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Being and Categorial Intuition Author(s): Richard Cobb-Stevens Source: The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Sep.

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION


RICHARD COBB-STEVENS

J. HE TITLE OF THIS paper several also many senses in which nuances as

calls

for clarification. said and the both

Not

only

are

there

be may something to the terms "categorial" let us

are to "be," there "intuition." Tak primary as first sense substance of

ing Aristotle that "being," (tode

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

speech its essential to grasp for the

charac import of between and then

entertaining

instance, a foreign city

experiencing
performing Husserl

the fulfillment of actually strolling through its streets,


reading a manual of instructions the task for some executing actually let us therefore characterize in its fullness, skillfully. intuition as opposed

or the difference

Taking

as the presentation broadly or talking to thinking about Husserlian 1 and Aristotelian

of something it in an empty terminologies,

Finally, combining way.3 we may cate describe

. . . 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

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44 gorial than intuition as the presentation some particular chair's categorial

RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
of figures thing, of predication. say a red chair, the red quality's makes present Rather categorial belonging the modes

presenting the intuition presents to the chair. In short,

being red, intuition

of presentation

of things.

In what
that Husserl's Aristotle's some

follows,

I shall first develop at some length the thesis


intuition and essence, retrieval clarifies and and then revitalizes offer briefly Aristotelian

of categorial theory theories of substance

suggestions to account

as to how Husserl's

of these

themes sheds light on two contemporary


how for the meaningful functioning traditional ontology from the use a screen how of concepts as mental to the

philosophic
without

problems:

(1)

of words

intermediaries, specifically that the

to adapt be

postulating and (2) modes modern

of intelligibility
should seem istotle. the role noted been to have His of

introduced by algebra and analytic geometry.


outset, retrieval however, Husserl texts does influenced by of Aristotle's all relevant of Ar

It
not

directly unintentional

therefore, sitions.

categorial to the remarkable

structures kinship

testifies between

of interpretation the more forcefully, their philosophic po

"The the

soul

is in a way

all

things."4

Aristotle than

thus

characterizes structure openness

soul more

of its own.

by The soul's mode

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

potency of being is its self-transcending to take on the shapes capacity

by any fixed

possible

for the soul's faculties


does

to become
not exist reader,

literally
this

identical with

". . . for the things, form [of the stone]."5

in the

To the modern

the soul, but rather comment suggests

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.

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION


that within abstracts cognition inner the soul's next that the forms As of things and if to counter

45
them incorporates this impression,

space. compares

Aristotle however, in the way forms so

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

soul maintains of grasping

things detachment hand

in the process

The

themselves, even from its objects not does become literally

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

kinds of objects to which tentially) everything.7


According "look" specific we know some

it relates,
a thing's

its mode of being


form is revealed is "what" we

is to be (po
to us by its know when there are as

to Aristotle, The (eidos).

species-look

many sense this

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

the primary in virtue of and also

category can relation) distinguishes tiality. which

quality, Aristotle of

between

substan (tode ti) substance

In a primary is both a "this"

sense, and a "what."

individual sense, that

is exclusively of a particular of first and

the "what" and

(ti esti).s its sortal feature

In a secondary He also stresses always occurs

knowledge as a unity, and

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,

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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

properties which delimit

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

for the relevant

this approach of concepts

possible as already

predicates.11 ers to reduce Quine's implies equivalent it makes

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

being-true: Indeed, whenever in the substance individual and

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

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION


lytic philosophers generally seems to suggest confusedly now universal, now particular, never that however, claims, lars in such a way as to make find that and this claim incomprehensible, is a chameleon-like even both.13 inhere of the for

47
it

ousia

sometimes

entity, Aristotle in particu com

universal hybrid

properties beings

resultant

posites.
festation

Forms
rather

are shared principles


than constituents discourse gives of intuition.

of intelligibility
to physical articulation

and mani
parts. to the in

analogous syntactical

Predicative articulate things and nuances their

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,

the mode of "belonging


looks. As Aristotle puts

to" that obtains between


it, we

things and their

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

inspection of things yields scientific knowledge


provide only preliminary and tentative

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

also spell out the in


growth.16 there objects,

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

of physical and objects

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

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48 essence some of triangularity. imagined quantity He adds that we

RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
sometimes make entirely use non of

in order

to think

of something

quantitative.17

Aristotle
situations. "ultimate

does not speak explicitly of the species-looks


he stresses ethics

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

into what perience reason extent ought their

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

has experience therefore interprets

them given intuitive rationality

universals, of prudent older an "eye" for such broadly

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

thematize he describes and retained

in battle

ends

stand (that is, when discrete


in which soldiers their once particular

individuals
cease

adopt a battle
to count and

formation
become comes arrange describes line of

differences

to an end when ment this among process

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.

