Phenomenology Kitten—Presence and Absence

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On this date on Round and Square's History 

6 November 2012—Displays of Authenticity: Vote
6 November 2011—Hurtin' Country: Ring of Fire

[a] Appearing to consciousness RF

Our attainment of enlightenment is something like the reflection of the

moon in water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water cleft apart...

The whole moon and the whole sky find room enough in a single dewdrop...

                             —Dōgen, Conversations

So let's keep things simple...or at least as simple as they can be in the study of phenomenology. Remember the cube yesterday? We can't see every dimension of it at once, and yet we experience it as a whole. 

Well, there are implications in all of this. Let's let Professor Robert Sokolowski keep guiding us here. You see, it's all about presence and absence. And remember that tricky word "intend" (not to mention "cointend"). Click the link here if that is fuzzy.

[b] Big ball o' yarn RF

Objectively, what is given to me when I see a cube is a blend made up of of sides that are present and sides that are absent but cointended. The thing being seen involves a mixture of the present and the absent.

Subjectively, my perceptions, my viewing, is a blend made up of filled and empty intentions. My activity of perceiving, therefore, is also a mixture; parts of it intend what is present, and other parts intend what is absent, the"other" sides of the cube.

Of course, "everyone knows" that perception involves such blends, but not everyone knows their philosophical impact...[1]

And that is precisely where we'll pick things up tomorrow. The philosophical impact of everything being "about" presence and absence is big stuff, and we are going to play with that idea like a big ol' ball of yarn on the floor.


And that is why they call me "Phenomenology Kitten" (all is wonder)...

[c] Examining all sides RF

Notes
[1] Robert Sokolowski, Introduction to Phenomenology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 17. Italics mine.

Bibliography
Sokolowski, Robert. Introduction to Phenomenology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

[Originally posted on January 3, 2015]