Husserl is considered as the father of phenomenology. He provides the foundational analyses of concepts central to phenomenology as a philosophical enterprise. And, one central concept that he put into deep analysis is intentionality or about our consciousness. For further discussion about the philosophical background of Husserl, it will be discussed in another blog.
Intentionality is a phenomenological term or concept that describes the nature of consciousness. It means to say, that our consciousness or our awareness is always directed to something else other than consciousness itself. Or in simple terms, intentionality (consciousness) is "directedness". To make this even more clear, an example would be useful. Let us say, you are reading this blog right now - as you really are. Your consciousness or awareness is not directed towards itself - it is not occupied of itself. Instead, it is directed towards this blog - meaning, your consciousness is occupied with the content and appearance of this particular blog. You are seeing this blog, your consciousness is occupied with the sight what you see, which is this blog. Or you are thinking, or imagining about the content of the blog - the words that I am saying. As you are thinking or imagining, your consciousness is occupied by the thing that you are thinking or imagining about. Your consciousness is and will always be directed to or occupied by things other than consciousness itself. This is what we mean by intentionality - the nature of our consciousness.
There are different kinds of intentionality or intentional states. As mentioned above, some of which are thinking, imagining, dreaming, and any other acts of consciousness - this includes perceiving or our perception. For Husserl, among the many kinds of intentionality, perception is the paradigmatic one. By paradigmatic, it means the kind of intentionality that is in perception or perceiving is the paradigm or the model where all other intentionality is based upon. This idea develops from the empiricists' view on (perceptual) experience as the ultimate source of knowledge. So, perceptual experience or perception is also the fundamental intentionality or conscious experience. Which means, that all other kinds of intentionality are just representative of the primal intentional experience which is perception. To demonstrate this claim, let us consider an example. Let us say, you perceived a cat. Because of that perceptual experience or perception, you will be able to think about, or dream about, or imagine about, or like about a cat or cats. Without the prior perceptual experience of a cat, you cannot have any other form of intentionality with a cat - like thinking, dreaming, and imagining. So, as you see, all other kinds of intentionality owes its own possibility to perceptual experience or perception. Clearly, perception is really the paradigmatic kind of intentionality. Thus, as you will see in Husserl, he will focus his phenomenological analysis on our perception of the world.
Please let me know what you think about this blog in the comment section below. If, you have questions, don’t hesitate to comment them too. Let us discuss deeper and share insights about this blog.
0 Comments