The ‘A Priori’ in Ingarden’s Theory of Meaning

Abstract

The theory of meaning which is so closely connected with the problems of a priori, is one of the most discussed themes in the philosophy of our century. Roman Ingarden contributed to this topic in a very significant way, going deeper than a typical positivistically minded philosopher of his time. In Ingarden’s major work, Das literarische Kunstwerk,¹the problem of meaning seems to dominate the author’s concern with the nature and structure of a literary work of art. It is well known that Ingarden distinguished four basic levels (Schichten) which in their interrelatedness constitute a literary work of art as a polyphonic organic unity. These levels are: (i) the level of a word sound, or generally, the level of the material dress of a language in which the work is expressed; (ii) the level of the meaning of linguistic expressions; (iii) the level of objects represented and/or described by the work (die Schicht der dargestellten Gegenständlichkeiten); and (iv) the level of schematic views (die Schicht der schematisierten Ansichten). No doubt the second level, the level of meaning, has been emphasized by Ingarden as being the keystone as to the remaining basic components of a literary work of art. This observation may also be supported by his lengthy Chapters 5 and 6 that have been devoted to the problems of meaning composing almost one half of the entire treatise.