Phenomenological Philosophy Research Articles

The Logos of the Communicating Silence

The following thesis is an attempt to establish the communicative dimensions of silence. In it I put forward a thesis in the spirit of Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue and Max Scheler's phenomenology of emotion , according to which true dialogue does not convey specific content, but modes of existence born of the experience of presence. This kind of normative transmission of existence makes communication a communion. Underlying tacit communication are various forms of affection , through which emotionality becomes one of the main dimensions of communicating silence.

Perceptions and Expectations of Midwives and Women Regarding Prenatal Care within the Scope of Primary Health Care Services in Türkiye.

One of the Sustainable Development Goals is to reduce the global maternal mortality rate. Antenatal care is a crucial component in achieving this goal. The aim of our study is to reveal the perceptions and expectations of midwives and women regarding antenatal care. In this qualitative study, Husserl's philosophy of phenomenology was adopted to emphasize the knowledge of experiences. One-to-one in-depth interviews were conducted with 31 participants - 15 midwives and 16 women - who received antenatal care in Türkiye. Each interview was recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data obtained from the research were analyzed using traditional content analysis, resulting in five main themes and ten sub-themes. The main themes were "Lack of knowledge/awareness," "Midwifery in Antenatal Care Services," "Practices within the Scope of Antenatal Care," "Factors Hindering Receiving Antenatal Care," and "Expectations from Antenatal Care." The women participating in the research could not define the concept of "Antenatal care" and did not consider the service they received during pregnancy as antenatal care. It was determined that midwives could not provide quality antenatal care services to women for various reasons. Midwives should raise women's awareness about antenatal care, which includes examination, treatment, education, and counselling. In addition, the areas of need of primary health care services should be determined, and necessary improvements should be made.

Gameplay 2.0: Toward a New Theory

The aim of this article is to present an updated version of our previous theory of gameplay. “Gameplay” is a term often used without a clear definition or consistent application. In this article, we propose categorizing gameplay into three distinct yet interconnected layers: the first emphasizing temporality, the second highlighting spatiality, and the third pinpointing emotion as anchor point. Our model and understanding are influenced by the philosophy of phenomenology, particularly Husserl's objective examination of the first-person perspective in perceptual experience—a commendable approach for blending formalism with real-time experience without resorting to subjectivism or psychologism. We offer an analytical and methodological framework for understanding gameplay, relying on micro-tensions to elucidate gameplay as a structural entity as well as an experiential phenomenon. As we shall demonstrate, micro-tensions are present within each of the three layers, paving the way for the entirety of gameplay—referred to by gamers as “great gameplay.”

Immediate Experience – Contradictio in Adjecto? Strategies for Reflecting on the Immediacy of Experience by M. Henry and T. Sodeika

This article considers the problem of immediacy of experience in the philosophy of Michel Henry and Tomas Sodeika. The article argues that the tension between the requirements of descriptiveness and performativity in phenomenological philosophy emerges particularly vividly in the work of these philosophers. Both philosophers understand the immediacy of experience as an oxymoronic structure that cannot be directly described, requiring very specific efforts and ingenuity from the phenomenologist in order to convey it to the reader. The article analyses and compares the strategies for reflecting on the immediacy of experience in the work of the authors in question. Both philosophers, while emphasising the imperative of performativity in phenomenology, face the intractable contradiction between experience mediated by its description and life that, strictly speaking, cannot be mediated. This raises the question not only about the limitations of phenomenology, but also, more generally, about the limitations of philosophy itself.

Life and repetition in Husserl's analyses from the first half of the 1920s

AbstractIn his later writings, Husserl posits the original life of transcendental consciousness as the ultimate subject of phenomenological inquiry. Through self‐criticism in his work, Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, Husserl realises that the transcendence of representation remains unnoticed after the transcendental reduction. Consequently, he develops the method of apodictic reduction to reveal what is apodictic in consciousness. This method specifically reveals the living presence, as well as the constitution of immanent consciousness, to which the transcendence of representation belongs. Husserl refers to this transcendence as the first transcendence, in contrast to the second transcendence of the constitution of the world. The constitution of the first transcendence is not separate from the living streaming presence but rather belongs to the life of consciousness itself. And it is only through this transcendence of representation that the identifiable (and re‐identifiable) I with its life is constituted.

