Intuition Ego And Evidence

Evidence is an important concept of Husserl's phenomenology and a question which Husserl always cared about.People have different attitudes towards evidence,some hold on evidence,and others reject evidence. Psychologism rejected evidence,because it confused evidence with subjectivity. So,if it held on evidence,it would make Truth subjective and relative.So Psychologism had to reject evidence.But Psychologism didn't see that not evidence but confusion of evidence and subjectivity makes Truth subjective and relative.So evidence should not be rejected. That should be rejected is a wrong comprehension about evidence——evidence is internality,and internality is subjectivity,so evidence is subjectivity. The way of avoiding making Truth subjective and relative lies in the accurate comprehension about evidence——evidence is internality,but it is objectivity of internality not subjectivity of internality——not in rejection of evidence.Rejection of evidence would make Truth lose its rationalization and similarly make Truth subjective and relative.So Husserl was opposed to rejection of evidence and held on evidence. Different from Psychologism,the evidence Husserl held on is objectivity of internality not subjectivity of internality,thus evidence has something to do with knowledge and Truth.This research contains four sections. The first section mainly discusses the relationship between evidence and intuition. At late 19th century psychologism was very popular. Psychologism thought that logical rules were a part of psychological rules. In this way, logical rules and psychological movement rules are mixed together. This actually makes objectivity of logical rules as the objects of psychological movement swallowed up by subjectivity of psychological movement, and this will lead to relativism.So Husserl proposed evidence——through evidence, the demand of grasping Truth proves reasonable, and rejecting"evidence"implies that the so-called Truth is just"being treated as true". Husserl thought intuition is the method of grasping evidence. Why? Because evidence is a target which we"want to get and are able to get". In the intuition, the objects not only are intended but also are given, therefore we"want to get and are able to get"them,so the objects are evident . But intuition as the way to get to evidence is not sufficient, it needs another method as its foundation. Only on the foundation of this method could intuition get to evidence. This method is Epoché. Epochéputs reality existence into a bracket, thus makes sure what intuition intuits is ideal. The important significance of epochéis also that it explores the close relationship between evidence and Subject, therefore Husserl could impel the research on evidence from the theory of intuition to the theory of ego.The second section mainly discusses the relationship between evidence and a psychological subject. The area of evidence is just the area of a subject. This subject is"ego reduced in phenomenology"which appears after epoché."Ego reduced in phenomenology"is a psychological subject, because it does not get rid of psychological substantiality——it's a subject between substantiality and functionality.Epochéis a retrospect to evident domain which is formed by this subject. Retrospect is reflection. So the area of evidence is the area of reflection in the sense of phenomenology.Reflection is that Subject reviews itself. So, if the area of evidence is the area of reflection, it means that evidence is"inside"Subject and internality of Subject. This is a principle of evidence. Then how could"ego reduced in phenomenology"fulfill the internal principle of evidence? First of all, since"ego reduced in phenomenology"is"reduced in phenomenology", it is a sealed area which refuses any transcendental things . This area is composed of two dimensions——one is psychology ,and the other is logic. The two dimensions tightly convolve together through intenionality, and form a sealing dualistic structure to make sure of internality of objects. But this"ego reduced in phenomenology"has troubles. This"ego reduced in phenomenology"could appear only on the foudation of epoché,and what epochébrackets is the physical world outside. So this"ego reduced in phenomenology"is a subject which is opposite to the physical world outside,so it is a limited subject .But its object——ideal, is infinite. Then how could a limited subject contain infinity ? Actually, for Subject, evidence has double requirements: on one hand it requires internality of Subject, on the other hand it requires that Subject is universal. In other words, to grasp evidence, internality of Subject is not enough."Ego reduced in phenomenology"can meet the internal quest of evidence ,but it cann't meet the universal quest of evidence,so it really cann't meet the internal quest of evidence.So"ego reduced in phenomenology"should be improvede as an universal subject ,this is also Husserl's"prior ego".The third section mainly discusses the relationship between evidence and prior ego.Prior ego appears after prior reduction.When prior reduction is carried out, a subject is an universal subject.So priorl ego fulfills the universal requirement which evidence proposes firstly.Prior ego also meets the internal quest of evidencce. It lies in that prior ego has constitutionality.Through the laws of internal time, apperception could be constituted inside prior ego in the first place, and through the laws of motivation physical world and ideal are inside prior ego one by one.The laws of internal time and the laws of motivation belong to genesis laws. As a result, through genesis laws, the psychological area,the physical area and the ideal area, in another word, the area of reality and the area of ideal are all inside prior ego. So prior ego fulfills the double requirements of evidence: internality and Catholicity, it could grasp evidence indeed.The fourth section discusses how evidence could be actualized on the foundation of three sections foregoing. From the theory of intuition to the theory of ego, Husserl looked for the conditions which could guarantee objects are evident little by little. Finally he thought evidence could be achieved inside prior ego. Because evidence has its own requests both in principle and in method, it will be fulfilled in the fulfillment of these requests, and prior ego fulfills these requests both in principle and in method. The request of evidence in principle is internality and Catholicity of Subject,and prior ego is an universal subject which owns constitutionality.The request of evidence in method is the combination of intuition and reflection, and prior ego has two dimensions——one is constitution, and the other is reflection. As a result, on one hand prior ego fulfills the request of evidence in principle , and on the other hand it fulfills the request of evidence in method, in another word, the demands which evidence requires both in principle and in method will be achieved in prior ego.As a result, prior ego could fulfill evidence.Prior ego is a theoretical vertex which was achieved around evidence by Husserl,and it is also the ultimate vertex of the constant changes of"ego"which had been around evidence from modern philosophy.After Descartes, when philosophers in western philosophical history talked about"ego",they always connected it with evidence. From Descartes, people had always wanted to ensure evidence of objects in the way of"ego". But at the same time people were conscious that ego must possess some attributes if it could ensure evidence of objects. Kant was conscious that ego has to possess constitutionality, and Schelling was conscious that ego has to possess Catholicity.But constitutionality and Catholicity had not been truly combined until Husserl's prior ego, thus the internal principle and the universal principle of evidence could be accomplished. As a result, all the things constituted inside prior ego are already evident, but they have to be represented to us through some kind of method. This method is reflection. And prior ego achieves reflection through the reflective ability it has, acknowledges the identity of being given and being intended, enters the place where evidence is and grasps actual knowledge.