Husserl’s Terminology

Originally Written: February 28th 2020
  • Nous – means mind, or Jungian psyche, so it is the general base for our subjective experiencing, which contains different components which themselves can be conceptualized and represented by different words, in reference to the totality of the psyche, or the nous.
  • Noema – is the thought, or mental content as experienced, the perceived object as it is meant by the subjective actor, what is intended through the act of thinking/perceiving/judging, the subjectively experienced moment that is perceived
  • Noemata – different perspectives or moments of perception relating to a single conceptual object, the characteristics which define the noema
  • Noesis – denoting a part of the mind such as one of the acts of mental experience, the mode of being which is background to the presentation of the noema in experience, that which is the active abstract mode manifesting content
  • Noetic content – content directly relating to the mental act itself, the noesis, as object, in its processing, such as the characteristics of the act of thinking, perceiving, judging, it is the description of traits which are embodied in the noesis

The thought itself, as we experience it, and its attributes and characteristics presented to us subjectively, as in the object thought about, and what is meant by it (the intention of intentionality) would be the noema. This noema is experienced momentarily, as what we perceive in the moment of thinking as being the object of thought would be depicted as the noema, a collection of various perceptions directed at the self-same object of perception or thought, the collection of norms in their unity as depicting an object, would collectively be called the neomata, or the description and characteristics of the momentary experience itself. This I describe as the neomata or the noematic content. If we were to have thoughts arising, the process of being which is “thinking” – being – the conceptual explanation part of the mind, would be a noesis, which contains an underlying essence which describes it in itself, the noetic content, what is that content we use to describe the act of thinking itself.

As an example, if we take the subjective experience of imagining a unicorn in our head. That image we get, and the conceptualization which corresponds to it in a subsequent moment of “thought”, and the meaning given by such conceptual symbolization in another moment, would be different noemas. The perspective which we inhabit and experience in the present moment is the content of the noema. All these different moments of being, experientially, which relate to the object of thought (the unicorn) are different noema, the way in which they all relate to the object, in the abstract intentionality and the characteristics of it, would be denoted as neomata. The noesis would the act of imagining as it is itself, giving rise to such an experience. That mode of being in which the noema occurs, that which is background and presupposed by the subjective experience, is the noesis. The noetic content would be the components which make up the noesis, or what constitutes imagining, such as doubting, mental imagery, belief, intentionality (directedness of though towards an object), all this content is underlying the act of noesis, of imagination, which in its subjective experience is shown in different ways, one of which would be the experience of imagining a unicorn, in its describing, picturing, doubting, questioning validity, judging, etc.

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