Time consciousness (Zeitbewusstsein)

Abstract

Time-Consciousness phenomenology organises mainly in three thematic cores. In a first period, 1904-1905, in texts collected in Husserl’s lessons On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time (1893-1917), the leading question is to describe how it is possible the perception of an object that endures by means of an impresional-retentional and protentional system, taking a melody as a paradigmatic enduring object. In a second moment, in the Bernau-Manuscripts (1917-1918), the analysis moves from the egoic spontaneous processes to the preceding passive synthesis, discussing in addition two consciousness-models: one that considers that consciousness is an always time-constituing consciousness; another that argues that temporality [properly speaking] appears somehow [in some way] only when reflection focalises the constitutive processes of consciousness. Finally, in the C- Manuscripts (1929-1934), in addition to the previous problems, Husserl introduces the notion of «living Present» to insist upon the active-giving-operating-temporalising character of consciousness.

Key words:  Time consciousness, inner consciousness, live present, retention, protention, protoimpression, immanence, passive synthesis