Introduction
In our last lesson, we established that transcendental subjectivity's primary role is to constitute the meaning of objects through its intentional acts. We saw that for Husserl, objectivity itself is an achievement of consciousness, a "formation of sense and validity" that happens within the transcendental sphere.
Today, we will transition from understanding these theoretical concepts to applying them in practice. Our goal is to analyze a short passage from Husserl's Cartesian Meditations to identify a key argument. This is a critical skill for your goal of writing academic philosophy, as it involves moving from summarizing a philosopher's ideas to dissecting their reasoning.
We will focus on Husserl's masterpiece, Cartesian Meditations, where he rigorously lays out his phenomenological project. His aim in this work is to renew Descartes's quest for an absolutely certain foundation for knowledge. We will learn how to extract a specific line of reasoning from the text and reconstruct its logical structure, a process that should be familiar given your background in mathematical proofs.
1. The Method: Philosophical Argument Reconstruction
Before we dive into Husserl's text, let's clarify our method. When philosophers write, they don't just state conclusions; they build arguments. An argument consists of a set of reasons, called premises, that are intended to support a conclusion.
Analyzing a philosophical argument involves:
- Identifying the conclusion: What is the main point the author is trying to prove?
- Identifying the premises: What reasons or evidence does the author provide to support that conclusion?
- Evaluating the structure: Do the premises logically lead to the conclusion?
- Evaluating the premises: Are the premises themselves plausible or well-supported?
Today, we will focus on the first two steps: identifying and reconstructing an argument. This practice of laying out an argument in a clear, premise-conclusion format exposes its logical skeleton, making it much easier to understand and critique.
2. An Example of Analysis: The Experience of the 'Other'
Husserl's Cartesian Meditations contains many complex arguments. For our exercise, we will look at a classic problem from the Fifth Meditation: how is it possible for me to experience another person as another conscious subject (an alter ego), and not just as a physical object in my world?
To guide our analysis, we will use a secondary source—a scholarly article that has already done the work of isolating and examining a key argument from Husserl's text. This allows us to focus on the structure of the argument itself.
The paper we will look at is "Husserl's Fifth Meditation" by Peter Hutcheson. It provides a model for the kind of rigorous analysis we are aiming for.
[PDF] Husserl's fifth meditation
In this paper, Peter Hutcheson critically assesses the arguments in Husserl's Fifth Meditation. We will focus on a section where he reconstructs Husserl's argument for why our perception of another person must be 'mediated'.
Please read Section II, 'Perception of Someone Else as "Mediated"', starting on page 273. Your focus should be on the four-premise argument that Hutcheson extracts from Husserl's text at the very beginning of the section. Try to understand what each premise means and how they logically lead to the conclusion. Don't worry about the subsequent critique for now; concentrate on the reconstruction of the argument itself.
3. Deconstructing Husserl's Argument
As you saw in the reading, Hutcheson reconstructs Husserl's argument in a clear, logical form. Let's break it down step-by-step.
The Question: How can my consciousness, which is fundamentally my own, have an experience of an other's consciousness?
Husserl's Argument (as reconstructed by Hutcheson):
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Premise 1: When I perceive someone else, I perceive him "in person".
This is the phenomenological starting point. When I see another person, they are present to me directly, in the flesh. I am not inferring their existence; I am experiencing them as being there. -
Premise 2: But if I experienced the other ego, his appearances or subjective processes "originally", then the other subject and I would be identical.
This is the crucial step. "Originally" (or primordially) refers to the way you experience your own consciousness—from the inside, as a living stream of awareness. Husserl's point is that to have "original" access to another's consciousness would mean to be that consciousness. There would be no "other," only one unified field of experience. -
Premise 3: Obviously, the other subject and I are not identical.
This premise is self-evident. The very phenomenon we are trying to explain is the experience of an other, someone distinct from myself. -
Conclusion 4: Therefore, although I perceive someone else "in person", I experience neither the other ego, nor his appearances, nor his subjective processes, originally.
If the premises are true, this conclusion follows logically. My experience of the other, while direct ("in person"), cannot be an experience of their consciousness "from the inside."
This leads to a fundamental distinction:
- Original (or Presentative) Experience: My direct, first-person access to my own stream of consciousness. It is presented to me.
- Mediated (or Appresentative) Experience: My access to the other's consciousness. The other's body and behavior are presented to me, and through them, the other's consciousness is appresented—made co-present—without being given originally.
You perceive the other's body, but you apperceive (co-perceive) their subjectivity. You don't see their thoughts and feelings, but you experience them as a unified psycho-physical being who has them. This "appresentation" is a unique mode of intentionality, distinct from how we perceive inanimate objects.
Conclusion
In this lesson, we have moved from theory to practice by analyzing a key argument from Husserl's Cartesian Meditations. This exercise provided a concrete demonstration of how to engage rigorously with a primary philosophical text.
Key Takeaways:
- Philosophical analysis involves reconstructing arguments by identifying their premises and conclusions. This reveals their logical structure.
- We analyzed Husserl's argument from the Fifth Meditation for why our experience of another subject must be mediated, not original.
- We cannot experience another's consciousness "from the inside" (originally), because that would mean we are identical to them.
- Instead, the other's consciousness is appresented through the direct perception of their living body. This is a unique form of intentionality that constitutes our experience of intersubjectivity.
- This analytical skill is fundamental to reading, understanding, and ultimately writing academic philosophy.
Preview of the Next Lesson:
In today's lesson, we focused on identifying and understanding a single argument within a larger text. In our next lesson, we will broaden our scope. The task will be to reconstruct the main thesis of a short secondary source article on Husserl's concept of the lifeworld. This will require you to synthesize multiple arguments and observations to grasp the overarching point of an entire scholarly work, bringing you another step closer to your goal.