Phenomenological Discourse Research Articles

Hermeneutika Sebagai Jalan Teologi Pembebasan Farid Esack

Liberation theology is a theological view that was born and developed as a self-liberation movement or group from oppression. Liberation theology is also a phenomenological discourse with plural social conditions and experiencing oppression and inequality that restrain religious adherents. Farid Esack, a South African intellectual who was in the Apartheid regime, held the view that believers should not submit to political authority and discriminatory social conditions of society. In this social condition, Farid Esack saw the need to reinterpret the Qur'an using hermeneutics as an approach. Through the concept of hermeneutics, he is able to give rise to new ideas about theology or what he calls liberation theology. This is an effort to answer existing social problems, especially in South Africa. The writing of this article uses the library research method with a literature study approach, which is carried out by collecting and analyzing information from written sources such as books, journals, articles, and documents related to the topic discussed. According to Farid Esack, the concept of hermeneutics is very necessary considering that the books in religion are not only a teaching concept that only contains rituals but also contains universal human liberation from social inequality and oppression.

Reflections on upbringing in the post-pandemic era – around the book "Powerless education. On the education of the fragile, Krzysztof Maliszewski, Katowice 2021, wyd. University of Silesia, ss. 206

"Powerless education. On the education of the fragile" is an extremely original collection of the author's thoughts on the dilemmas experienced by everyone who deals with education today. The book is divided into seven interrelated essays, accompanied by a bibliography, an index of names and a summary. The essence and at the same time the consequence of the adopted logic of considerations is the anthropological reconstruction of relational space not only in upbringing, but in general in interpersonal interactions – it describes the experience of contact with the unknown, disagreement, searching first for ways of escape, and then taming what is first, unknown, or known and neglected, but repressed or negated.The author juxtaposes two models of education, the so-called weak and strong education, pointing to their social and philosophical entanglements and familiarizing readers with their possible consequences, both developmental and social. The book does not lack literary, philosophical and religious references. In addition to reflections based on the foundations of pedagogical thinking (Folkierska), completely new threads appear (Biesta, Sławek). It is important that these narratives, lines of thought complement each other, intersect, and none of the author's associations appears accidentally or is placed in a vacuum. The book seems to be an illustration of the methods of narrative insight into experience – Maliszewski writes very suggestively, convincingly describing what he probably experienced himself, opening the space of phenomenological discourse to which he invites readers.

CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND FOR THE FORMATION OF PHENOMENOLOGY IN THE GERMAN PHILOSOPHY OF THE 19th CENTURY

An early stage in the development of phenomenology, as a matter of fact, is considered, which completes a long, foldable and richly planned process, within the framework of which a new philosophical methodology was formed. Among the concepts of phenomenology, the concept of intentionality is especially distinguished, as it is not only the basic characteristic of all mental acts of a person, but also a rethinking prompting ontology of wisdom. The basic provisions of the phenomenological theory of information are not in themselves an intentional principle, which changes the traditional for that hour the understanding of information as a mental interpretation of speeches. F. Brentano's position forces us to talk about certain ontological levels that are associated with a greater or lesser obviousness of real or mental objects. The general thesis proposed here is that phenomenology is not the creation of a single, even brilliant, thinker, but is a doctrine that completes a rather long, complex and multifaceted process within which a new philosophical position was formed. In this sense, it can be argued that the emergence of the phenomenological method was prepared by the entire development of European philosophy, in each stage of which one can find points of formation of the phenomenological method or points of thematic intersection with phenomenology. In this respect, phenomenology is not just a philosophical «invention», another» «system», but a doctrine that emerged at the intersection of rational and empirical theories of New European philosophy, starting in the nineteenth century. At an early stage of phenomenology's development, an important conceptual basis for building a scientific psychology that wants to consider mental phenomena in any meaningful way is revealed. This basis is contained in the concept of intentionality, which is fundamental to the construction and development of phenomenological discourse. However, it would be a mistake to treat intentional objects as products of the imagination or simple empirical data that psychology usually deals with. In a certain sense, an intentional object is not a psychological phenomenon, but one of the constituent elements of the original ontology, a material, a brick, which consistently makes up any ontological structure. Thus, already at the stage of the formation of the phenomenological doctrine, the contours and priorities of a new philosophy were determined, which positioned itself as a philosophy of consciousness and should be read as a prerequisite for the construction of a fundamental ontology.