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION


demarcation their ticulate essences. between Rosen of perception out of particulars that unless between and we first the intellection had an

49
of inar be

appreciation we

points the difference

properties

longing to the individual as such and the properties


species-look, tinction between such there and circumstances is no way then the could essential there to account by a sort argument reconstruction cannot be derived

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,

only a transcendental the reflective

deduction.20

course,

as a guide to type serves mainly of the nuances of intuition. Intuitive from

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

bute (which might

itself be taken as essential


which another. is incidental Aristotle an under

from another point


one classification that maintains that

A property of view). under may be essential discernment of essences

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

materials If it were limited difficult such.22 and

however,

embodied

to recognize that In such circumstances For in the

in bronze, the bronze we must if we

consider

limit-cases.

constructed celes right attributes, angles we

example, shape of an intact. eliminate

"subtract" triangle internal

isosceles of having If we bracket this

the property

remains thereby

however,

angles equal to two the object's triangularity, we may con property. Hence,

clude that it is qua triangle that the object possesses

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

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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

of "higher universals" cites as an example the

to heterogeneous the alternation We are prone structure instance. to

(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 suppose that this law applies


to lines, that solids, it applies there

to numbers

numbers, has Eudoxus

similarly however,

durations. temporal to these diverse objects

not by reason of their identifying


they single manifest name a property could denote and solids for which

properties,

but rather because


because no lengths, claims two

is no name,

durations, that a ratio

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

of the same kind," Aristotle

suggests

that items that


to the same

proportional relationships or genus, or even to the same

belong

dimension.24

II

Husserl of mind he was

makes

a radical

break

with

the modern There

as a theater

particularly for the intellect's seem

of representations. conversant with mode goal

interpretation is no evidence that

works

transcending to have as their

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,

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION


asserts grasps fore' that the intuitive intended consciousness object sense, itself: where ". reaches . . an the out

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

that the object is itself the topic of psychical


he argues mental contends

Against phenomenalism, of things rather than empiricists, of sensory reception the he

intelligible a priori structures

impressions, structures of are

Against things. intuited rather than

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

sentations The ory

of categorial tuitive fulfillment

belong cases,

to its categorial

prepositions,

conjunctions,

the copula, and so forth?

This problem did not arise for British

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

processes. are directed we use

when

white," the paper. to refer chological

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

expressions. find that the

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.

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52 of some property to an object. we do not What sort

RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
of intuition, Husserl then

asks, could bring to intuitive fulfillment


copula? longing ular shade other fillment jectival Surely of white intuit in the the same to paper,

this sense expressed by the


the be partic there are ful ad be

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

in ordinary expressions coincides

of propositions intuitions. simple introduce surplus the

their even cannot

fulfilled by simple intuitions: "The intention of the word


partially surplus with remains of meaning to confirm it."28 appearance

'white' only

a of the appearing color-aspect object; finds nothing in the over, a form which Moreover, there are also statements

which refer explicitly


for example, than rather ple the

to ideal objects.

In the definition of a triangle,


denotes serve clearly the triangle-type as its tokens. Sim serve as ful

"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

or "categorial" intuitions and which bring perceptions

acknowledge which function the formal

the

role

of non with

in tandem

components into play some

of pred crucial

ication to intuitive
simple and

fulfillment.
categorial parts distinctions

His
intuition

account
puts

of the relationship

regarding these complexity, and

and wholes.

in bewildering Initially are finally for their remarkable

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.

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION


as conditions of part their manifestation whole itself are may being "founded" function moments. as a condition a moment.

53
A of

"founding" a founded

or a founding without moment, the

necessarily relationship Husserl calls

however, Sometimes, founding-founded rocal, as in the case of color and extension. inative process which reveals various

is recip the imag

"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

In the light of these distinctions, Husserl


between There and those and categorial perceptions simple is a continuity between pre-predicative articulations and predicative properties Simple whose perceptions latent parts

describes the interplay


intuitions perceptions of objects as follows. of objects as having

properties. as wholes properties unthematized. of objects or the unity as tation

Simple perceptions as having properties, such. By contrast,

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

puts it clearly: "[In categorial


and its feature

intuition] not only do 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.

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54 Jacques that there

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

simple serl claims

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

particular in the simple

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

decidedly Aristotle's substance.

