Dasein - Monoskop

18 PART II
different numbers differently does not speak against this type of investigation.
First, in the case of 1 and 0 the treatment envisaged by
Husserl does have a parallel in the exceptions which these numbers
call for in arithmetical operations. Second, the meanings of large
numbers are accessible even though they admittedly are not arrived
at by abstraction from concrete configurations of objects.
Let us first look at Husserl's account of the genesis of genuine
number concepts—that is the numbers from two to twelve. I shall
confine myself to a brief outline only since several excellent detailed
expositions can already be found in the literature 29 and since the
details of Husserl's argument lie outside of the scope of the overall
interpretation aimed at in this study. It is more the fact that Husserl
regards it as possible to speak about the meaning of the concept of
number, rather than the details as to how he thinks he can go about
doing this, that is crucial for my argument.
According to Husserl's analysis, numbers are answers to the
question "how many" when asked with respect to multiplicities. To
explain the genesis of the concept of number thus presupposes an
explanation of the processes of abstraction that provide us with the
concept of multiplicity. 30 The concept of multiplicity is an abstraction
from "totalities of some objects". 31 These latter concrete sets
can consist of any objects whatsoever, for instance, "a feeling, an angel,
the moon and Italy" can make up one such set. 32 What unites
such disparate things into one set, Husserl calls "collective liaison". 33
The first question is the nature of this relation.
In trying to arrive at a clarification of this relation Hussserl first
turns to earlier attempts to reduce this relation to other allegedly
more simple (for instance, temporal) ones and rejects them. His own
answer relies on the observation that it is only "a unifying interest"
and not something in the elements themselves that establishes
a collective liaison between them. A set is created by a unifying
interest. In other words, what produces a unified concrete set is an
act of unification. 34 When we reflect subsequently on this act of unification,
when we reflect on how the act unites and holds together
different contents, we arrive at the concept of collective liaison, a
concept that is expressed in a natural language simply by "and". 35
However, with the notion of collective liaison we have only ar-