Phenomenology

philo

Begin with man himself in his totality not with definitions of man, but ____

describe man from his within

Edmund Husserl | Historical Considerations

• mathematician turned philosopher

• Like Descartes: “Philosophy as a rigorous science”

• Unlike Descartes: Result of dissatisfaction with the sciences of his time

Natural sciences start out with a lot of presuppositions

Husserl turned to philosophy to make it?

the science of ultimate grounds (“a rigorous science”)

What is Presuppositionless Philosophy?

A philosophy containing the least number of primary presuppositions
- so basic and immediately evident that they do not need to be clarified further or reduced to other presuppositions

Natural attitude

observes things
- expresses their workings in singular judgements, then in universal judgements, and by the process of induction and deduction arrives at concrete results

Assumptions of Natural Attitude

• Assumes that there is no need to ask how we know

• Assumes that the world ( the object ) is out there, existing and explainable in objective laws, while man the subject is a pure consciousness, transparent to itself and facing the world to know it as it is

• Takes for granted the world - totality

Natural Attitude

It is a “fact world.”
- Looks at reality as Things
- its way of knowing things is fragmented, partial, fixed, clear, precise, and manipulative
- no room for mystery

Sciences were getting farther and farther away from the heart of things

Where is the ultimate root of philosophy and of all rational assertions found?

Whole field of our lived experience

Phenomenology

• this method would attempt to go back to phenomenon, to that which presents itself to man, seeing things as they really are, independent of any prejudice

The phenomenologists posits the unity first before analyzing the parts of this unity | Characteristics of the Phenomenological Attitude

• Being faithful to original experience because we see no opposition between subject and object

• What I perceive in original experience is an integral unified whole

• The phenomenologist is interested in the parts but only insofar as these lie in the context of the totality of human experience

The phenomenologist does not reason from induction nor deduction but describes| Characteristics of the Phenomenological Attitude

Whatever he describes will only be a bite of reality

• Simply explicates, unfolds what is already there

• Original experience can only be described, not deduced or induced because it is already there, the ultimate, the origin

The phenomenologist is essentially concerned about experience and about man| Characteristics of the Phenomenological Attitude

• His world is the world as lived by man

• What concerns him is man’s being-in-the-world-with-others, the problems he encounters in life, his awareness now, his memories of the past, and his anticipation of the future

• ^^ All these he must bring light to

Using Epoche | Characteristics of the Phenomenological Attitude

term borrowed by Husserl from math to refer to a stepping from prejudice, a suspension of judgement, a bracketing of the natural attitude

Epoche | Steps in the Phenomenological Method

Use this to see the world with “new eyes” and to return to the original experience from where our conceptual natural attitude was derived

• Before investigating anything, I have to bracket and hold in abeyance my natural attitude towards the object I am investigating.

• My natural attitude consists of my prejudices, biases, clear, fixed, precise, unquestioned, explicit knowledge of the object in which I have to suspend for a while, not denying nor affirming it

The Eidetic Reduction | Steps in the Phenomenological Method

• Derived from the Greek word “eidos” which means essence

• Reduce the experience to its essence

• Procedure by which we are placed in the “transcendental sphere”

• see things as they really are, independent of any prejudice

Transcendental-Phenomenological Reduction | Steps in the Phenomenological Method

• Reduce the object to the very activity itself of my consciousness

• “my”

• The object is seen in its relation to the subject, and vice versa, the subject in relation to the object

Intentionality of Consciousness

Main insight of phenomenology

• every conscious act intends something

• consciousness is consciousness of something other than itself

• If an act is present, the object is also present

• The character of the object is co-determined by the character of the act

Noesis

Subject of the Object

Noema

Object for the subject