‘Buildability’ in the Digital Age: A Phenomenological Discourse of Industry Practitioners’ Perceptions

Since the emergence of the concept of “buildability” in 1983, numerous studies have focused on improving project performance through buildability. Initially, the buildability discourse was based on narrow definitions and focused on aspects that could improve construction performance. Although explicit academic discourse on buildability has been limited for three decades, the ongoing calls to improve construction performance have never subsided. As buildability was seen as important by industry in the 1980s and 1990s for improving performance, its limited discourse warrants investigation to understand how buildability has evolved in practice over the last 30 years. Therefore, this study aims to review and extend the discourse of the buildability concept using a phenomenological research approach to capture the unconscious evolution of the concept through stakeholder interpretations. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) research philosophy embedded in the exploratory tradition was followed to uncover the 16 key underlying constructs of the buildability concept. The study is significant for casting potential buildability discourse trajectories for the future of the construction industry by integrating people, process, and technology. The findings extend the dimensions of buildability, accommodating stakeholders’ expectations and project conditions as part of buildability decisions. Moreover, the study suggests that emerging technologies (e.g., AI) will become integral to buildability processes in terms of managing knowledge in the future.

End-of-Life Narratives of Patients who Request Medical Assistance in Dying: A Qualitative Study Protocol

Many groups (healthcare professionals, lawyers, philosophers, non-governmental organisations, bioethics committees, journalists, religious groups, etc.) participate in the bioethical debate about medical assistance in dying (MAiD). Bioethics literature on the topic involve different approaches (analytic, empirical, policy oriented, activist) and various normative perspectives (discourses based on deontological premises as the sanctity of life and human dignity, or on utilitarianism, libertarianism, etc.), some of which are at times irreconcilable. Regarding empirical studies, some voices (e.g., healthcare professionals) have been widely considered but the voice of people who request MAiD has been neglected. Understanding the personal and medical circumstances that lead to MAiD, which can only be achieved by listening to the phenomenological discourse of those involved, is key. This study aims to provide knowledge from the testimonies and experiences of patients who have initiated a MAiD request. We believe this research protocol can increase our understanding of a social and academic controversy that lacks important information to be complete. By doing so, this type of research could inform and improve end-of-life public policies, and particularly the health care of individuals who request a MAiD. We propose a qualitative phenomenological study using semi-structured interviews of people in the process of requesting MAiD, as outlined in the Ley Orgánica 3/2021, de regulación de la eutanasia (LORE), the Spanish Law on the Regulation of Euthanasia. The study is conducted nationally using a convenience sampling. The number of interviews is determined sequentially and cumulatively, depending on the richness of the narratives and the saturation of the information that has been collected. For the purposes of analysis, the interviews are transcribed verbatim and pseudonymised afterwards. Data analysis is conducted at the same time as data collection. The proposed study has received a favourable report from the Coordinating Committee on Biomedical Research Ethics of Andalusia (CCEIBA).

Ruptured Envelopes, Double Shells: Skins in Art in the Age of Global Mobility

“Ruptured Envelopes, Double Shells” explores the presence and meaning of skin in art of the early twenty-first-century. Millennial art has engaged skin through an intriguing selection of media, from animal hides to latex and silicon. The installations discussed in this paper experiment with biological and artificial skins, transformed into fetishized shells and brought to bear on contemporary sociocultural anxieties. The paper draws on Didier Anzieu’s Skin-Ego theory as a useful analytical framework, allowing discussion of both psychological and sociocultural aspects of skin. Works by Ana Álvarez-Errecalde, Nandipha Mntambo, Jessica Harrison, Wu Tien-chang, Michel Platnic, Pamela Rosenkranz, and Penny Siopis are discussed under the categories of “double shells,” “skin fetishes,” and “de-structured skins.” Analysis proceeds along two critical paths. Thus, a historically-specific political perspective is coupled with a phenomenological reflection on skin’s appeal to the haptic sensibility of our bodily borders. Investigating the turbulence of global mobility through the trope of skin, the paper reflects on subjects’ sense of “skinlessness” in an age when Otherness is ubiquitous, whether it is political, geographic, ethnic, or racially specific. At the same time, the growing phenomenological discourse on embodied aesthetics invites reflection upon sensory aspects of skin-based art, in relation to the lived experience of bodily envelopes. Assuming a synergy between these complementary critical paths, the paper offers close analysis of seven artists’ skin-related installations and videos, with particular attention to how skin comes to matter in an age of global turbulence.

