IDENTIFICATION

IDENTIFICATION. An identification arises in a synthesis. The identification can occur on various levels. First, a multiplicity of appearances manifesting a certain phenomenal continuity can be brought together in the synthesizing act that identifies an individual object. Insofar as such an identification involves recognition of the individual as a kind of object, the basis is laid for a synthesis of the individual objects manifesting the similarity characteristic of a kind. Second, therefore, given the experiences of different individuals manifesting a similar property, an identifying synthesis can unify the objects into a class and identify an empirical species (for example, ‘red’) or an ideal singular (for example, ‘the square’). Moreover, in the consciousness of fulfillment, there is an identification of the object emptily intended with the object intuitively given. More precisely, we experience the intentional essence of the act of intuition as more or less perfectly fitted into the intentional essence of the mere or empty judging or into the semantic essence of the empty expressive intention that expresses the judgment and intimates the judgmental intending.