Ego

Abstract

The “ego” is a polysemous notion in Edmund Husserl. By it, he can mean the empirical self, the numerically identical self, the transcendental self, or “monad.” The empirical ego may be unified by virtue of exclusive access, which individuates that psychological self from all other selves; but such unity does not entail that there should be an underlying, unchanging self. In the Fifth Logical Investigation, the “empirical ego” is identified with a Humean notion of consciousness. In the first edition of the Logical Investigations, Husserl writes that consciousness is “the phenomenological ego as ‘bundle’ or nexus of psychical lived experiences”. One of the most significant differences between the early Husserl of Logical Investigations and the mature Husserl of IdeasI is that the mature Husserl accepts the Kantian idea that there is an underlying self, which is numerically identical over time—i.e., the “pure ego.”.