Interpreting the concept of sedimentation in Husserl's Origin of Geometry

Bibliographic Data

ID4562207
AuthorsJohan (0009-0002-2812-2897), Johan Blomberg (0000-0002-1337-1981, Lund University, corresponding author), Johan Johan (0000-0002-8484-1119, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume9
Issue1
Pages78-94
Publication date2020-10-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePublic Journal of Semiotics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1918-9907 • E-ISSN: 1918-9907
PublisherPublic Journal of Semiotics, Lund University (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.37693/pjos.2019.9.22182
OpenAlexW3094341230
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited6

In the influential text Origin of Geometry, Edmund Husserl argues that even the invariant meaning found in theoretical disciplines like geometry has a historical becoming: through gradual abstraction and stabilization, ending in a completely rational discipline. This is a process which Husserl proposes is due to language and other symbolic systems. In the absence of a system allowing for stable communication of meaning, geometry or any other tradition would constantly have to begin anew. At the same time Husserl also sees the historical process of meaning stabilization in linguistic form as detrimental. It allows for a reception of an established meaning, which simultaneously entails the forgetfulness of the experiential basis and intuitive knowledge that made ideality possible in the first place. Husserl calls this Janus-faced dialectical process between discovery and forgetfulness sedimentation. This paper analyzes this concept in Origin of Geometry and places it in the context of Husserl's thought more generally. In contrast to Husserl's negative view of the effects that sedimentation has for an authentic meaning, I discuss four interpretations of sedimentation that provide more constructive perspectives on the concept. These interpretations also differ considerably from one another, a fact which speaks both to the richness and the tensions in Origin of Geometry. Author Biography Johan Blomberg has a PhD in General Linguistics from 2014, for the dissertation Motion in Language and Experience. He has since then worked in the Division for Cognitive Semiotics at Lund University, to which he continues to be affiliated. His main interests include motion semantics and the relations between language and thought, on which he has published extensively in journals like Cognitive Linguistics, Frontiers of Psychology and Language and Communication

Abstraction · Constructive · Dialectic · Epistemology · Geometry · Linguistics · Semiotics · Sociology · Computer Science · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Linguistic research and analysis · Mathematics · Media, Communication, and Education · Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access