The Appearance in the Oscillation between Being and Seeming: from Herbart to Husserl

The paper deals with the dynamics of appearance, which is in a constant oscillation between being and seeming. This is an apodictical formal law of the life of consciousness: “so much seeming, so much Being”. In order to clarify this, we thematize a methodological proposal made by Johann Friedrich Herbart, which would be systematically applied by Edmund Husserl. The proposal consists in “leaving any object to oscillate between being and non-being”. By developing this proposal, we examine phenomenological work as a praxis aiming at the “enrichment of sense” and a “self-transformation of subjectivity”. We conclude the essay by providing some remarks on how phenomenology could fruitfully appropriate Herbart's philosophical insights.