Meinong’s Theory Of Object And Husserl’s Theory Of Continuum:a Comparison

Husserl has improved Meinong’s ideas concerning the constitution of objects in the area of consciousness. If it is agreed among scholars that Meinong comes up with the analysis of objective time, Husserl presents a new perspective to study internal time on the basis of Meinong’s notion of objective time. By this way, Husserl’s main focus is to explain how the objects are constituted under the contradiction between objective time and internal time.Meinong is the first person who suggests individualizing objects in the term of time, taking the temporal phase of object, perceptual act and the content of perception as three basic elements in the process of constituting an object. And he reaches a conclusion that a higher object can only be represented by means of undistributed contents. Because of lacking the fundamental position of consciousness of internal time, Meinong’s theory of object has some serious defects, which leads to Husserl’s new perspective of internal time.From the position of internal time, Husserl tries to solve Meinong’s trouble by the theory of continua. However, since the external objects belong to the external world and objective time, while consciousness, characterized with internal time, is a distinctive area which differs from the external world, therefore, the conclusion that external objects are constituted in the area of consciousness faces with an unavoidable internal contradiction. Husserl considers that the key to the problem of constitution of object is how to transform external time to internal time and unify them. The objective time of external object and the internal time in the conscious area should share a common character. Based on the essential quality of time——temporal extensity, Husserl deduces the integrant factor of time:temporal phase. Temporal phase is the given unity in each momentary or temporal point of external time. Though every temporal phase inevitably fades into the past, it is bound to present itself as a present-point. Therefore, temporal phase is a common factor which connects internal time with objective time and the basic premise of studying the theory of continua and describing the constitution of an object in conscious area. Although we find the common element of internal time and objective time, they still belong to different areas. Thus, in order to connect two areas, it is necessary to find an intermediary to transform the transcendental object into consciousness. We know that human perceptual activities can obtain the perceptual material of objects and reach the transcendental world, so Husserl’s theory of temporal phase and continua must be based on the analyses of temporal time as the basic element and perceptual activities as the connecting element.