Qualitative critical phenomenology

AbstractSince its inception, phenomenological philosophy has engaged with empirical data of lived experiences. Recently, phenomenological philosophy itself has branched out into performing systematic qualitative research, resulting in a heterogeneous field of qualitative phenomenological philosophy. By introducing and outlining the research approach of ‘Qualitative Critical Phenomenology’ (QCP), this paper shows how one may conduct systemic qualitative research to lived experiences with an explicit phenomenological philosophical aim. In building on insights from various approaches within critical phenomenology, we not only give a stepwise explication of how to do QCP, we also discuss how we reflectively engage with lived experience as a research object and how key phenomenological themes – i.e. varieties of pre-/reflectivity and the phenomenological reduction – matter for designing and conducting a QCP inquiry. As such, we contribute to discussions on critical phenomenology – i.e. why it matters – but also to debates on how qualitative critical phenomenology may provide a critical lens to prevailing socio-cultural norms and their constitutive force in co-shaping perception and experience.

Realigning Education for Developments in the Institutions of Higher Learning

This paper sought to highlight and discuss the immediate need to realign education for developments in the Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL). Through research that has been covered worldwide, education is one of the most important pillars of any country’s development. It is therefore imperative that the education sector needs to be realigned in line with the developments taking place with the modernization of general business to industrial and technical development for the better benefits and outcomes. This realignment for development will be underpinned by highlights and a discussion from Education 1.0 to the present Education 5.0 as a standard for developments in the institutions of higher learning. Education 5.0 is highly rated in terms of its association with the current business needs and integration with the industrial and technological developments. Institutions of higher learning ought to adopt the use of modern industrial and technological revolution like artificial intelligence, robotics and data analytics as they provide an immersive and interactive learning environment that focuses on student development in society and nation at large. The representative sample consisted of ten (10) participants who were selected from two higher learning institutions in Eswatini. Data generation 2 tools such as in-depth face to face interviews and document analysis were used in this study. A qualitative approach anchored on a philosophy of phenomenology and an interpretivism paradigm was employed to guide the research methodology. Thematic Analysis was used to analyse data. One of the key findings of the study was the failure to know how realigning education for developments in the institutions of higher learning would contribute to the economic development, human capital and social development of Eswatini. Another key finding from the study was that education and businesses are interlinked with each other whereby technology enhanced and improved the quality ...

Феноменология сегодня: исторические проблемы и современные тенденции. Возвращаясь к дискуссии 1988 года (материалы «круглого стола»)

In April 2024, a round table titled “Phenomenology Today: Historical Problems and Contemporary Trends. Returning to the 1988 Discussion” was held, dedicated to discussing current problems in phenomenological research in the context of the historical development of phenomenology in the 21st century. The round table was organized by the journal “Voprosy Filosofii”, the Center for Phenomeno­logical Philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy of RSUH, as well as participants in the Russian Science Foundation project “World, Language, Reality: European and Russian Philosophy in Conceptual and Terminological Dimensions”. Leading phenomenologists, historians of philosophy, and epistemologists participated in the round table. The focus was on the materials of the discussion “Phenomeno­logy and Its Role in Contemporary Philosophy” (Voprosy filosofii, 1988, No. 12). The following topics were discussed: How can the past 36 years in the global and domestic phenomenological movement be assessed? How has the subject configur­ation of phenomenology as a field of study changed? What are the directions of contemporary phenomenological discussions, the specifics of the phenomenolo­gical method and the limits of phenomenological description. Can it be said that the phenomenological method is applied today in the humanities and natural sci­ences, and if so, how effective is it? What is happening today in phenomenology, and what are the current discussions? Phenomenology and analytic philosophy: prospects and possibilities for comparison. The role of phenomenology in the for­mation of epistemological and ontological traditions in Russian philosophy. What has changed in this field over 36 years? The core of the discussions, sparked by the questions posed, became the problem of the relationship between historical reality and the language of philosophy, as well as the understanding of the value of phenomenological strategies in education and scientific activities

Phenomenology and the status quo: Adorno’s mediation argument

In this paper, I discuss a well-known challenge against phenomenology as a viable form of social criticism. According to this challenge—the Mediation Argument—phenomenology falls short of the requirement that any kind of critique needs a suitable medium of representation because the phenomenological account of experience prioritizes immediacy or directness. I aim to show through a reconstruction of Adorno’s version of the Mediation Argument against Husserl that this challenge fails: it distorts the phenomenological account of meaning by misattributing problematic ontological commitments as well as an overly simplistic idea of normativity to phenomenology; and it systematically underplays critical aspects of the transcendental methodology of phenomenology by ignoring crucial contrasts between phenomenology and commonsense philosophy. Contrary to what the Mediation Argument suggests, I conclude, phenomenology is well-placed to confront the ontological commitments and normative assumptions that commonly lend ideological support to the status quo.

