Note: this assignment is for students in Groups I and II only.
Please respond to the following question in
approximately two pages (double spaced). (Needless to say this should
be your own original work.)
In the opening paragraphs of Ideas §13
(pp. 26-7) Husserl makes a distinction between ``specialization'' and
``de-formalization.'' As an example he discusses (a) the relationship
between the essence triangle and the genus spatial
shape vs. (b) the relationship between the essence triangle
and the form essence. Clearly both essence and
spatial shape are much more universal (have a much wider
range, apply to many more things) than triangle. Why is it
supposedly clear, nevertheless, that relationships (a) and (b) are not
the same kind of example, i.e. that the two kinds of
``universality'' involved are not the same? Relate this to Husserl's
statement that pure logic/formal ontology is about the empty form of a
region in general, whereas a material ontology is confined to a single
region.