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Questions tagged [phenomenology]

Phenomenology is a philosophical movement associated with Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jean-Paul Sartre. It is also a philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness.

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3 answers
193 views

A few questions on Phenomenology

Can someone briefly explain: What is the difference between Phenomenological, Transcendental and Eidetic reduction? What the 'natural attitude means? What it means to bracket the natural attitude? Why ...
105 votes
26 answers
49k views

How does one know one is not dreaming?

How does one know one is not dreaming? How could one logically demonstrate to a skeptic that one is "really" there, awake and not just dreaming about the entire situation/world around him? ...
3 votes
4 answers
290 views

Does all art have a sentiment?

It occurred to me that when e.g. reading poetry, I attach a lot of significance to a kind of sentiment. It seems independent of how genteel the work is. I am interested in finding a way of thinking ...
3 votes
2 answers
126 views

Meanings of multiple and variable

This is from Ñanavira's Notes on Dhamma - Phassa footnote C: If experience were confined to the use of a single eye, the eye and forms would not be distinguishable, they would not appear as separate ...
2 votes
2 answers
173 views

Is Psychoanalysis a Type of Phenomenology?

Psychoanalysis—be it Freudian, Jungian or Lacanian—is concerned with how reality is experienced by the subject as affected by his/her unconscious wishes, desires, sometimes even by archetypal myths, ...
4 votes
4 answers
264 views

To what extent can one admit that language is an adequate outlet for explicit feelings and experiencings?

If I am sharing my thoughts and another person goes “oh, that’s relatable,” or “yeah, I totally get it,” and other variations like “I feel you on that one!” Do they, really? Is language ever enough, ...
4 votes
1 answer
157 views

Who are some philosophers who explore the possibility/impossibility of the intimacy of understanding others?

Can one ever be understood? When people say “yeah, I feel you” do they really? Is language enough of an outlet to transmit feelings with enough exactitude?
4 votes
1 answer
184 views

Meaning of these words in Heidegger's "Being and Time"?

What is the meaning of obstinacy and un-ready-to-hand in this passage from "Being and Time"? I have a general knowledge of Heidegger’s philosophy, but I have problem understanding the ...
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why are Dan Dennett and his heterophenomenonology largely ignored by the Wikipedia and Stanford articles on phenomenology?

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/ says: "According to classical Husserlian phenomenology, our experience is directed toward—represents or “intends”—things only through particular ...
5 votes
1 answer
228 views

Are there secular philosophers who argue for predetermined and given meaning/value in life and essentialism?

In continental philosophy particularly existentialism, thinkers reject the idea that there are any predetermined or given meanings/values in life, and stresses that we must take up our freedom and ...
1 vote
1 answer
140 views

Are there contemporary analytic defenders of the view that pattern/meaning is metaphysically fundamental and directly knowable?

Background: Much of philosophy since Kant has taken for granted that our basic experience of reality is structured by our cognitive apparatus, including notably our background conceptual frameworks. ...
2 votes
2 answers
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About the absolute nature of the Answer to a particular question

Can every question regardless of the subject be answered? ( answer based on reality and not on "Phaneron" ) How is the reality taken to be true? ( Everything that is proven may not be true ...
2 votes
2 answers
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Questions on Phenomenology

This is from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/#DiscPhen Section 4 paragraph 9 One of Heidegger’s most innovative ideas was his conception of the “ground” of being, looking to modes of ...
2 votes
3 answers
335 views

Has phenomenology ever produced a useful philosophical insight?

Analytic philosophy, although not without its faults, has made some real progress in moving us beyond traditional metaphysics. Nobody really believes, for example, in Platonic forms any more. On the ...
2 votes
1 answer
169 views

Explanation of Dasein and Da-sein in Heidegger

I am using the translation by Joan Stambaugh. Can someone explain what is meant by "Da-sein", and how does this compares to the more used "Dasein"?
3 votes
2 answers
344 views

How does Martin Heidegger want us to react to anxiety?

Introduction: After the world of das Man loses its significance and becomes meaningless, one falls in anxiety and he's able to embrace other possibilities. But this anxiety is converted automatically ...
1 vote
0 answers
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Can someone explain some things that I am unsure of in this text?

