ABSTRACT
Edmund Husserl began to investigate temporal experience at the start of the twentieth century. This chapter describes the scope of Husserl's investigations, the positions they involve, and the questions they pose. Husserl describes time-consciousness as a "wonder" as "rich in mystery", and as the "most important" but also the "most difficult of all phenomenological problems". Its importance lies in the fundamental role it plays in every aspect of conscious life. Time-consciousness is a foundational form of intentionality, entwined with every other form and instance of conscious life. Husserl's initial efforts to penetrate the mystery of temporal experience, however, focused on perception, for it is in perception that time-consciousness is at work preeminently and originally. The wonder of temporal experience is that it binds together intentionally the fundamental components of our conscious lives-objects, acts, and the absolute flow itself, the ground of our sense of continuity and identity.
