Let us consider such a primary consciousness; for example, the perception of this copper ashtray. The ashtray stands before us in the perception as enduring physical being. Reflection permits us to distinguish: the perception itself (the perceptual apprehension taken concretely in union with the data of apprehension: the perceptual appearance in the mode of certainty, say) and that which is perceived (which must be described in evident judgments based on perception). What is perceived is also something meant: the act of meaning "lives" in the act of perceiving. As reflection shows, the perceptual apprehension in its mode is itself something constituted in immanent time, standing before us in the unity of its presence, although it is not something meant. It is constituted through the multiplicity or now-phases and retentions. The contents of apprehension as well as the apprehension-intentions to which the mode of certainty belongs are constituted in this way. The contents of sensation become constituted as unities in sensuous impressions: the apprehensions become constituted in other impressions - act-impressions which are combined with the sensuous impressions. The perception as a constituted phenomenon is, for its part, perception of the physical thing.

P. 95

¶ 8:56 PM