Phenomenology

Celine Wei: It Feels Right.

Notes from What is Phenomenology? The Philosophy of Husserl and Heidegger - YouTube

History of Phenomenology

• 18C Kant proposed, and briefly picked up by Hegel
• But only until (Philosopher) Edmund Husserl did it become mainstream
  • Student: (Philosopher) Martin Heidegger
• Germany → France
  • Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Satre
• Modern philosophers: Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida

Defining Phenomenology

• Greek word for “Appears”

• Focus on the first hand experience

• experientialist > rationalist

• e.g. time

  • rationalist: measurement of numerical time
  • experientialist: subjective personal time
    • e.g. the “pretty girl minute”

• e.g. fear

  • rationalist: physiological change, observable behavior of beings in fear
  • experientialist: how fear colors perceptions, the conscious experience of fear

• Reversal of Plato

  • Most of philosophy until Husserl has been about following Plato
  • Representational Theory
    • Plato’s Cave analogy(representational theory)
    • Humans have
    • It’s a tragedy; our senses only allow incomplete access to reality
    • Peaked in Decartes’ mind-body dualism

• Husserl’s ”Transcendental Phenomenology”

  • Objective study of the subjective
  • Theory of “Intentionality” = “about-ness”
    • Coined by Brentano (teacher)
    • consciousness cannot be isolated; it’s always interacting with its subjects
    • study of how the object of consciousness interacts with the structure of consciousness
  • whether the object is a fantasy/reality/dream/memory doesn’t matter
  • Phenomenological method
    • Bracketing: setting aside judgements, filters, and gathering the raw experience;
    • Eidetic reduction ($\approx$imaginary variation): reduce to essence
      • Mess with the attributes of the phenomenon
      • e.g. Fear ⇒ attributes: lack of choice, freeze
    • End goal of phenomenology: getting to the universal, objective understanding of the concept

• Heidegger disagrees: ”Existential Phenomenology”

  • Husserl: trying to make a science of the consciousness
  • Heidegger’s ontological twist:
    • the goal is instead understanding the nature of being
    • experience and consciousness cannot be separated
    • entanglement varies between people
    • e.g. fear of you, an animal, or an Aztec warrior is different

• Eastern connection (China, India)

  • e.g. Meridian system by China, Chakra by India
  • Looks stupid from rationalist perspective
  • ⇒ but it’s the mapping of the first-person experience of the body
  • e.g. meditation: observe the experience
    • a form of bracketing (stopping judgement, and just experiencing thoughts and emotions)
    • Zen buddism
    • Daoism may have influenced Husserl directly too