Summary |
In Husserl’s account of
imagination the focus is on Phantasie
(Aristotle) rather than Einbildungskraft
(Kant). In his Göttingen lectures 1904/05, Husserl characterises phantasy as
consciousness of what is not present [Nichtgegenwärtigkeits-Bewusstsein],
as re-presentation or representification [Vergegenwärtigung].
He divides presentations into conceptual and intuitive. The latter is further
divided into intuitive presentations in which the presented object itself appears (perception), and
intuitive re-presentations in which the image
of the presented object appears (phantasy, image consciousness, memory,
expectation). Thus, his early theory states that phantasy is an image
presentation, it has the form of image consciousness. Later he moved to the
parallelism between phantasy and perception saying that phantasy appearance
relates to its object just as straightforwardly as perception does. In Ideas I Husserl identifies phantasy as
neutrality-modification of positing presentations. Husserl's thoughts on art and aesthetics are mostly written in the context of his theory of phantasy and image consciousness. |