Husserl on Depiction

The publication of Husserliana XXIII “Phantasie, Bildbewusstsein, Erinnerung” in 1980 and John B. Brough’s translation of it in 2005 increased interest in Edmund Husserl’s philosophy of depiction. This volume is the first comprehensive book collection in English that provides a systematic reading of Husserl’s theory of depictive image consciousness.

The book explains the meaning of various concepts in Husserl’s philosophy of depiction—such as Bildobjekt, Vergegenwärtigung, Perzeption — and examines the range and limits of the application of Husserl’s depictive image consciousness to various art practices and media, and to other mental acts, e.g., phantasy, memory. The book discusses, among other topics, empathy, symbolic presentation and the aesthetic experience of depictions. Additionally, the book compares Husserl’s theory of depiction with that of other philosophers, notably Franz Brentano, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Roman Ingarden, Leopold Blaustein and Jean Baudrillard.

Husserl on Depiction will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in phenomenology, philosophy of perception, philosophy of art, aesthetics and pictorial representation.