological
role erence
primacy
that Aristotle
and thus Nevertheless, to eliminate.
concept-functions Frege's
intuitive
powers
on what to human denies ogism beings, determine which arguments yield which Descartes' to the potential allusions vided fusion by his new geometrical method the relationship concerning to hesitate realms. He seems call geometry the one hand,
of psychol critique basis could they possibly truth-values? pro con onto
for mastery of nature an to testify analogous between and apophantic between two
On
interpretations as and geometry theory in the Regulae and his was to free his
in the Geometry that his suggest on intuited from all dependence from he reveals the
Commenting
of complicated
break from
of his
the traditional
of this Rule main whole serially secret treatise. may
the message
the in this rule
nevertheless
of my
that
they
divide
basis out of to
by Pappus.
The
55 "Function and Concept," Collected Papers, 141-2. See Gre Frege, toHis Philosophy gory Currie, Frege: An Introduction (Brighton: Harvester Press, 56 1982), 68. See Miller, Numbers in Presence and Absence, p. 133, n. 43. 57 The Philosophical Works of Descartes, I, p. 21.
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
65
in fixed lines
in and lines given positions, of the drawn such a way that the products lines have determinate of their intersection the point lies on one of the ratios, necessarily locus of points). Descartes conic sections complex (or on a more
begins by considering
then gradually fixed ratios lishing relates
between sides of overlapping created triangles the intersections of various lines. the Euclid's theo Exploiting by rem that corresponding in constant sides of similar remain triangles a one to to he fixed value another, assigns algebraic proportion each such constant proportion from until finally he establishes a general which oc
formula which
method curs no at each step
interrelates
is the move
to formalization
linear magnitudes, as symbols for terms "in a sequence He thus constantly of ratios whatever."59 among any magnitudes as a symbolic of the construction takes each component represen as Aristotle of intelligibility for which, tation of a structure put it, All of this suggests that Descartes' there can be no name. general longer really for he implicitly considers them formula should meant hand, be regarded by a theory never as an example philosophically a manifold. form that governs brackets about of what On the
Descartes
produced by evaluation in the general He thus seems ables equation. the He traditional both ways. implicitly rejects pretation ontological two claims. of geometry, but he also suggests that results. Husserl's distinction between
status the ontological in his proof. Moreover, proper to want to the de of the bound vari it
of "existence"
objects highlights
a manifold
the inconsistency
of these
sometimes have gen theory may as was case for the the domain, applications ontological to ontological from apophantic the transition Riemann's geometry, does not occur by fiat. The evidence in manifold domains requisite 58 trans. David E. Smith Ren? Descartes, Geometry, Latham York: Dover, (New 1954). 59 The Ethics 168. Lachterman, of Geometry,
and Marcia
L.
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
66
theory differs
claims. Like must theory ried out with for their the
needed
theorems their
for ontological
in manifold must be car
carefully be coherently
proofs
the evidence step. However, intuitions into the natures of upon a but upon lucid grasp of the meanings of on are the other Ontological claims, hand, not
always founded on the kind of evidence yielded by intuitions of things and their intelligible structures. Husserl's distinctions clarify the scope and limits of the project
of mathesis Leibniz's universalis. ars science combinatoria whose is neither its goal Vieta's are Descartes' algebra, all contributions apo a theory of theory forms.61 nor even a branch of ontology geometry, to a formal and
ontology to formal by an
has no ontological apparatus so as to include to be broadened but it does not need as the to be locus
replaced virtuosity.
interpretation
of being
Boston College
60 Formal and Transcendental Logic, #16-22. Presence and Absence, p. 118. 61 #60. Logical Investigations, Prolegomena, serlian Meditations, p. 273. See Miller, See Numbers Hus in
Sokolowski,
This content downloaded from 195.195.110.10 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013 13:05:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions