Abstract

Within the phenomenological perspective the reductive method, as proceeding through the path (μετα-οδός), allows the subject to refer to its own living structure. It is crucial to bring out the aware character of this relationship, because such consciousness is achieved by an unaware subjectivity. Since the subject arises ab initio in a hyletic-temporal field, it has to carry out its methodological procedure according to definite modes, that is the time-consciousness’ modes. The method of reduction, which aims to uncover what is not thematic, constitutes the radical action, which permits the subject to represent the way of being of its inner structure. In this sense, the reduction is the highest act of representation (Vergegenwärtigung), because its procedure takes place by a thematizing return of the subject to itself. To carry out the reductive method, i.e. to perform a self-unveiling, the subject has to follow the patterns of a pre-existent life, which are already temporal and to which it always is related. Though the reduction is a free choice of a subject, it has to conform to a prescribed procedure.