Cognitive-System Phenomenology — A Critique of Husserl (part 25)

In the preceding sections, we examined the functional super-existential meaning of objects and introduced what I termed functional eidetic intuition in correspondence with Husserl’s eidetic intuition. In Section 23, I further introduced the notion of functional accompaniments of an object. In the present section, I introduce what may be called the accompanying functional eidetic intuition of objects. The introduction of this concept further extends the domain of functional intuition. It can be observed that in the exhibition of an object’s function, in addition to the object whose function is manifested, other objects are typically required in order for this functional performance to occur. These auxiliary objects may be termed the accompanying objects of the functional act. By carrying out free imaginative variation (freie phantastische Variation) with respect to these accompanying objects, we arrive at the accompanying functional eidetic intuition of the object. Through this procedure, further possible modes of functional manifestation are disclosed. At this stage, five forms of intuition concerning objects can be distinguished: intuition of the object itself, intuition of its function, eidetic intuition of the object, functional eidetic intuition, and accompanying functional eidetic intuition. These expand upon Husserl’s classical distinction between perceptual intuition and eidetic intuition. In this sense, the present analysis broadens Husserl’s phenomenological field.