This distinction between subject and object pervades all the problems of modern philosophy and even extends into the development of contemporary phenomenology. In his Ideas, Husserl says: "The theory of categories must begin absolutely from this most radical of all distinctions of being — being as consciousness [res cogitans] and being as being that 'manifests' itself in consciousness, 'transcendent' being [res extensa]." "Between consciousness [res cogitans] and reality [res extensa] there yawns a veritable abyss of meaning." Husserl continually refers to this distinction and precisely in the form in which Descartes espressed it: res cogitans - res extensa.

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