PHENOMENOLOGY
Jen Buxton
12/15/009
Greek Derivation of Phenomenology
Phainómenon +
lógos
“THE
“THAT
WHICH + STUDY
OF”
APPEARS”
The Challenge of Understanding
Phenomenology
• The philosophy of Phenomenology is difficult to
define because it had different meaning to each
of the philosophers that developed it.
• The definition of phenomenology evolved as each
philosopher looked at the current accepted
definition and added their own spin.
• The core of the definition was conserved
throughout its metamorphosis and current
understanding is rooted in the original definition.
General Overview
• The philosophical movement began with Edmund
Husserl in Germany during the 1920’s. He didn’t
coin the term phenomenology, but he is
responsible for igniting the movement.
• The Phenomenological movement came after
Positivism, which believed that meaning could
only be derived through natural and physical
experiences, excluding philosophy because it was
not believed to be a rigorous science.
• The goal of a phenomenological exploration is to
develop awareness by systematically reducing the
effects of bias (Yontef, 1993).
General Definition of Phenomenology
• Phenomenology uses systematic reflection and
analysis to objectify subjective areas of
consciousness and phenomena which appear in
acts of consciousness; such as perception,
judgment, and emotions.
• Phenomenologists attempt to understand and
examine life as it is actually lived based on the
immediate perception of a phenomenon, an
observable event. It believes that which is real
through perception is valid to construct meaning.
General Definition of Phenomenology
• Their analysis and reflection is done from a first
person point-of-view to study phenomena not
as they appear to "my" consciousness, but to
any consciousness whatsoever. (Kochler, 1986,
p. 29).
• It is believed that phenomenology can provide a
firm basis for all human knowledge, including
scientific knowledge, and could get philosophy
recognized as a rigorous science.
• It is sometimes depicted as the “science of
experience”.
Timeline of Phenomenologists
Pre-Movement
1702
• Friedrich Christoph Oetinger
1711
• David Hume
1724
• Immanuel Kant
1728
• Johann Heinrich Lambert
1770
• G.W.F. Hegel
1838
• Franz Brentano
1848
• Carl Stumpf
Prominent Figures in Phenomenology
Edmund
Husserl
1859-1938
Martin
Heidegger
1889-1976
Maurice
Merleau-Ponty
1908-1961
Edmund Husserl
• Phenomenology grew through his attempt to find
grounds for truth.
• He was a mathematician turned philosopher.
• A majority of his work was done in Freiburg, Germany
which became a hotspot for the discipline.
• He had a primordial, existing from the beginning, sense
of being. And believed that knowledge is a priori.
• His goal was to find the source, behind phenomena, an
observable occurrence. (Kochler, 1986, p. 11).
• He wanted to identify the origins of things through
their immediate appearance.
Edmund Husserl’s Method
1. Rule of the epoche
2. Rule of description
3. Rule of horizontalization
1. Rule of the
Phenomenological Epoche
• Husserl’s idea of the phenomenological epoche says that,
“phenomenological description must focus on the aspects of our
intentional acts and their contents that do not depend on the
existence of a represented object out there in the extra-mental world”
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy–Edmund Husserl, 2007, n. p.)
• The epoche tells us to set aside/bracket biases and prejudices in order
to suspend expectations.
• It is the suspension of judgment while relying on the intuitive grasp of
knowledge, free of presuppositions and intellectualizing.
• He believed the epoche needed to be given precedence to pre-existing
assumptions about an object or a conscious act.
2. Rule of Phenomenological Description
• Description involves immediate and specific
description of the observation of phenomena
as it is given to consciousness.
• Description does not involve bias or
interpretation.
Immediate Experience
Versus Biased Experience
• Biological Mimicry – to hide from predators
Immediate Experience
Versus Biased Experience
Immediate Experience
YUMMY BROWNIES
Versus Biased Experience
BACON BROWNIES
3. Rule of Phenomenological
Horizontalization
• Each item of the
description is given equal
value or significance,
nothing receives priority.
Three Main Themes of Husserl’s
Phenomenology
1. Inter-subjectivity - how we concurrently see ourselves
as objects, subjects, and part of the spatio-temporal
world.
2. Empathy - the experience of inter-subjectivity is
empathic in nature; we can put ourselves in other’s
shoes.
3. Lebenswelt – Life world - beliefs are derived through
socially, culturally, and/or evolutionary meaning
constituted by a common language.
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2007, n. p.)
Martin Heidegger
• He was mentored by Husserl while working as
his assistant in Freiburg, Germany.
• He held many of the same doctrinal beliefs as
Husserl but focused more on ontology, the
nature of being, than epistemology, the study
of knowledge.
• Transformed Husserl’s definition of
Phenomenology picking up where he left off.
Martin Heidegger
• He digressed from Husserl’s phenomenology with his
introduction of the concept of Dasein, being-in-the-world.
• He believed that the being is not primordial, as Husserl
believed, rather it is derived from our understanding and
interpretation of the world.
• The bottom line in Heidegger’s phenomenology can be
found in his most influential text, Being in Time. He said
we need, “To let that which shows itself be seen from itself
in the very way in which it shows itself” (Pietersma, 2000,
p. 28).
Three major components of
Heidegger’s phenomenology
1. Phenomenological reduction – suspending judgment
about the natural world that precedes
phenomenological analysis.
2. Phenomenological construction – projecting the given
on to a being.
