QuoteProject
If all consciousness is subject to essential laws in a manner similar to that in which spatial reality is subject to mathematical laws, then these essential laws will be of most fertile significance in investigating facts of the conscious life of human and brute animals.
Edmund Husserl
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that understanding consciousness follows specific laws, much like the laws of mathematics govern physical reality.

Edmund Husserl emphasizes the importance of recognizing that consciousness operates under fundamental principles akin to mathematical laws in physical reality. By analyzing these essential laws, we can gain deeper insights into the conscious experiences of both humans and animals, ultimately leading to a more profound understanding of life itself.

Themes

ConsciousnessLawsPhilosophyUnderstandingHuman Experience

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture about the nature of consciousness, one might quote this to illustrate the complexity of our mental processes.

More from Edmund Husserl

I must achieve internal consistency.
Edmund HusserlRead
I had to philosophize. Otherwise, I could not live in this world.
Edmund HusserlRead
Experience by itself is not science.
Edmund HusserlRead
To every object there correspond an ideally closed system of truths that are true of it and, on the other hand, an ideal system of possible cognitive processes by virtue of which the object and the truths about it would be given to any cognitive subject.
Edmund HusserlRead
We would be in a nasty position indeed if empirical science were the only kind of science possible.
Edmund HusserlRead
Psychologically experienced consciousness is therefore no longer pure consciousness; construed Objectively in this way, consciousness itself becomes something transcendent, becomes an event in that spatial world which appears, by virtue of consciousness, to be transcendent.
Edmund HusserlRead

Similar quotes

All things are cause for either laughter or weeping.
Seneca The YoungerRead
The question of how things will settle down is the only important question.
Leo TolstoyRead
The church is only the church when it exists for others. To make a start, it should give away all its property to those in need. The clergy must live solely on the free-will offerings of their congregations, or possibly engage in some secular calling. The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others.
Dietrich BonhoefferRead
I don’t envision a long life for myself. Like, I think my life will run out before my work does, y’know? I’ve designed it that way.
Townes Van ZandtRead
A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual.
Gloria SteinemRead
Yes, all fundamentalists feel that in a secular society, God has been relegated to the margin, to the periphery and they are all in different ways seeking to drag him out of that peripheral position, back to center stage.
Karen ArmstrongRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.