Addressing Walter Hopp’s original application of the distinction between agent-fallibility and method-fallibility to phenomenological
inquiry concerning epistemic justification, I question whether these are the only two forms of fallibility that are useful
or whether there are not also others that are needed. In doing so, I draw my inspiration from Husserl, who in the beginnings
of his phenomenological investigations struggled with the distinction between noetic and noematic analyses. For example, in
the Preface to the Second Edition of the
Logical Investigations he criticizes the First Investigation as having been “one-sidedly” noetically directed and as having thus neglected the noematic
aspects of meaning (XVIII 13–14). Also, in an addendum to the Fifth Investigation he notes that in the transition from the
First Edition to the Second he has learned to broaden the concept of “phenomenological content” to include not only the “real”
(
reell) contents (noetic, subjective) of consciousness but also the “intentional” (noematic, objective) (XIX/1 411). The fact that,
in gradually moving from consciousness (noesis) to what consciousness is of (noema), Husserl struggled with this distinction
is an indication of the immensity of the perplexing problems and potential solutions that Hopp has led the phenomenology of
knowledge into by introducing his useful notions of agent-fallibility and method-fallibility. Like Husserl, he has focused
mainly and mostly on the noetic issues; like Husserl as well, I will try to move step by step from the noetic area into the
noematic. I conclude that Hopp’s approach has the potential to become seminal.