Inner meaning is characteristic of all phenomenological texts. Indeed, when we say that human science method involves eidetic reflection, it is because eidos means essence or inner meaning. Thoughtful reflection aims to bring out the inner meaning of something. Interestingly, Heidegger (1977) points out that the Greek term eidos originally refers to “the outward aspect” that an object offers to the physical eye. He notes, however, that Plato used the term eidos in quite an extraordinary manner to refer not just to the outer but to the inner, nonphysical feature of the object that one perceives. And Heidegger goes a step further by stating that eidos names not only the nonsensuous aspect of what is physically visible: “Aspect names and also is that which constitutes the essence in the audible, the tasteable, the tactile, in everything that is in any way accessible” (1977, p. 301). So, while the terms eidos and aspect are related to “appearance, face, countenance, presence” (aspect derives from aspicere, to look at), on closer inspection what we see in a face or what we find present in a text is less the outward particularities than the dawning experience of recognition that the external appearance makes possible. This dawning of meaning, due to the special textual appearance, is the work of the tone of the text. In passing, what is interesting for us here is that this visual notion of meaning as aspect is perceived as an auditory notion of tonal meaning in a phenomenological text.