Husserl on Disappointment in the Sphere of Willing

Abstract

Disappointment, obstructions, and ruptures of harmony are important phenomena which play a role in the constitution of every kind of experience. Husserl´s most known analyses of disappointment, as developed, for instance, in Erfahrung und Urteil, concentrate on perception and judgment. But how should the Husserlian notion of disappointment (Enttäuschung) be understood when we move beyond the sphere of knowledge? The aim of this presentation is to outline Husserl´s comprehension of willing-disappointment (Willensenttäuschung). This requires, first, providing an overview of the notion of disappointment starting from Husserl´s analyses of unfulfillment and obstructions in the doxic sphere. Second, exploring how far the analogy between perception/judgment and willing goes. Third, I will point out the limitations of the analogy with the doxic sphere. In order to account in a more comprehensive way for the experience of willing disappointment, it is important to address the relation between willing and values and the relation between willing-disappointment and willing-expectations (Willenserwartungen). The key questions here will be the following: To what extent does willing disappointment depend upon evaluative fulfillment and unfulfillment? and how can consideration of the emotional dimension of expectations help us to clarify the experience of willing disappointment? While the guiding idea of the first section of this presentation is the analogy of the different forms of intention, in the subsequent sections the stratification of evaluative and volitional consciousness comes to the fore, since disappointment in willing is closely connected to evaluative experiences. Further, the consideration of values demands that we distinguish between different forms of willing negativity. Summing up, the path that I take begins by analyzing willing disappointment from the perspective of its analogy with doxic experience with the aim of going beyond the structural-formal analogy and showing its limits.