Home 9 Passage 9 Singularity

I may be helpful to clarify the phenomenology of singularity with the notion of the moment. The phenomenological attitude comprises a fascination with the instant: the uniqueness or singularity of a momentary experience or event. This moment is different and unique like every moment is always different and unique. For example, when I fall for someone and I think about the meaning and singularity of this event (falling in love), then I am compelled not by concepts or abstractions but by the concreteness and singularity of my experiences: the sweet taste of that last kiss, the tenderness I felt when I looked in my love’s face, the longing I experienced when reading the love note, the pleasure of hearing her voice, the desire I feel in this moment of being the object of my lover’s desire. A phenomenology of falling for someone is not primarily pursued through a theoretical discourse or a conceptual analysis of the notion of love; it is pursued through a language of the unique, the singular—the singular is like this: this example.