On the Value of Phenomenology Across Disciplines and Traditions

Abstract

Philosophical phenomenology has often been regarded as having more to do with subjective psychology and exegesis than with contemporary problems facing analytical cognitive science. Dan Zahavi, in his book Subjectivity and Selfhood, strongly challenges this understanding of phenomenology by focusing upon the relations among experience, self-awareness, and selfhood and, thereby, providing an account of the self that has significance for cognitive scientists and analytical philosophers of mind, as well as for phenomenologists. Although the subjective element of consciousness or, rather, the phenomenal first-person perspective has enjoyed greater attention in recent years, Zahavi claims that the utility of philosophical phenomenology stretches beyond its usual limits of analyzing the nature of consciousness. Phenomenology, Zahavi writes, "can also offer a conceptual framework for understanding subjectivity that might be of considerably more value than some of the models currently in vogue in cognitive science" (p. 5). Specifically, Zahavi targets higher-order representational theories. He also critiques the view that the experience of oneself or others as minded beings requires a theory of mind. This is commonly referred to as the theory-theory of mind view. According to this view, an understanding of the mind from both the first-person and third-person perspective is founded upon theoretical knowledge. One important implication of this view is that human beings must first acquire a basis of theoretical knowledge before a first-person perspective of the self as a minded being and the understanding of other humans as minded beings can take place. Zahavi critiques the theory-theory of mind view as uninformed insofar as it denies the fundamental importance of an understanding of the mind as acquired through phenomenal experience. In this clearly written and carefully articulated book, Zahavi succeeds in moving philosophical phenomenology forward and into its deserved role in discussions concerning the nature of the self and consciousness through thoughtful