Summary |
The notion of
constitution is quite ubiquitous in Husserl’s texts, but is not often clarified.
Constitution occurs when, by functioning of certain experiential resources,
a kind of stable unity is produced in experience. There is typically an aspect of
experience that undergoes a kind of interpretation, another that interprets it, and, thirdly, the constituted item,
distinct from the constituting resources. E.g., series of visual and
kinesthetic sensations, by “animation” of the former by the latter, function to
constitute a spatially extended object (“the phantom”). For Husserl, there are several levels of constitution. E.g., the level for phantoms is followed by the levels for material things and Lifeworldly
things. The items constituted at a certain level will be
available to function constitutively on the next levels. |