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

categorial surplus an object; it is nonetheless

of presentation not initially given

presented. objects in the manner of self-effacing fash

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),

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION


ion of a mode non-appearance, passage, and things Husserl their modes does of presentation: what allows . . substantiality to appear."34 appears ". is what, In an

55
in its earlier

Heidegger's emphasize and

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

surplus and the thematic


of how we account features intuit of the

intuition of a thing
is also remark in

description to Aristotle's invariant discernment variations

essences role

of "subtraction"

arriving he holds free

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

it is.36 However, should always

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

unfortunately subject" same way that species impression that species

to particulars, as subjects of generic

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,

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56

RICHARD COBB-STEVENS Frege rightly pointed out that this ambiguity is

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

confusion. a moment The

remains "what." lineates on any intuited sense or that

imaginative the boundaries one particular as a founded it can only

which fixes process an essence of liberates instance. An rather in some essence than

the

and de identity it from dependence

moment be given

always a separable in the part, or instance perceived imagined

is nonetheless

instances.38

Whereas
versals that

Aristotle

only hints at the possibility


objects, derived by the process by contrasting it with Husserl

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

miliar ordered tent,

is a one-step content determinate which such always Hence


pieces.

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

yields strictly whatsoever. However

remain they,

any specific contents, without the complement incomplete moments rather too, are dependent

they of some than

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

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION


to the Forms, his the contemplative emphasis character on their of

57

of matter and on independence intuition their have pre may well

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"

incorporated the modern the term

philosophers frequently

"objective")
as they mistake

to refer to the mode


are present to read the modern of esse

of being had by things known


It would no doubt of point knower interpretation The objectivum. thesis that the immanence of the dis

in

in the knower.

be a

this

interpretation to

tinction between
being was somehow

intentional
Aristotle's

(objective) being and real (physical)


becomes into known without thereby entering

clarify the form of the thing

physical

identity with the thing.

Itwas thought that the intentional

("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

it, the intentional puts was the proximate entity")

species forerunner

("that mysterious of the modern

scholastic "idea."41

Hague: Nijhoff, and 7. 40 Aquinas,


Presence and

1982), #13; Formal De


Absence,

and Transcendental

Logic,

app.

I, #3

Veritate,
p. 62,

q. 4, a. 2, ad 3.
n. 3.

See also Robert

Sokolowski, les sco finds a

41 Gabriel Picard, "Essai sur la connaissance sensible d'apr?s Archives IV (1926): 1-93. de John Yolton lastiques," philosophie

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58 Husserl contends that there

RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
is no need to assign a mediating

function to concepts, since we know things by directly


intelligible as mental ented what and forms. He suggests is due stances "apophantic" does not facts that intermediaries reflective the domain and tendency to a confusion between the

intuiting their
concepts object-ori

to regard

of consciousness. domain, appear

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

in the world. apophantic considers facts in focus occurs as about the

towards which shift

realm,

away we must

stance This

as propositions,

frame we

a statement have made

quite naturally, or whenever a hypothesis, some an the world is challenged in by

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,

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION


some refuse sort function of mediating to take him at his word emerge focus. only when to the when we apophantic he claims from stratum. that

59
They and

propositions apophantic terpretation Fregean realm"

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

of mediating some have surely expressions acts speech as are

marginal we use conscious are not tunately

consciousness them.44 Since

of the meanings Husserl

how performances, conscious of concepts he does that

clearly can he coherently maintain of using words? in the course

that we Unfor

however, of a concept point" miliarity history

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

likely, in possession to "get the

made with

by

fa requires ability and nuances whose ultimate jus

it is impossible of the

but whose

tification lies in the intuitive disclosure of the looks of things.45 Once


in command focus on standardized When categorial of words, facts, Our we we choice need those only senses. by our articulate intuitions. longer let ourselves of words is no

be guided

governed directly by the looks of the things we struggle to describe.


Sometimes, choices. focus and we are more conscious however, we shift At such moments, from established senses between of words. these of making a focus on things to shift linguistic to a back the

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.

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60 interdependence the casionally, insights olutions. bring of intuitive and

RICHARD COBB-STEVENS
discriminations. linguistic intuitive manifests itself when and even conceptual Oc new rev

of the priority semantic innovations about

Like Wittgenstein,
competence of words, On of the other language presupposes but does not

therefore,

Husserl

holds

that

linguistic
meanings meanings. use the rules

with familiarity a mental require a routinized just a matter

the conventional of those the

hand, Husserl is more than words is not for

display also maintains that

thoughtful Finding with the are

appropriate of a language-game, guided upon what by categorial we see, what we are saying. The is to become

linguistic intuitions. When or anticipate Concepts is free somehow

performance. of familiarity articulations we we

speak, and only marginally seeing, and propositions emerge only structures, of all things. for

consciously focus ordinarily upon in re

flection. of being

intellect

of mediating the forms

its mode

IV

David

Lachterman

contends transformed been where

that Descartes' the ontological conducted. Greek it was nature. generally

invention

of ana in which

lytic geometry radically had ancient geometry a context within worked is always individual to exhibit geometric

setting mathematicians agreed therefore that

to be

a determinate figures (like

They or ellipses) parabolas

regarded as tokens

which
are conic

exhibit specific types about which


By does contrast, not denote Descartes' any one section

the theorems of geometry


general equation type or even for any any one

concerned.

specific

generic

type in which
The

specific types and their tokens might

be said

to participate. of an intuited duction the

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.

