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LU III

the theory of parts and wholes

Jay Lampert

pp. 73-87

While LU ii describes the dynamic of synthetic interpretation that constitutes universals as ideal objects, Husserl's theory of parts and wholes in the third Logical Investigation describes the dynamic that constitutes individual objects. I will develop three of Husserl's descriptive categories which commentators rarely thematize, namely the categories of "passing over borders" (übergehen), of "lifting off in relief" (abheben), and of the "demand for supplementation" (Ergänzungsbedürftigkeit). Parts pass over into, and lift off from, one another, so that when we see an object partially, those parts demand that we see more; when we know it partially, those parts demand that we interpret it further; and when our interpretations are only partially unified, those parts demand a closed unity of consciousness. On this reading, the ideal closure of the whole operates within systems of openness: each part opens up the demands for larger contexts, while each whole opens up the demand for internal articulation. How, then, does each part of an object demand its own supplementation? What is the ground of the dynamic of passing over from part to part? How is a thing more than it is?

Publication details

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-015-8443-2_4

Full citation:

Lampert, J. (1995). LU III: the theory of parts and wholes, in Synthesis and backward reference in Husserl's Logical investigations, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 73-87.

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