“LA DIFFERANCE” AND “RIEN ENROULE”: YOUNG MARC RICHIR READS DERRIDA

This paper analyzes the influence of J. Derrida’s philosophy on the early thought of French phenomenologist M. Richir. Main texts for the analysis are Derrida’s report « La Différance » and the article « Le Rien Enroulé » by Richir. The author stresses their deep figurative and substantive interconnectedness. Thus, Richir borrows from Derrida a number of key philosophical figures, including the figure of différance itself, and applies them to phenomenological landscape through the “first-person” narrative. Having examined the correlation between Derrida’s figures of différance and Richir’s phenomenalization, the author concludes that Richir, influenced by the impersonal figure of différance, leads his “first-person” narrative in an attempt to take it beyond the limits of classical phenomenological discourse. Moreover, the author finds preconditions for Richir’s introduction of one of his early key concepts “nothing” (rien) in the text of Derrida’s « La Différance ». The main thesis of this research is: Richir borrows Derrida’s understanding of consciousness and performs phenomenological description from its perspective. The paper considers Derrida’s text as a key to understanding Richir’s article « Le Rien Enroulé » and, as a result, the key to his early philosophy in general.

THE TRANSCENDENTAL AND THE MUNDANE SPHERES: ARE THEY REALLY ONTOLOGICALLY DISCTINCT?

As implied by the title this article deals with a key question running through the history of philosophy virtually since antiquity. This is the question of the relationship, on ontological grounds, of the transcendental and the mundane “universes” to the extent that the nature of transcendence, even as detached from the metaphysical sphere and recalibrated in terms of immanence in the broadly conceived subjectivist tradition, it is still a highly controversial issue primarily in continental philosophy. This is especially true in view of the obvious incompatibility, at least in a naive sense, of the transcendental and the mundane contexts for which the philosophical discussion on phenomenological grounds is still open. My own arguments on the issue are mainly based on the Husserlian and Heideggerian narratives and also on E. Fink’s approach to the transcendence versus mundanity ontological problematic. On these prompts I set out to defend the position that there are serious reasons to regard the realm of transcendence as ineluctably constrained by mundanity concerns. More concretely I will try to show that there is no way, at least in the context of the phenomenological discourse, to do away with a kind of mundanity influence even in the most pure transcendental level involving the cornerstone of Husserlian transcendental phenomenology which is the concept of absolute ego. My overall approach, more than an attempt at vindicating Fink’s objections as to the purely transcendental level reached after the radical phenomenological reduction, is a demonstration of the conceptual pitfalls or even circularities involved along the way in trying to establish a sound foundation for a purely transcendental ontological level.

I HAVE ALL SORTS OF VOICES IN MY HEAD MEDITATIONS ON GEORGY CHERNAVIN’S BOOK THE CONSCIENCE’S DOUBLE Chernavin G. The Conscience’s Double. Moscow, 2023. (In press)

The review analyzes the book The Conscience’s Double by Georgy Chernavin. I focus on the concepts of false twins of conscience, guilt, and duty in the extended context of philosophical and artistic discourse. The problem of the difference between conscience and its ersatz forms, which give rise to a distorted ethical consciousness, is considered. The main emphasis is opportunistic conscience, neurotic guilt, and false debt. The review suggests that Chernavin’s book studies the “sad theory” of moral disorientation and requires the supplementation with a hypothetical “cringe theory.” In this case, the “sad theory” makes it possible to expand the phenomenological discourse by including a discussion of conscience, illustrating the uncertainty of the boundaries between the phenomenological and the symbolic, and highlighting the subject’s dependence on what they are not. In this work, there is a potential for developing an original ontology of the relationship between conscience and its evil counterpart, especially between a “spiritually sighted” and a “blindly corporeal” person. The scrutinized guilt for the lost absence of guilt is an experience that, although not lived, is important for the subject’s self-constitution. This experience, like the inner side of the subject, determines its conscious functioning and forms something like a Mobius strip. An Evil Genius makes this bond, and I am trying to conceptualize their “weakened” being.

The didactical phenomenology in learning the circle equation

Realistic mathematics education (RME) has proven to be an effective model for mathematics elsewhere. However, students and teachers still grapple to confront the circle equation to learn and teachers to teach. This study explored students’ didactical phenomenological discourses in the circle equation as an alternative. The mixed methods research design was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from 50 senior high school students purposely selected from one senior high school. The instruments of data collection were the questionnaire and interview guide. The purpose of the questionnaire and interview guide was to validate and corroborate. The quantitative analyses contain categorical independent and continuous dependent variables and were explored by reliability statistics, simple and multiple analysis of variance tests of independence. On the other hand, the qualitative transcriptions of students’ own perceptions. The results on the types of equations showed low didactical phenomenology as many variables fell below the .20 minimum internal consistency’s criteria. However, the results of the tasks showed high acceptable didactical phenomenology. We therefore concluded that RME could be extended to other domains of mathematics. Thereafter, comprehensive recommendations were advanced for theory, method, research, practice, policy, and context.

