Noema and Noesis are concepts in phenomenology which relate to the workings of consciousness as "intentionality". According to Husserl , the noema would be the “intentional” object of acts of consciousness ,or object of thought (and not: the object “in itself”), therefore an object of consciousness as such.
"Noesis" means the way in which the act of consciousness relates to its object (believing, wanting, hating, loving) while "Noema" means how the object appears through the intentional noetic activity (believed, desired, hated, loved, etc.).
Noema and Noesis
For Husserl thinking is always thinking of something, and that is why everything we perceive has to be perceived as perceived, as an object of intentional perception and not something which is just "out there" in itself. This mode of appearing to our consciousness is what Husserl calls Noema.
Noesis is the "filter" through which our lived experience flows, the modes of meaning things can take. According to Husserl "It is through noesis, or as noesis, that consciousness becomes consciousness of something, that is to say, encounters an object which confronts it".
The Noema is the meaning assigned to an object of thought by consciousness, or in Husserl's words "the object as meaning constituted by consciousness”.
This means that for Husserl's phenomenology consciousnes is made of two parts which none relate to the objective thing as itself in the world. Since things ara always the product of actvie intentionality, the manner they are intented (Noesis) and the product of that intentionality (Noema) are what constitues them as what they are.
