Phenomenological Philosophy Research Articles

What is phenomenology of religion? (Part I): The study of religious phenomena

AbstractPhenomenology of religion can refer to three distinct groups of phenomenological projects reflecting on religion. The term is used in the field of religious studies to designate the search for patterns of religious experiences or practices across traditions and to the methodology that shows religion to be a unique human experience deserving its own field of study. Philosophical phenomenology in the Husserlian tradition also engages religious questions at times. Finally, there is a group of contemporary French philosophers who advocate a phenomenology of religious experience. The first two groups are examined in this article and the third in the sequel. For the first group, the article briefly considers the projects of Rudolf Otto, Mircea Eliade, Brede Kristensen, and Gerardus van der Leeuw, as well as their contemporary interpreters in the field of religious studies. As representative of the second approach, the article considers Max Scheler, Edith Stein, and Gerda Walther as well as commenting briefly on the contemporary work of Natalie Depraz and Anthony Steinbock.

Dilthey Dossier Studies

By publishing its third edition, the Aoristo – International Journal of Phenomenology, Hermeneutics and Metaphysics reaffirms its commitment to contribute to the dissemination of scientific knowledge and to the growth of phenomenological philosophy, hermeneutical philosophy and metaphysics at the Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Parana – Unioeste, as well as in a modest way in the Brazilian and international philosophical scene. As affirmed in its editorial project, this journal reinforces its purpose of being a welcoming space to both national and international partners. The objective is to bring together institutions and researchers that not only promote the mutual strengthening of academical bonds but also the incitement and the consolidation of a research ambience propitious to the internationalization and the qualification of the intellectual production within the aforementioned thematic fields.

Dilthey Dossier Studies

By publishing its third edition, the Aoristo – International Journal of Phenomenology, Hermeneutics and Metaphysics reaffirms its commitment to contribute to the dissemination of scientific knowledge and to the growth of phenomenological philosophy, hermeneutical philosophy and metaphysics at the Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná – Unioeste, as well as in a modest way in the Brazilian and international philosophical scene. As affirmed in its editorial project, this journal reinforces its purpose of being a welcoming space to both national and international partners. The objective is to bring together institutions and researchers that not only promote the mutual strengthening of academical bonds but also the incitement and the consolidation of a research ambience propitious to the internationalization and the qualification of the intellectual production within the aforementioned thematic fields.

Consciousness of Others in phenomenology and postanalytical philosophy

The article discusses the problem of perceiving the internal experience of other people. Language as a system of social codes is not suitable to describe individual experiences. Therefore, phenomenology and hermeneutics rely on empathy. However, it is incomprehensible in this way to apply one’s experience to another’s. In addition to its ineffability, the inner experience of another confronts analysts with other problems. Interest in the inner experience in philosophy was raised by the search for that which has the property of truth. