Phenomenology

So what exactly is phenomenology? It is essentially a method rather than a set of theories, and -- at the risk of wildly oversimplifying -- its basic approach can be conveyed through a two-word command: ‘DESCRIBE PHENOMENA”

The first part of this is straightforward : a phenomenologist’s job is to describe. This is the activity that Husserl plato.stanford.edu/entries/husserl kept reminding his students to do. It meant stripping away distractions, habits, cliches attention to what he called the ‘thing themse4lves.’ We must fix our beady gaze on them and capture them exactly as they appear, rather than as we think they are supposed to be. - 40

Comments

Dinesh ^club

. . . Phenomenologists take us to the ‘things themselves’. One might say that they follow the creative-writing mantra, ‘show, don’t tell. ~ Page 107 ~"At the Existentialist Cafe - Sarah Bakewell

4 years ago. Edited 4 months ago.

Dinesh ^club

. . . Phenomenology in studying what is presented to the consciousness becomes the study of the essences; it is part of the meaning of everything belonging to the world of fact, of everything contingent “to have an essence and thus an ‘eidos’ (Eidos (philosophy), a Greek term meaning "form" "essence", "type" or "species". See Plato's theory of forms and Aristotle's theory of universals.)that is to be grasped in its purity.” Phenomenology thus grasps the essence of things by abstracting their mere facticity, their mere belonging to the spatio-temporal world. But precisely because the abstractions of the phenomenologist are arrived at by beginning from what is, phenomenology has renounced the notion of any fundamental contrast between actuality and possibility.. . . . Page 12

4 months ago. Edited 4 months ago.

Sign-in to write a comment.

		Page color
		Comments Panel
		Screen Margins
▼▲
		Widescreen

← Among Dinesh's photos

See also...

Words Words

Keywords

Authorizations, license

Phenomenology

Ξ	Frame Options
3 - +