Epistemic emotions and self-trust

AbstractEpistemic emotions – namely affective phenomena like curiosity, certainty, and doubt – have been claimed to play a key role in epistemic evaluation and motivation, and, relatedly, to be an integral aspect of the epistemic virtues. In this paper I argue that the experience of epistemic emotions is extensively shaped by self-trust. More specifically, I claim that the set of epistemic emotions that we can undergo, and how these unfold over time, is modulated by the level of trust in one’s abilities as a knower. I do so by drawing on research on epistemic injustice, as well as through the exploration of some features of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression. I then argue that the connection between epistemic emotions and self-trust can be best accounted for by conceiving of self-trust, through the framework of philosophical phenomenology, as an affective background orientation which has a structuring role in our cognitive and affective experience.

What is it like to be a bot? The world according to GPT-4.

The recent explosion of Large Language Models (LLMs) has provoked lively debate about "emergent" properties of the models, including intelligence, insight, creativity, and meaning. These debates are rocky for two main reasons: The emergent properties sought are not well-defined; and the grounds for their dismissal often rest on a fallacious appeal to extraneous factors, like the LLM training regime, or fallacious assumptions about processes within the model. The latter issue is a particular roadblock for LLMs because their internal processes are largely unknown - they are colossal black boxes. In this paper, I try to cut through these problems by, first, identifying one salient feature shared by systems we regard as intelligent/conscious/sentient/etc., namely, their responsiveness to environmental conditions that may not be near in space and time. They engage with subjective worlds ("s-worlds") which may or may not conform to the actual environment. Observers can infer s-worlds from behavior alone, enabling hypotheses about perception and cognition that do not require evidence from the internal operations of the systems in question. The reconstruction of s-worlds offers a framework for comparing cognition across species, affording new leverage on the possible sentience of LLMs. Here, we examine one prominent LLM, OpenAI's GPT-4. Inquiry into the emergence of a complex subjective world is facilitated with philosophical phenomenology and cognitive ethology, examining the pattern of errors made by GPT-4 and proposing their origin in the absence of an analogue of the human subjective awareness of time. This deficit suggests that GPT-4 ultimately lacks a capacity to construct a stable perceptual world; the temporal vacuum undermines any capacity for GPT-4 to construct a consistent, continuously updated, model of its environment. Accordingly, none of GPT-4's statements are epistemically secure. Because the anthropomorphic illusion is so strong, I conclude by suggesting that GPT-4 works with its users to construct improvised works of fiction.

Th eology as the science of existence and philosophy as the science of being in the fundamental ontology of M. Heidegger

The article deals with the project of understanding transcendental reality, undertaken within the framework of phenomenology. It is shown that phenomenological reduction, which leaves beyond the limits of evidence all types of objects of consciousness and all types of existence, if they do not reveal their meaning within the framework of the phenomenal givenness of themselves to experience, fundamentally does not allow us to talk about the transcendent. This circumstance reveals the limitations of phenomenology and the need to supplement it with various ontological and epistemological constructions, such as positive sciences, theology, theory of objects, ontology of ideal objects, etc. The article demonstrates a project for such an addition: the fundamental ontology of Martin Heidegger. Martin Heidegger shows that phenomenology in the format of fundamental ontology Dasein has an advantage over theology, since it is the science of being, and theology is just the science of existence, namely one of its types — historical revelation. It turns out that this project separates phenomenology and theology as the basis for any positive research, including theological, and thus does not allow us to talk about a phenomenological study of the transcendent. Thus, it is shown that phenomenological philosophy and theology are fundamentally incompatible.

Symposium 3: Tomorrow’s Networked Posthumans: Reflections on Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Well-Being of Young Children

While networked learning (NL) is most often associated with adult learning and professional work practices, examining the “ontogenetic development” of children in the context of today’s smart global networks is also relevant to NL research (Rodríguez-Illera & Barberà in NLEC et al., 2021). In this paper, we ask: What child-technology relations are being forged in our posthuman era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data and global networks? We begin by scoping the intensifying presence of networked, smart technologies in the home life of infants, toddlers and preschoolers; we examine recent policy frameworks regarding AI, ethics and children. We then turn to two phenomenological philosophers, Michel Serres and Bernard Stiegler to consider how their thinking about digital technologies might provide insight for parents and educators as they endeavour to make the best “smart” technology choices for children. Finally, we consider the implications of our phenomenological reflections on today’s young posthumans for networked learning and postdigital education.

