givenness

Givenness is the quality or state of being given, especially as it is presented to consciousness rather than inferred or constructed. In phenomenology, the givenness of the phenomena is the immediate presentation of objects in perception, thought, or imagination. It refers to the datum that first appears to the subject and serves as the starting point for further analysis, interpretation, and knowledge.

Originating with Edmund Husserl, the concept plays a central role in his description of intentionality and the constitution of meaning. The object as it is given is not a naked thing-in-itself but a phenomenon endowed with sense as it appears within a horizon of other given aspects. The analysis often distinguishes between the givenness of the experienced object and the noetic (knowing) acts and the noematic content (the object as intended). The process of epoche or bracketing is used to examine how givenness is disclosed, while not abandoning the assumption that experience has a certain given structure.

Beyond Husserl, givenness has influenced discussions of perception, embodiment, and the critique of naive realism. Critics note that making givenness primitive risks reifying the phenomenological data; alternatives emphasize constitution, mediation, or the social character of experience.

In linguistics and semantics, givenness refers to whether information is already known in the discourse. Given entities are accessible by old information and thus more likely to be referred to by pronouns or definite descriptions; new information introduces new referents. This sense is distinct from, but related to, philosophical givenness, illustrating cross-disciplinary use of the term.