The Relationship Between Schematization and Concretization in Ingarden’s Phenomenological Aesthetics

Roman Ingarden is a significant figure in phenomenological Aesthetics. Generally, his phenomenological studies are in the realm of Aesthetics. He believes that the work of art has a peculiar mode of being. Based on his viewpoint, the work of art is not a wholly determined and autonomous object, and its being depends upon the intentional acts of the creator and the reader. In fact, the work of art is “an intersubjective intentional object” of which the musical work is one of the best example. This article considers the relation of two fundamentally phenomenological terms: Schematization and Concretization. Based on these terms and step by step, we show that the work of art as an intentional object has schematic and incomplete structure and by its concretizations changes into aesthetic object. Work of art is not a closed cognitive structure manifested by the reader. It is an “open entity” the meaning of which arises from its concretizations. Thus, work of art is an eternally alive and novel entity.