This is a passage from a summary on Husserl’s philosophy from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/husserl/ This is on the last paragraph of section 6: This deep-structure of intentional consciousness ...
5 votes
1 answer
245 views

How to fully understand the first three chapters of Phenomenology of Spirit?

I read The Phenomenology of Spirit like 10 years ago, but I felt like it was very vague and abstract. Hegel seemed to have been describing the development of human thought with respect to the absolute ...
2 votes
0 answers
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Kant's transcendental apperception and 'ipseity' in phenomenology

In the writings of various phenomenologists, the concept of 'ipseity' is widely discussed. As far as I can make out from various sources (e.g. Zahavi, Subjectivity and Selfhood, esp. chapter 5), ...
2 votes
1 answer
56 views

Question about Sartre's distinction between "self-consciousness", "subject", and "ego"

I am reading the Routledge Critical Thinkers series on Jacques Lacan, and I have come across this passage about Jean-Paul Sartre: In an early work entitled Transcendence of the Ego (1934) Sartre ...
2 votes
1 answer
191 views

Why is psychology a parallel to natural science?

This is from Husserl's Phenomenology which he wrote for the Encyclopedia Britannica: It is by no means clear from the very outset, however, how far the idea of a pure psychology -as a psychological ...
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0 answers
39 views

"The object of reflection./ L'objet de la réflexion." ( A 2016 " agrégation de philosophie " paper)

Source : Rapport de jury de l'agrégation externe de philosophie 2016 , présenté par Paul Mathias, Inspecteur Général de l'Education Nationale , page 15 https://philosophie.ac-versailles.fr/IMG/pdf/rj-...
1 vote
1 answer
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Introduction to Heidegger

I have not read anything of Martin Heidegger and I am interested in starting. I understand that "Being and Time" can be very difficult, so what would be a good place to start? (including ...
1 vote
0 answers
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Differences between Being, Existing, Ontical and Existential in "Being and Time"

I am trying to understand the differences between Being, Ontical and Existential. What are they trying to imply by themselves, separately? Ontical seems to mean "physical existence". ...
1 vote
0 answers
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Is Hume talking about noumena in section 12 of the Enquiry?

So I'm almost done with the Enquiry and came across something in this section that reminded me of Kant's phenomena and noumena. If this is the case, I'm just curious, why hadn't anyone made this ...
1 vote
1 answer
174 views

What does play of reflexions mean here?

A passage from Ñanavira's Notes on Dhamma from Atta: The puthujjana confuses (as the arahat does not) the self-identity of simple reflexion—as with a mirror, where the same thing is seen from two ...
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Sources for phenomenology?

I'm not in Philosophy, so I'm having a hard time looking for the article T. Sheenan. The History of the Redaction of the Encyclopaedia Britannica article. Trans. Phen., pp. 36-59. Does it exists ...
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Looking for a good online lecture series on Husserl's Ideas 1

I just started reading Husserl's ideas 1 and looking for a good lecture series to follow along with. Willing to pay, but would prefer a free resource on YouTube or the like. Also open to other ...
1 vote
1 answer
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A couple of questions regarding imagination

Here is a passage from Ñanavira's Notes on Dhamma. Images here refer to mental content (imaginations). Five-base refers to the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) There is no doubt that ...
4 votes
1 answer
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What is Organic Unity and why is every situation an organic unity?

The is from Ñanavira's book: Notes on Dhamma. It is from footnote b in the notes on Anicca: McTaggart, in The Nature of Existence (Cambridge 1921-7, §§149-54), remarks that philosophers have usually ...
1 vote
1 answer
211 views

Does phenomenology reject causality, in that there are natural laws to be understood and utilised? What is the stance on technological progress/devel?

I have been diving into phenomenology for my research and it seems very interesting. But coming back to the "practical" world I still don't can't really describe its stance on various ...
2 votes
2 answers
77 views

Does a phenomenal experience require conscious awareness, or simply unconscious sensation?

If a tree is experienced lying on the forest floor, did it come into existence when experienced, or did something cause it to lie there? This question is all about the division between phenomenal, ...
-2 votes
1 answer
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Can aesthetic experience being induced?

