Husserl's Noema
In Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (1913), Husserl introduced the terms "noema" and "noesis" to designate correlated elements of the structure of any intentional act - for example, an act of perceiving, or judging, or remembering (see Intentionality):
"Corresponding to all points to the manifold data of the real (reelle) noetic content, there is a variety of data displayable in really pure (wirklicher reiner) intuition, and in a correlative 'noematic content,' or briefly 'noema' - terms which we shall henceforth be continually using."
Every intentional act has noetic content (or a noesis - from the Greek nous, "mind"). This noetic content, to which the noema corresponds, is that which gives meaning or sense to an intentional act. Every act also has a noema, which is the object of the act - that which is meant by it. In other words, every intentional act has an "I-pole (or noesis)" and an "object-pole (or noema)." Husserl also refers to the noema as the Sinn or sense (meaning) of the act, and sometimes appears to use the terms interchangeably. Nevertheless, the Sinn does not represent what Husserl calls the "full noema": Sinn belongs to the noema, but the full noema is the object of the act as meant in the act, the perceived object as perceived, the judged object as judged, and so on.
In other words, the noema seems to be whatever is intended by acts of perception or judgement in general, whether it be "a material object, a picture, a word, a mathematical entity, another person" precisely as being perceived, judged or otherwise thought about.
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