Deixis and dementia: Insights from phenomenological philosophy

This article provides an overview of the relevance of deixis in dementia from the perspective of phenomenological philosophy with an inter- and transdisciplinary scope. A key objective is to integrate existing approaches and develop hypotheses for future research. The paper seeks to explore the potential of deixis to enhance interaction and communication in the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer's disease. The paper prepares the ground for three sub-goals: (1) Developing a general taxonomy of deixis, differentiating between verbal deixis (e.g., pronouns), corporeal deixis (e.g., pointing gestures), and medial deixis (e.g., arrows). (2) Investigating the diagnostic, therapeutic and care applications of deixis in Alzheimer's disease in the face of the progressive loss of higher cognitive skills. (3) Pinpointing the desiderata emerging from the relation between deixis and dementia at both conceptual and empirical levels. This paper argues for viewing deixis not solely as a deficit-indicator but also as a resource-indicator. Deixis in dementia can serve on two interconnected yet distinct levels: one for diagnosis, and another for therapy and care. On the one hand, verbal indexicals have a deficit-indicating function for the loss of higher cognitive skills, such as language, orientation and memory. This function is relevant for linguistically shaped dementia diagnosis and a holistic interpretation of key symptoms. On the other hand, all three kinds of deixis, the verbal, the corporeal, and the medial, do have a resource-indicating function. The threefold deixis helps us to advance orientation, communication and interaction in both private and institutional living environments. For example, the corporeal deixis is an important communicative resource, which helps to navigate and maintain attention, intention, and emotion. Finally, the paper proposes an index-ability scale to identify personalized communication resources for individuals with dementia.

To Be and Perception--A preliminary study of Phenomenology of Architecture

The phenomenological philosophy founded by Husserl attempts to reflect on language as a fundamental cognitive tool through the method of suspension and restoration, and to break the binary opposition between subject and object, phenomenon and essence. In Husserl's view, language is not only a medium for interaction between humans and the world, but also the foundation for constructing human experience. This philosophical approach provides us with a brand new way of understanding the world, enabling us to go beyond traditional epistemological frameworks and delve deeper into the essence of human experience. Heidegger's existentialist phenomenology and Merleau Ponty's perceptual phenomenology are important branches that inherit and develop Husserl's phenomenology, and the exploration of architectural phenomenology is mainly based on these two branches. This article analyzes the mapping relationship between Norbert Schultz's place spirit and Steven Hall's architectural practice, respectively.

The sweet taste of soil. Gardening with all the senses in Greco-Roman literature

This paper argues that sensory-based methods of gardening have the potential to offer a form of self-awareness, to create memories, and to shape a meaningful relationship with nature. In this way, sensory gardening contributes to human well-being by enriching people’s lives with meaningful moments. Contemporary gardening manuals tend to use explanations of gardening based on purely scientific worldviews, while multi-sensory approaches to gardening are rare. This quantification of the encounter with the environment is criticised by some scholars in environmental ethics debates. They emphasise the importance of experiencing nature with all the senses and based on bodily experience for human well-being. In order to include gardening in this discussion, I present sequences from pre-modern writings on gardening. My guiding question is what feelings, associations, or changes of perspective inspired by ancient literature might enrich the contemporary gardening. Drawing on the phenomenologists Hermann Schmitz and his successor Gernot Böhme, I will analyse Roman texts by Vergil, Dioscorides and Pliny (all first century AD), among others. All of these texts contain descriptions of intense sensory experiences that correspond to the phenomenological philosophies of Schmitz and Böhme. They can therefore serve as a source of inspiration for contemporary garden experiences.

Students' Difficulty in Understanding Problems in the Contextual Problem-Solving Process

The main procedure that students need to master in the problem-solving process is understanding the problem before proceeding to the next steps. This research aims to investigate students' difficulties and the factors causing these difficulties in understanding the problem. This research is qualitative in nature and is based on the philosophy of phenomenology. The research was conducted in an eighth-grade class at one of the Junior High Schools in Bandung, consisting of 28 students. Data collection techniques included tests, interviews, and think-aloud methods. The data collection instruments used were tests and interview guides. The tests used in this research had been previously validated for content, construct, and face validity by mathematics education experts. Data analysis in qualitative research involves data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The findings of this research indicate that the difficulties faced by students in understanding the problem include difficulties in comprehending language, difficulties in grasping both explicit and implicit meanings, difficulties in identifying the necessary information, and difficulties in connecting meanings. The main factors causing students' difficulties in understanding the problem are a lack of careful reading skills and a lack of understanding of the concepts held by students.

