On the “Idol of the Mind”: Edmund Husserl and Paul Valéry

Abstract

This article analyses some less explored structural parts of the phenomenological method as it was construed by Husserl in order to validate a twofold thesis. First, the application of phenomenological notions such as the neutrality modification, the distinction between the positional, transcendental, and imaginative ego, body-consciousness, etc. stimulates the deconstruction of a “spiritual” quest in any traditional and/or modern sense. On the other hand, this approach offers some new possibilities for the quest for “transcendental absolution” which is illustrated here by Valéry’s creative approach. Husserl’s and Valéry’s distinct but complementary projects represent several major intellectual shifts in early contemporary Western philosophy and literature. Keywords: Edmund Husserl, Paul Valéry, phenomenology, consciousness, pain.