Phenomenological Preliminaries

The two underlying threads of this introductory chapter are 1) the clarification of the thesis that display and being are inseparable and 2) the nature of the transcendence of the mind in the work of display, i.e., intentionality. This requires a discussion of various senses of “phenomenon” and “essence.” We then undertake to relate essence to possible-world theory and how transcendental phenomenology’s essence-analysis takes place within what it regards as the one actual world correlated to the transcendental I. The phenomenological reduction secures the field of labor of phenomenology by making the claim of the necessary relation of display and being a tautology. We discuss adumbrations of the reduction’s focus on display in ethics, psychotherapy, and art. We wrestle with the motive for the reduction and how it is possible for there to be disengagement from the world. Finally there is touched upon the elemental role language and intersubjectivity play in the setting established by the reduction.