“My roots are green”: a phenomenological discourse on intergenerational green motherhood in non-Western consumption contexts

PurposeThis paper aims to describe the lived experiences of modern urban mothers in Pakistan as they navigate shared motherhood responsibilities with family elders. This paper brings to light their feelings, fears and ambitions towards safeguarding the environment for the future of their children, by reconciling ancient traditions of their female elders with contemporary sustainable consumption practices.Design/methodology/approachThis phenomenological study explores lived experiences of urban mothers through in-depth personal interviews. Their discourse explores sharing childcare responsibilities with family matriarchs, negotiating “green” parenting strategies between intergenerational parenting partners.FindingsNavigating life through the intersections of modernity and tradition and ethical choices and consumerism, urban mothers integrate wisdom of their ancestors into their modern lives to mitigate the environmental degradation of today.Originality/valueThis study sheds light on a unique genre of green mothers, termed as the traditionally green eco-mom, which allows modern mothers and their female elders to synchronously adopt sustainable childcare behaviours that overcome intergenerational barriers by reconciling contemporary lifestyles with traditional wisdom.

Education: paradigmatic shift in a culture of paradox

The article considers the educational crisis as a phenomenon in the context of postmodern culture. On the example of education, crisis locality is demonstrated as a component of the totality of the crisis state of postmodern culture. A phenomenological discourse is proposed to reflect the paradoxicality of postmodernism, at first considered in the form of a modernist stage of self-revision, which in turn entailed the decline of the era of modernity and the deployment of a new type of culture.

Pina Bausch and the Dancing Body: Social Constructionism and Identity in Nelken, The Rite of Spring and Kontakthof

This article aims to consider the social construct of the dancing body and its role in the building of identity focusing primarily on the female dancing body as exercised in the seminal works of Nelken, The Rite of Spring and Kontakthof by the German expressionist choreographer Pina Bausch. The phenomenological discourse in these works ‘embody the social and cultural
 dynamics in which they are generated’1, making of them unique performative experiences. In these pieces of tanztheater, the characters embodied in the dancing bodies on stage are both, universal and anonymous, and the stories they tell are about human connexions and their consequences in a defined sphere. In these fundamental choreographies by Pina Bausch our perception of dance art leads to a response that goes beyond aesthetic dispositions and forces the spectator into an explorative interdisciplinary journey of self-discovery. As Pina Bausch herself said, ‘it is not about how people moves, but what moves them’ (Pina Bausch in Bringshaw, 2009).

The Simulated Body: A Preliminary Investigation into the Relationship Between Neuroscientific Studies, Phenomenology and Virtual Reality

The author of this paper discusses the theme of the "simulated body", that is the sense of "being there” in a body that is not one's own, or that does not exist in the way one perceives it. He addresses this issue by comparing Immersive Virtual Reality technology, the phenomenological approach, and Gerald Edelman's theory of Neural Darwinism. Virtual Reality has been used to throw light on some phenomena that cannot be studied experimentally in real life, and the results of its simulations enrich the phenomenological discourse on the lived body. Virtual “Reality” seems to replicate—at least in part—the simulation mechanisms of our mind, thus favoring developments in the field of philosophy of mind.

Paul Silas Peterson: „Zurück zur Individualität!“ Die Rezeption moderner Religionsphilosophie im Hochland in der Weimarer Zeit

Abstract The monthly magazine Hochland was probably the most influential Catholic cultural periodical in Germany in the Weimar Period. According to Georg Cardinal von Kopp’s assessment in 1911, it was “unfortunately the most read periodical in all of the educated circles of Germany, Austria and German Switzerland”. Moving beyond the simple rejection of modern culture in Germany, the journal tried to follow a new program of mediatory engagement, although it did continue to hold to traditional positions in many regards. In this article the reception of modern, Enlightenment-affirmative philosophy of religion in the journal is introduced with reference to reviews and essays from the later 1910s to the early 1930s. The journal’s treatment of a few critical subject areas is given close interpretive analysis, including the journal’s treatment of Gertrud Simmel’s Über das Religiöse, individually conceptualized forms of personalist moral theory, and the general shift to phenomenological discourses and the individual in the philosophy of religion. The fundamental rejections of these ideas and these schools of thought in reviews and essays, which are also found in the journal at this time (as in most all German language Catholic cultural journals of the period), are not addressed in this article. The article thus sheds light on an often-forgotten and relatively small minority phenomenon in German Catholic intellectual circles of the Weimar Period, namely the positive embrace of Enlightenment-oriented modern thought. By promoting these ideas at this time, this group made themselves highly vulnerable to disciplinary measures by the Catholic Church. (The journal was put on the Index in 1911.)

