The Collected Works of EDITH STEIN ON THE PROBLEM OF EMPATHY

46 Edith Stein
This is just as true for the perception ofthe single spatial thing as
for the cohesive spatial world, and, similarly, for movements of
parts of the living body as fbr its movement as a whole. If I rest my
hand on a rotating ball, this ball and its movement are given ro me
as a succession of changing tactile data merging into an intention
permeating the whole. These dara can be comprehended together
in an "apperceptive grasp," a unified act ofouter perception.
Data have the same sequence if my hand glides over the still
ball, but the experience that "I move" supervenes anew and, with
the apperception of the ball, goes inro the fbrm of "if ... rhen."
Visual dara are analogous. While being still, I can see the changing
appearances of'a rolling ball; and the "shades of' the ball" can
look the same if the ball is still and I move my head or only my
eyes. 1'his movemenl, again, is given t() me in "bodilv perception."
'I'his is how parts of the living body are consrituted as moving
organs and the perceprion of the sparial world as dependent on
the behavior of these ()rgans. But this does not yet show us how
we comprehend the movements of living bodies as movements of
physical bodies. When I move one of my limbs, besides becoming
bodily aware of my own movement, I have an ()uter visual or
tacrile perception of physical body movemenrs to which the limb's
changed appearances testify. As the bodily perceived and outwardly
perceived limb are interpreted as the same, so there also
arises an identical coincidence of the living and physical body's
movemenr. 'I'he moving living body becomes the moved physical
body. And the fact that "I move" is "seen with" the movement of
a part of my physical body. The unseen movement of the physical
body in the experience of "I move" is comprehended jointly.
The afliliation of the "I" with the perceiving body requires
some further elucidation. The impossibility of being rid of the
body indicates its special givenness. This union cannot be shaken;
the b