Phenomenology

What is phenomenology?

; Phenomenology

The phenomenology of Edmund Husserl can be understood as a method and a 'way of seeing'. The method is built after the purification of psychologism. It is necessary to show that logical laws are pure logic and not empirical, transcendental or coming from a supposed intelligible world of a metaphysicalnature. It is also necessary, from this approach, to show that certain operations such as abstraction or judgment are not empirical acts but of an intentional nature. This consciousness does not apprehend the objects of the natural world as such objects nor consituates what is given as an object of knowledge: it learns pure meanings as they are simply given and as they are given. This debugging is carried out through the phenomenological method.

The phenomenological method

In order to implement the phenomenological method, it is necessary to adopt a radical attitude, that is the 'suspension' of the 'natural world'. In this way, one could say that the belief in the reality of the natural world as well as the propositions that give rise to those beliefs are placed 'in parentheses'. It is therefore not a question of denying natural reality (which differentiates this method from classical skepticism ). The method proposes to place a new 'sign' to the 'natural attitude', which means abstaining from the space-time existence of the world.

In short, the phenomenological method consists of:

• ♦ Examine all contents of consciousness

• ♦ Determine if such contents are real, ideal, imaginary, etc.

• ♦ Suspend phenomenological consciousness, in such a way that it is possible to stick to what is given as such and describe it in its purity

Phenomenology presupposes nothing: neither common sense, nor the natural world, nor scientific propositions, nor psychological experiences. It is placed before any belief and judgment to simply explore what is given. This method could be considered an absolute positivism.

To deepen the topic

Reaction against naturalism and psychologism

Scheler's philosophical anthropology