A Phenomenological Approach Towards the Analysis of Politics

The goal of this paper is to develop a consistent framework for a phenomenological discourse analysis of political debates. The political sphere arises through the questioning of taken-for-granted definitions of reality: a crisis. During a crisis meaning has to be restored, and different interest groups will try to push their definition of reality, which is advantageous for them. For the analysis of such a political discourse phenomenology provides several tools that can help us to understand the background of the discourse, the severity of the crisis, the level of expertise of the participants, the source of the information, discourse strategies and what arguments the audience accepts. These tools allow a unique phenomenological approach towards political discourse analysis.

Crafting a Subjective Experience of a Rehabilitative Facility: An Autoethnographic Account

Using an autoethnographic method, this article explores the discourses, lines of force, and narratives that constitute the kind of human being it is possible to become in a rehabilitative skilled nursing facility. It is written from the point of view of a patient who is using the facility. It gives an account of an encounter with the liability discourse and teases out the biomedical discourse from the phenomenological discourse. It also traces the restitution narrative that dominates healthcare and contrasts it with a chaos narrative. The author’s subjective experience is crafted between these various discourses and narratives and is not entirely an individual’s decision.

Lived Theology: Spirit, Economy, and Asceticism in Irenaeus and His Readers

Abstract Salvation lies at the heart of Irenaeus’ thought. His two surviving works not only declare helping his readers’ communities toward salvation as their purpose, but even contain prayers and meditations for the Valentinians’ salvation. However, following the paradigm set down by Harnack more than a century ago, scholars have tended to separate what Irenaeus insists “rejoice together”: “truth in the mind” and “holiness in the body” (Dem 3). By reconsidering the history of Irenaean scholarship on the nature of the divine economy and the infancy of Adam, I show that Adam’s infancy is temporal rather than physical and that Irenaeus’ interpretation of Adam’s growth is at the same time the phenomenological structure of temptation, maturation, and askesis experienced by the living reader. Irenaeus’ soteriology was not simply a metaphysical theory but an ascetic and even phenomenological discourse structuring a way of life—it was a lived theology.

The concept of colour as a grammar problem in Wittgenstein

This essay aims to provide conceptual tools for the understanding of Wittgenstein’s theory of color as a grammar problem instead of a phenomenological or purely scientific one. From an introduction of his understanding of meaning in his early and late life, his notion of grammar will be analyzed to understand his rebuttal of scientific and phenomenological discourse as a proper means for dealing with the problem of color through his critique of Goethe. Then Wittgenstein’s take on color will become clear as his sympathy for Runge, the painter that Goethe criticizes, is analyzed to understand color as a language-game regarding kinds of colors as numbers and geometrical figures, in that grammar rather than experience is used to acknowledge them. Keywords: Meaning. Language-games. Grammar. Color. Perception.

О проекте феноменологической психологии Г.Г. Шпета и Н.И. Жинкина

This paper is aimed to reconstruct the project of phenomenological psychology of Russian phenomenologist G.G. Shpet and a psychologist and his disciple N.I. Zhinkin. The research shows the continuity of their investigations in the aspect of inner voice’s mechanisms and points out the possibility of integration of both phenomenological and psychological discourses from their works as the methodological project that is called “phenomenological psychology” by this paper’s authors. The research uncovers the reasons of phenomenological psychology’s origin as Shpet’s creative project. These reasons are rooted in Shpet’s will to investigate phenomena of religious consciousness using inside the phenomenological discourse, that is stated in his correspondence with E. Husserl. The main papers that are used for the synthesis are the mentioned Shpet’s correspondence and Zhinkin’s “On Transition Coded in Inner Voice”. The second one explains the tenets of inner voice’s functionality as the language of thinking, personal consciousness. The general workability of Shet’s and Zhinkin’s method for analysis of religious consciousness is demonstrated on the example Ignatius’ of Loyala “Spiritual Diary” that isn’t only the example of religious consciousness, but also is the specific method of religious comprehension. The general possibility of complex conclusions’ statements about “Spiritual Diary” problem is linked to the understanding of someone else’s consciousness as a possible object of phenomenological intuition and analysis inside Shpet’s concept of phenomenology. The inner consistency of Shpet’s and Zhinkin’s synthetic method gives us a chance to state it as the possible ideological framework for future interdisciplinary investigations of religious consciousness.