Note: this assignment, due Nov. 20, is for students in Group III (Meza, Mova) only.
Please respond to the following question in
approximately two pages (double spaced). (Needless to say this should
be your own original work.)
§43 of the Ideas is titled ``The
Clarification of a Fundamental Error.'' The ``fundamental error'' in
question is to think that we see only the appearances of ``physical
things,'' as opposed to seeing them the way they are in
themselves. (Recall that a ``physical thing''
[Ding] is just an ordinary perceivable
object, such as a tree.) According to this erroneous view,
``God''--that is, a hypothetical subject ``possessing every possible
adequate perception''--would, unlike us, see physical things
themselves. Why, according to Husserl, is this an error? Why is it
wrong to suppose, even hypothetically, a subject which perceives
physical things adequately? How does a confusion between perception
and symbolic representation (or ``objectivation'': Vorstellung) lead people to commit this error?