Concept of ressentiment by Max Scheler and its contemporary relevance

The article deals with Max Scheler's philosophical concept of ressentiment. In “Ressentiment in the Structure of Morals”, he uses Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of "ressentiment" to describe an important negative phenomenon in modern moral and culture in general. The article shows that Max Scheler's descriptive method organically grows out of the phenomenological philosophy of Edmund Husserl and at the same time imitates some specific features of Wilhelm Diltai's descriptive and analytical psychology. On the basis of this methodological approach, Max Scheler does not explain ressentiment and does not give a clear definition of this concept, but instead reproduces its formation in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and describes the phenomenon of ressentiment. Using the descriptive method, Scheler concludes that ressentiment is related to the desire for revenge and feelings of powerlessness. He also describes the different dimensions of ressentiment, which can be formulated as follows: Kinship and sexual dimension. Age dimension. Professional dimension. Class dimension. There is also noted in the article that Scheler demonstrates national ressentiment rather than critically analyzes it. This circumstance to some extent brings to light the Zeitgeist, i.e. the spirit of time, when authoritarian and totalitarian ideologies and regimes such as Russian Bolshevism and German Nazism were formed, being undoubtedly feed by the destructive energy of resentment. The author of the article also discovers a connection between Scheler's concept of ressentiment and Freud's concept of suppression. The study shows how, on the theoretical basis of Max Scheler's concept of ressentment, it is possible to critically deconstruct not only such historical manifestations of ressentiment as Bolshevism and Nazism, but also some dangerous and destructive trends in the modern world, namely the ideology of the "Russian world" (“Russkii mir”).

A Qualitative Phenomenological Philosophy Analysis of Affectivity and Temporality in Experiences of COVID-19 and Remaining Symptoms after COVID-19 in Sweden.

This article explores affectivity, temporality, and their interrelation in patients who contracted COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in Sweden and with symptoms indicative of post-COVID-19 Condition (PCC) that remained one year after the infection. It offers a qualitative phenomenological philosophy analysis, showing how being ill with acute COVID-19 and with symptoms indicative of PCC can entail a radically altered self-world relation. We identify two examples of pre-intentional (existential) feelings: that of listlessness and that of not being able to sense what is real and not real, both of which, in different ways, imply a changed self-world relation. We offer an analysis of intentional feelings: how the fear of not "returning" to one's previous self and the hope of such a return weave together the present and the absent, as well as the past and the future, in ways that make the future appear as constricted, disquieting, or lost. We argue that a phenomenological differentiation among experiences of living with symptoms indicative of PCC-through attention to the way intentional affectivity and pre-intentional affectivity help shape the embodied self's attunement to the world-is apt to yield a better understanding of the variations within these experiences and contribute to clinical practice.

Leading care close to the patient in community home care for older persons: A lifeworld hermeneutic study from nurses' perspectives.

To explain and understand leading care close to older persons in community home care from the perspective of registered nurses (RNs). Leading care close to older persons in home care is an overlooked and not well-described phenomenon. In home care, specific demands are placed on the registered nurse, as responsible for leading care guided by the older person's expectations and desires. A reflective lifeworld hermeneutic approach grounded in the philosophy of phenomenology and hermeneutics. The study followed the COREQ checklist. Individual interviews were conducted with nine RNs working in community home care in a community in western Sweden. The data were analysed with a lifeworld hermeneutic approach. The findings present four partially interpreted themes: leading with respect in a shared space, leadership that involves existential questions of life, balancing responsibility enables preservation of autonomy and challenges in maintaining a patient perspective. The partially interpreted themes conclude in a main interpretation: The patient perspective as an anchor when balancing responsibility for another person in an existential vulnerability of life. Leading care means being both close to the patient and at a distance when caring is performed through the hands of others. Ethical demands are placed on RNs as they encounter the vulnerability of the older person. The findings can contribute to a greater understanding of the meaning of RNs as leaders and may have an impact for decision makers and policies to create conditions for leadership that contributes to dignified care for older persons in community home care. Registered nurses working in community home care participated in data collection.