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION


of Euclidean by the intuition shapes. to intuited forms dom from servitude potential pation mathesis is with whether for mastery of the algebraic universalis: over nature. He clearly would give He of ratios also from

61
that free thought a to the geometer that emanci realized the constraints of

ordering "... I came

homogeneity

opened up the possibility

of what Leibniz
that and the that exclusive

later called
concern

to see

sounds, this passage shows tions pure that

of order and measure questions in question the measure involves or any other whatever."47 object an echo of Hobbes's project

it is irrelevant stars, shapes, in detects that equates

numbers, Lachterman

of an ontology

the being of things with their mathematical


how Descartes' prepared poetry, scientific and the way constructivist for

intelligibility.

He also
equa is

of his own interpretation the Kantian view that mathematics for the contemporary posits whose Descartes the

ultimately are theories

cultural

view pragmatic is reducible truth

to pragmatic It seems philosophers of the tions sense

efficacy.48 to me, however, in general new have

that

himself ontological

and modern implica the new

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

geometry. formal" introduced

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

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62 Husserl, on what in the more is formal algebra to mathematical is common tacitly

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

mathematics such manifolds. about manifolds

by such brackets This without their

legitimately about

raising possibility:

actuality . . .does

or even not need

ontological questions ". . . the mathematician possible multiplicities, ... he concretely extension does

to presuppose

of multiplicities in such concepts the

exist that might a manner that their

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

geometry It would then

world
the

space, for its object region would be determined


Euclidean deductive discipline.52 between distinguishes regional ontologies is to spell The task of a regional ontology between the essences ordered relationships some concrete

uniquely by
and out formal the hier to ob

formalized Husserl

ontology. archically

proper

jects
domain tology that any

insofar as they belong


determined deals govern region with

to some region of being


genus). and formal between

(that
Formal

is, a
on

highest by the fundamental categories and Husserl defines

structures in objects between

the relationships whatsoever.53

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.

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION

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,

its focus on the relationships


and he characterizes mathe

matical
directed

logic as "formal ontology" on the grounds


upon between structures of facts.

that its focus is


Traditional lo

gicians had some sense of the attitudinal


terplay modern tween they apophantic mathematical logicians and ontological constantly and formal

shifts
blur

involved in the in
By contrast, the differences be a result, when example, As

domains.

pure mathematics, often misinterpret

logic, ontology. their own achievements. For

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 function. an "intuitive numerical value function,

representation" value of an abscissa

of the ordinate we may regard

of a point any

ing value curve as

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:

(Plato, the False),

(Napoleon,

the False),
#23b; #52-4.

(Frege, the
See Soko

54 Formal and Transcendental Logic, #11, lowski, Husserlian pp. 271-89. Meditations,

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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

theory and objects.

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.

had given to the presentational


sense to ref on the very are en

of species-looks, incoherent. it seeks the

intuitions dowed with

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

logical we might which ontology.56 practice technique

as manifold his remarks

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

intention actuality. extent

Commenting

on Rule Six, which deals with


things simple not things, seem

the orderly deduction

of complicated
break from

of his

the traditional
of this Rule main whole serially secret treatise. may

ontology of intuited natures: "Although


very and method; For it instructs not insofar novel, there us as it contains is no more all can things be useful

the message
the in this rule

nevertheless

of my

that

in groups, but He insofar puts

they

can be arranged to some on referred

tological genus (such as the categories


things), others."57 as some things into this method

into which philosophers


can be known when on he the sets practice

divide
basis out of to

solve the problem which

had been left unsolved

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.

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BEING AND CATEGORIAL INTUITION


task is to establish four, or more three, that, given to those at fixed angles drawn lines

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

two of the lines specified by the problem, and


all the other lines to these lines by estab

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

all of the fixed ratios.58


generalization

The key to his

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

in the proof. Lachterman points as takes line-segments literally

out that Descartes

Husserl other of the he

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

lines, angles, never defines clearly terminate conic sections

explicitly and figures talked the mode

status the ontological in his proof. Moreover, proper to want to the de of the bound vari it

of "existence"

to have inter yields man

ontological his method apophantic

ifolds and ontological


Although uine within

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.

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66

RICHARD COBB-STEVENS in kind from the evidence


framed judgments, and articulated of each

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

comprehension is based theorems objects, axioms.60

supposed the governing

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

phantic Such a science ontology. import. a branch

is to develop a complete theoretical needs ontology,

Moreover, Aristotle's devoted

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

and jettisoned of mathematical

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,

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