An Unpleasant but Felicitous Ambiguity

“The Origin of Geometry” introduces into the question of meaning the mediation of language through which meanings gain their ever-lasting existence. Speaking of products of geometry but also of works of literature Husserl says that such a product does not have “psychic existence” only, is not “something personal within the personal sphere of consciousness” but enjoys the status of something that is “objectively there for ‘everyone.’” These objects can be understood again (nachverstehbar), can be re-effectuated in their acts (nacherzeugbar), and can be handed down through a tradition (tradierbar).¹ Although this product was born in a mental sphere, of the inventer or writer, its existence is “super temporal.”² However, it is not clear how language contributes to the formation of meaning, whether language is a mere tool or a necessary condition for the possibility of meaning. Now with the revising of the Logical Investigations available in Husserliana XX,¹ especially the second volume, we have several texts dealing with this problematic articulation of meaning and experience as well as meaning and signs. These texts shed a new light on the relationship between Sinn (sense) and Bedeutung (meaning) as well as on the role of signs in the formation of an ideality. This is what I would like to examine. This study helps us understand the significant role Husserl grants language in “The Origin of Geometry,” although this is not my focus here.