“Knowledge and the Foundations of Intentionality” - Walter Hopp (Boston University)

In this paper I will attempt to provide a broadly Husserlian defense of the thesis that all objectifying or object-directed intentionality is either itself knowledge, or is founded upon knowledge. No intentional acts of any type could occur without a foundation in knowledge. The argument, quite simply, is that all intentionality is founded on what Husserl calls “Evidenz” or givenness, and that Evidenz in all of its varieties is knowledge. I will examine the various roles that Evidenz plays in conscious life, including its indispensable role in what Husserl calls “constitution,” and also argue that both conceptual Evidenz or fulfillment and nonconceptual Evidenz or originary intuition qualify as knowledge. I’ll briefly discuss some implications this view has for Husserl’s phenomenological method. I’ll try to address some objections along the way.

Walter Hopp earned his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California, and has been teaching at Boston University since 2005. He has written numerous articles on phenomenology, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind, and is the author of Phenomenology: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge 2020).