‘Passive-active’ As a Functional Distinction in Husserl’s Theory of Consciousness

Marek Maciejczak

doi:10.21697/spch.2022.58.A.02

Published: 2022-07-31

Vol. 58 No. 1 (2022)

‘Passive-active’ As a Functional Distinction in Husserl’s Theory of Consciousness

Marek Maciejczak

Studia Philosophiae Christianae

Section: Papers

https://doi.org/10.21697/spch.2022.58.A.02

Abstract

This article discusses passive and active aspects of consciousness as two equally justified roots of life experiencing the world (Weltbewusstseinsleben). The passive domain involves the synthesis of internal time, association, habituality, bodily aspects, etc. The active domain includes strictly cognitive competences of consciousness: thinking, judging, etc. What has been actively constituted becomes passive as the basic level for higher form of understanding. The two domains interweave, influence each other, complement each other, and also remain in a certain tension and discrepancy. In the broader perspective of the system of consciousness and its various layers, the passive-active differentiation must be treated functionally, and not as hierarchically arranged or constituted by separable concepts. It reflects the dynamics of the consciousness system at all its levels, and its meaning oscillates between the opposite and the overlapping.

---------------------

Received: 26/01/2022. Reviewed: 28/03/2022. Accepted: 12/05/2022.

Keywords:

inner time, consciousness, passivity, activity, habituality, evidence

Most read articles by the same author(s)

Marek Maciejczak, LINGUISTIC MEANING AS A PART OF THE CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF THE WORLD , Studia Philosophiae Christianae: Vol. 56 No. S1 (2020)
Marek Maciejczak, Phenomenology As a Hermeneutic of the Life of Consciousness , Studia Philosophiae Christianae: Vol. 60 No. 1 (2024)

Download files

PDF

Citation rules

Maciejczak, M. (2022). ‘Passive-active’ As a Functional Distinction in Husserl’s Theory of Consciousness. Studia Philosophiae Christianae, 58(1), 25–46. https://doi.org/10.21697/spch.2022.58.A.02

Cited by / Share

References

Biceaga, V. (2010). The Concept of Passivity in Husserl’s Phenomenology. Heidelberg – London – New York: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3915-6
Google Scholar

Brudzinska, J. (2012). Depth Phenomenology of the Emotive Dynamic and the Psychoanalytic Experience. In: D. Lohmar, J. Brudzinska (eds.), Founding Psychoanalysis Phenomenologically. Phenomenological Theory of Subjectivity and the Psychoanalytic Experience (Phaenomenologica 199), 23-52. Dordrecht – Heidelberg – London – New York: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1848-7_2
Google Scholar

Cavallaro, M. (2016). Das Problem der Habituskonstitution und die Spätlehre des Ich in der genetischen Phänomenologie E. Husserls. Husserl Study, 32, 237-261. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10743-016-9188-6
Google Scholar

Claesges, U. (1964). Edmund Husserls Theorie der Raumkonstitution. Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3573-6
Google Scholar

Geniusas, S. (2012). The Origins of the Horizon in Husserl’s Phenomenology. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4644-2
Google Scholar

Held, K. (1966). Lebendige Gegenwart. Die Frage nach der Seinsfrage des transzendentalen Ich bei Edmund Husserl, entwickelt am Leitfaden der Zeiproblematik. Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2059-5
Google Scholar

Held, K. (2003). Husserl’s Phenomenology of the Life-World. In: D. Welton (ed.), The New Husserl. A Critical Reader, 32-62. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Google Scholar

Holenstein, E. (1980). Von der Hintergehbarkeit der Sprache, Kognitive Unterlagen der Sprache. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1930). Manuscript C.
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1960). Cartesian Meditations. An Introduction to Phenomenology. The Hague – Boston – London: Martinus Nijhoff Publ. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-4952-7
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1966). Analysen zur passiven Synthesis: aus Vorlesungs- und Forschungsmanuskripten 1918-1926. Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff.
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1968). Logische Untersuchungen, II/2. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1969). Formal and Transcendental Logic. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publ. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-4900-8
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1970). The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1972). Erfahrung und Urteil Untersuchungen zur Genealogie der Logik. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag.
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1973a). Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubiektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass. Dritter Teil: 1929-1935. Den Haag: Verlag Martinus Nijhoff.
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1973b). Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus der Nachlass. Erster Teil: 1905-1920. Den Haag: Verlag Martinus Nijhoff. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2474-7
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1980). On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time (1893-1917). Dordrecht – Boston – London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1983). Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy (First Book. General Introduction to a Pure Phenomenology). The Haque – Boston – Lancaster: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7445-6
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1989). Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy (Second Book: Studies in the Phenomenology of Constitution). Dordrecht – Boston – London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2233-4
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (1993). Logische Untersuchungen. Elemente einer phänomenologischen Aufklärung der Erkenntnis. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110916089
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (2001a). Analyses Concerning Passive and Active Synthesis. Lectures on Transcendental Logic. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0846-4
Google Scholar

Husserl, E. (2001b). Die “Bernauer Manuskripte” über das Zeitbewusstsein (1917/18). Dordrecht: Springer.
Google Scholar

Legrand, D., Trigg, D. (eds.). (2017). Unconsciousness Between Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis (Contributions to Phenomenology 88). Dordrecht: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55518-8
Google Scholar

Prokopski, M. (2013). Cielesna geneza czasu i przestrzeni [Bodily Genesis of Time and Space]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo IFiS PAN.
Google Scholar

Schwabe-Hansen, E. (1991). Das Verhältnis von transzendentaler und konkreter Subjektivität in der Phänomenologie Edmund Husserls. München: Wilhelm Fink Vlg.
Google Scholar

Smith, D.W., McIntyre, R. (1982). Husserl and Intentionality. A Study of Mind, Meaning and Language. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9383-5
Google Scholar

Sousa, E. (2014). Phenomenological Psychology: Husserl’s Static and Genetic Method. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 45, 27-60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15691624-12341267
Google Scholar

Stolorow, R. (2009). Individuality in Context. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 4, 405-413. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15551020903185774
Google Scholar

Tugendhat, E. (1967). Der Wahrheitsbegriff bei Husserl und Heidegger. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111523071
Google Scholar

Zahavi, D. (1999). Self-Awarness and Alterity. A Phenomenological Investigation. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Google Scholar