The Thickness of the Moment, Husserl, para 194, Supplementary B1 to: On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time

by Corry Shores
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The Thickness of the Moment

Edmund Husserl

On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time

B: Supplementary Texts

II

The Suspension of Objective Time, The Temporal Object, The Phenomenology of Objectivation and its Aporiae

No. 27

Attempt at a Survey: the Fundamental Temporal Distinctions. There-itself and Objectivation

Paragraph 194

A melody falls to our ears. Its notes dance in succession. Husserl will distinguish three senses of ‘succession.’

1) Successions in the melody’s form. These might be the series of measures in the melody. They might be the series of notes. Or they could be the sequence of phases of just one note.

2) Successions in our perception of the melody itself. These could be either:

a) sensations of notes A B C and so on. Or it could be of phases within note A.

b) perceptions of A, of B, of C, and so on.

3) Awareness-moment successions. The sequence

occurred continuously. But we can think of there being distinct moments. As instantaneous, they would be temporally inextensive. But we do not experience time this way. It’s continuous. The momentary phases in this ideal sense are like mathematical limits. But really, the instants of our awareness have at least some temporal duration, even if very little. Hence Husserl says they have a degree of “thickness.”

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Husserl, Edmund. On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time (1893-1917). Vol 4 ofEdmund Husserl: Collected Works. Ed. Rudolf Bernet. Trans. John Barnett Brough. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991.