Abstract
The text surveys the development of the debate between Zahavi and Brough/Sokolowski regarding Husserl’s account of inner time-consciousness. The main arguments on both sides are reconsidered, and a compromise is proposed.
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Notes
In fact, neither of the two latter publications engage in any detailed analysis of Husserl’s theory of inner time-consciousness.
In the following, I will be using both terms interchangeably.
In the following, I will focus on reflection, but we shouldn’t forget that memory can also exemplify a form of reflection. When I remember a past episode, I am usually concerned with the episode, i.e., with how the world was, and not with my past experience of it. But I always have the opportunity to reflect. I can reflect upon my current recollection of the past promenade, but I can also reflect upon my past experience of the promenade. As Husserl writes, “Die von der geraden Erinnerung, etwa eines Hauses, abbiegende Selbsterinnerung enthüllt nicht das gegenwärtige Ich, das der aktuellen Wahrnehmungen (darunter der jetzigen Wiedererinnerung selbst als Gegenwartserleben), sondern das vergangene Ich, das zu dem eigenen intentionalen Wesen des erinnerten Hauses gehört, als das, für das es da war, und da war in den und den subjektiven Bewußtseinsmodis. Erinnerung ist ihrem Wesen nach nicht nur In-Geltung-haben eines Vergangenen, sondern dieses Vergangenen als eines von mir Wahrgenommenen und eines sonstwie Bewußtgewesenen; und eben dieses in gerader Erinnerung anonyme vergangene Ich und Bewußtsein kommt in einer Reflexion (Reflexion nicht auf das jetzige Erinnern, sondern ‘in’ ihm) zur Enthüllung” (Hua VII, p. 264).
An interesting illustration of this can be found in Galen Strawson’s work on self. Strawson vigorously defends the claim that the self is an object. From a phenomenological perspective this claim will sound quite problematic. However, it is worth noticing the specific definition of object provided by Strawson. As he writes “to be an object (if objects exist) is simply to be a ‘strong unity’” (Strawson 2009, p. 298).
“Bewußtsein ist eine Einheit. Ein Akt ist nichts für sich, er ist Welle im Bewußtseinsstrom.”
Tye has recently defended a view somewhat similar to Bergson’s. Tye considers the problem of how a sequence of experiences is unified to be a pseudo-problem, since on his account we are never aware of our experiences as unified or as continuing through time or as succeeding one another. If I have an experience of a red flash followed by a green flash, I experience two colored flashes as occurring one after the other. I do not experience my experience of a green flash as succeeding my experience of a red flash any more than I experience my experience of a red flash as red. Continuity, change and succession are features of the items experienced and not features of the experiences (Tye 2003, pp. 96–97).
It is, however, also important not to overlook a certain ambiguity inherent to the metaphor. The relation between the stream (of consciousness) and the waves (the experiences) is not identical to the relation between the experiencing and the experiences. The latter relation has nothing to do with the former relation, which is a relation between a whole and its moments. In the following quotation it is obviously the latter that Husserl has in mind: “Unser Weltbewußtseinsleben ist ein kontinuierlicher Strom des ‘Erlebens’, verlaufend in mannigfaltigen Sondererlebnissen als unselbständigen Momenten, als Wellen gleichsam dieses Stromes. Ein jedes ist nicht nur ‘Welle des Stromes’, also Teil eines Ganzen, des Lebensganzen, sondern in jedem ist etwas erlebt” (Hua XXIX, p. 194). That this notion of “Erlebens” should not be confused with the experiencing of the absolute time-constituting flow is clear from the following passage: “Diese strömend lebendige Gegenwart ist nicht das, was wir sonst auch schon transzendental-phänomenologisch als Bewusstseinsstrom oder Erlebnisstrom bezeichneten. Es ist überhaupt kein ‘Strom’ gemäß dem Bild, also ein eigentlich zeitliches (oder gar zeiträumliches) Ganzes, das in der Einheit einer zeitlichen Extension ein kontinuierlich sukzessives individuelles Dasein hat (in seinen unterscheidbaren Strecken und Phasen durch diese Zeitformen individuiert). Die strömend lebendige Gegenwart ist ‘kontinuierlich’ strömendes Sein und doch nicht in einem Außereinandersein, nicht in raumzeitlicher (welträumlicher), nicht in ‘immanent-zeitlicher’ Extension Sein (also in keinem Außereinander, das Nacheinander heißt, Nacheinander in dem Sinne eines Stellenauseinander in einer eigentlich so zu nennenden Zeit)” (Hua XXXIV, p. 187).
A third disagreement concerns Brough’s understanding of Querintentionalität (cf. Zahavi 1999, pp. 74–75). But since this criticism has never been picked up by or commented on by Brough or any other Husserl scholar for that matter, I will leave it at that.
For a number of contributions discussing the merits and weaknesses of such an account, see Siderits et al. (2010).
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I completed the present text before having a chance to read John Brough’s contribution to this issue of Husserl Studies. Instead, I mainly engaged with another recent article by Brough (2010). After having finished my own contribution, I did, however, receive a copy of Brough’s new text, and as far as I can judge the two new pieces by him neatly complement each other.
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Zahavi, D. Objects and Levels: Reflections on the Relation Between Time-Consciousness and Self-Consciousness. Husserl Stud 27, 13–25 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10743-010-9084-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10743-010-9084-4