Can aesthetic experiences being induced ? Or are those bound to specific aspects of an objects or quality? This small excerpt from a text on Ponty and minimalism in art says: “from Merleau-Ponty’s ...
6 votes
2 answers
541 views

Purpose and examples of Phenomenological analysis (transcendental reduction)

I would like to ask whether there are any concrete end-to-end examples that you are aware of, and ones that I can go through that are considered correct transcripts of the transcendental reduction ...
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0 answers
137 views

Is Husserl's transcendental ego God?

We will eventually come up against something that cannot be varied without destroying that object as an instance of its kind. The implicit claim here is that if it is inconceivable that an object of ...
0 votes
0 answers
63 views

A question in Phenomenology

I'm trying to understand Phenomenology better and I have a question that might be clarify it for me: Let's assume that I'm looking at the stars during the night. What I see is that the stars are ...
1 vote
0 answers
106 views

Is everything understood (semantics) within a language and is perception the first language?

And are all languages (math, set theory, whistling, English, Chinese, etc) somewhat inter-translatable? I'm sorry for the broad/overreaching question. Is this something some philosophers agree on, ...
5 votes
4 answers
7k views

What is a Horizon?

What do phenomenologists mean by "Horizon". I thought I understood it from the context when I first saw it, but every time I see it I get more confused. Now I have no idea. Can someone explain what ...
3 votes
1 answer
112 views

What philosopher regarded the end and purpose of human life to be in relationships with other individuals?

I remember in my undergrad being taught about some philosopher who regarded the whole end and purpose of human existence to be primarily that of relationship with other people. I dont remember if he ...
1 vote
0 answers
116 views

Ontic/Ontological as parallel to a posteriori/a priori?

Heidegger makes the distinction between the ontic (concerning beings themselves) and the ontological (the being of beings, being as such). Would it be wise to say that the ontic covers the contingent ...
0 votes
2 answers
126 views

Is there truly an objective difference between what is and what could be?

"What is" versus "What could be". What role does language as a way of knowing play in determining “what” something is? Is the desire to change the way we view the world in Art connected to or ...
0 votes
1 answer
168 views

Infinity mirror?

Not sure if this should be in the physics section or here in philosophy. I think the topic may fit in both domains. What has lead me to inquire about this particular effect is the description of it as ...
2 votes
1 answer
62 views

What are the "Acts" Discussed in Husserl's "Logical Investigations"?

I am reading Dan Zahavi's Husserl's Phenomenology with a specific focus on his treatment of Logical Investigations. He describes Logical Investigations as "providing a new foundation for pure ...
1 vote
1 answer
108 views

What are some refutations of Husserl’s anti-psychologism?

Husserl argues that psychologism fails through its inability to distinguish between objects of knowledge and acts of knowing, the act being a temporal and psychical process characterized by ...
1 vote
1 answer
437 views

What does "pre-predicative" mean in the context of Husserl's Cartesian Meditations <52>?

In Husserl's Cartesian Mediatations <52> The term pre-predicative is introduced in this way: Yet there is one more thing that should be brought out, to <52> supplement what we have said. ...
2 votes
1 answer
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Does Phenomenology Reject The Existence of Mediating Concepts?

I am reading Robert Sokolowski's Introduction to Phenomenology. He makes phenomenology out to be inherently realist: when we intend something, we intend the thing itself (not the "idea" or &...
0 votes
4 answers
163 views

Is there a word or term for the inability to separate what is phenomenal from noumenal?

Phenomenal includes everything originating from personal experience, while Noumenal includes everything except personal experience; something is Ontological when it includes both. The ability to ...
3 votes
3 answers
622 views

What is the enigma of art?

I've always been fascinated by the following constellated section of Adorno's Aesthetic Theory, probably because phenomenology is intuitively easier to get to grips with than a drawn out critical ...
5 votes
5 answers
2k views

Does consciousness exist?

I am not the first to ask that question. There is at least the article written by William James with that very same title in: The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, Vol. 1, ...
1 vote
0 answers
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What philosophical works explore the concept of solitude?

I am currently working on the solitude of old people during the pandemic time. I wonder if there is any philosophical work that explores what solitude is and how it emerges from different perspectives....