IV. The Structure of Intentionality

Philosophy 157

G. J. Mattey

©2002

Intention

• Consciousness is always “consciousness of” (Brentano)

• Existing theories of consciousness have been inadequate

• “Consciousness of” has two sides: the “intentive” mental processes and what they “intend” or are directed toward

• The content is the “sense” of the process

Noesis

• “Noûs” is the Greek work for intellect or mind

• “Noesis” is Greek for the operations of noûs, thinking as opposed to sensing

• Husserl adopts it to signify the intentive mental processes

• The range of “noetic” processes includes perceiving, believing, valuing, etc.

Noema

• A noema is the correlate of a noesis, its “sense” or what it is about

• The noema of perception is “the perceived as perceived,” and so for believing, etc.

• We study the noemata by “excluding” the natural situation of what is perceived and considering only what actually appears

• A “tree” as perceived has is not the subject of chemistry or physics: it has no real properties

Components of Noesis and Noema

• Both noesis and noema are made up of “moments” or components

• The task is to show what they are and how they are related to each other

• The primary moment is the “sense-moment”• Here are correlated the mental process of

perceiving and the “perceived as perceived”• Both of these have their own moments

An Example

• Consider the perception of a table at a time• The mental process involves directing one’s sight at

a physical table• The result is the noema, “the table as seen”• This is does not exhaust the “sense” of the table, for

there are unseen sides• Other moments of perception allow for the

completion of the perception• I might walk around the table and view it from

another side

The Unity of the Noema

• The full noema is the result of the unifying activity of the noesis

• This activity may involve further perceptions, imaginings, conjecturings, theorizings, etc.

• We can ask, for example, what perceptions we would have if we viewed the tree differently

• In this way, the “tree” is “constituted” by the “synthetic” or unifying noetic activity

Moments of Perception

• Noemata have a material aspect, “stuffs,” such as “color”

• Corresponding to “color” are “hyletic” moments of the noesis. (“Hyle” is Greek for matter)

• The hyletic moments are “sensed colors” that “fill in” the outline of the “tree” in “sense-bestowals”

• There are also moments that “animate” the stuffs in “construings,” as when we consider how the “tree’s” “leaves” would move if blown by wind

Unity and Multiplicity

• There are multiplicities in both the noesis and the noema

• Unity in the noema is the result of multiplicity in the noesis

• For example, we say that a “tree” has one “color,” yet we fill it in with different “sensed-colors” when we change our visual setting

• The unity comes from our recognition of the fact that the filling-in is done systematically, consistent with a single “color” in the “tree”

Ramifications

• Perceiving is augmented by imaginative construal to produce the full noema

• We can then subject this noema to different processes, such as valuing

• The “tree” has “delightfully scented blossoms”

• The “delightfully scented tree” is a noema which includes the perceptual noema