3. Phenomenological destruction – traditional concepts
are broken down into their sources
• He thought, much like Descartes, that in order to
successfully construct meaning in philosophy, there
must be destruction (The Basic Problem of
Phenomenology, 2009, n. p.).
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
• Like Heidegger, his beliefs stemmed from
Husserl’s work
• His philosophy differed than those before him
because viewed science as secondary to
experience. He felt that before scientific
investigation the elements of basic experience
must be clearly understood
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
• He was an existential phenomenologist.
• Existential Phenomenology is the study of the essences,
existences, of perception and consciousness as well as a
method of describing the nature of our perceptual contact
with the world.
• Perception - “a preconscious moment that the external comes
in contact with the body” (Wyatt’s Existential Primer, 2009, n.
p.)
• He emphasized physical existence and perception as the
method for understanding existence. He believed that
perception attains meaning through physical experience, and
that meaning begins with perception.
Major Figures Ways’ of Knowing
• Husserl approached knowing in an attempt to objectively identify
the internal structure of cognition through a first person point of
view (Pietersma, 2000, p. 8). He saw knowledge as an endpoint of
the search for truth rather than belonging to truth (Pietersma,
2000, p. 38).
• According to Heidegger, knowledge does not being internally, it is
an attitude that can develop from prior, and different experiences,
that come from our situatedness as beings in the world (Pietersma,
2000, p. 125). For Heidegger knowing must be fused with reflection
and integration into the grander scheme of things (Pietersma, 2000,
p. 87).
• Merleau-Ponty’s doctrine of knowledge developed through his
phenomenological beliefs of perception. He held that perceptions,
in the matter of knowledge are always valid and as a result he
didn’t believe that anything can be certain (Pietersma, 2000, p.
127).
Four Major Stages of Phenomenology
Realistic
Constitutive
• 1920’s through today
• Its emphasis is on the
search for the human
“essence” including
their motives, actions,
and selves.
• extended beyond
realistic
phenomenology to
include the philosophy
of natural sciences
• The goal was identify
inter-subjective ground
in the world and its
relation to science
Existential
Hermeneutic
• Dominated the
movement in 1940’s
and 1950’s
• The belief was that to
be complete,
phenomenology must
include observation
and analysis of a being
in the world
• Prevalent in the 1970’s
and 1980’s
• The emphasis shifted
again to include the
awareness that human
existence needs to be
viewed as
interpretative.
Seven Widely Accepted Features
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Everything in phenomenology must be observable.
Phenomenologists, for the most part, are opposed to naturalism,
objectivism, and positivism.
Cognition, according to a phenomenologist, is justified as the
“awareness of a matter itself as disclosed in the most clear, distinct, and
adequate way” (Marcelle, 2005, n. p.).
Phenomenologists also believe that all objects in the natural world are
observable therefore can be known.
They believe that inquiry must be approached through encountering
objects and subsequent reflection followed by description.
Description must be universal, a priori, in explanation of cause, purpose,
or grounds of knowing.
There is an ongoing debate on Husserl’s transcendental
phenomenological epoche, which will be discussed more in depth within
the section on Husserl (Marcelle, 2005, n. p.).
Suggested Text Resources
Primary Text Resources
Secondary Text Resources
• Edmund Husserl Logische
Untersuchungen, Logical
Investigations (1913)
• Pietersma, H. (2000)
Phenomenological Epistemology
• Kochler, H. (1986).
Phenomenological realism –
selected essays.
• McGrath, S. (2008). Heidegger a
(very) critical introduction
• Edmund Husserl Pure
Phenomenology (1931)
• Martin Heidegger Being and Time
(1927)
• Maurice Merleau Ponty
Phenomenology in Perception
(1954)
Suggested Website Resources
Phenomenology online.
www.phenomenologyonline.com
Center for advanced research in phenomenology.
http://www.phenomenologycenter.org
Merleau Ponty’s phenomenology of perception.
http://www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/merleauponty.html
Phenomenology – Edmund Husserl.
http://science.jrank.org/pages/10639/Phenomenology-Edmund-Husserl.html
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Edmund Husserl.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/husserl/
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/merleau-ponty/
The basic problem of phenomenology and introduction.
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/heidegge.htm
Wyatt’s Existential Primer.
http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/merleau.shtml
Procedures for Conducting a
Phenomenological Study
•
Research questions explore the meaning of lived experiences for individuals, and
asks individuals to describe these experiences.
•
Data is usually gathered through interviews of those who have experienced the
phenomenon being investigated, with the awareness of bracketing bias or
interpretation.
•
Data analysis involves horizontalization. Significant statements are clustered by
meanings and connected to make a general description of what was experienced
and of how it was experienced.
•
The researcher can unbracket bias and interpretation at this point.
•
Finally, conclusions are made and the report is written such that readers
understand better the structure of the experience.
•
The reader should come away with a better understand of what it is like for
someone else to experience something.”
In conclusion…
• Phenomenology is one of the most influential philosophical
movements of the 20th century that has sparked many
subsequent philosophical movements such as
existentialism, post-structuralism, post-modernism, and
feminism.
• Phenomenology is a method for the examination of the
essential framework of consciousness. Through
examination we can identify certainty of the framework of
consciousness by bracketing the nonessentials and focusing
on the fundamental rules consciousness uses to create
knowledge (Phenomenology– Edmund Husserl, 2009, n. p.).
Hmmmm?????