THE CONSTITUTION OF SIMULTANEITY1
A, a sound, let us say, is constituted in a temporal point of a determinate phase of its duration by means of a primal impression α, to which it and the modification, together with the primal generation of new impressions (new now-moments), are joined. Let B be a simultaneous immanent unity, a color, let us say, and let us fix our eyes on it in a point “simultaneous” with the tonal point in question. To this in the constitution corresponds the primal impression ß. Now what do a and ß have in common? What does it mean to say that they constitute simultaneity and that the two modifications a′ and ß′ constitute a having-been-simultaneous?
Various primal impressions, primal phantasies, etc.—in short, various moments of origin (we can also say: primal moments of internal consciousness)—can belong to a single stratum of internal consciousness. All primal moments belonging to a stratum have the same character of consciousness, which is essentially constitutive for the “now” concerned. It is the same for all constituted content; the mutuality of the characters constitutes simultaneousness, “like-now-ness” [Gleich-Jetzigkeit]. In virtue of the primordial spontaneity of internal consciousness, every primal moment is a source-point for a continuity of generations, and this continuity is of one and the same form. The mode of generation, the primally temporal modification, is the same for all primal moments. This regularity can be described as follows: the continuous generation of internal consciousness has the form of a one-dimensional, orthogonal multiplicity; all primal moments within a stratum undergo the same modifications (they generate the same moments of the past). Therefore, modifications of two primal moments which belong to the same stratum (modifications which have the same interval from the corresponding primal moments) belong to one and the same stratum. Furthermore, modifications which belong to a stratum always generate from themselves only modifications which belong to the same stratum. The generation always proceeds at the same rate.
Within every stratum the different points of the continuous series have a different interval from the primal moment. This interval of any given point is identical with the interval which the same point has from its primal moment in the earlier stratum. The constituting primal field of time-consciousness is a continuous extension which consists of a primal moment and a determinate series of iterated modifications, i.e., iterated with regard not to content but to form. The determinations of these modifications are, as regards form, everywhere the same in all primal fields (in their succession). Every primal moment is precisely a primal moment (now-consciousness), every past is a consciousness of the past, and the degree of pastness is something determinate. To it corresponds a fixed, determinate, formal character in primally constitutive consciousness.
In the succession of strata, moments of like “content,” i.e., of like internal states, can occur again and again as primal moments. These primal moments of different strata which have an internal content that is completely similar are individually distinct.
1. To § 38, pp. 102ff.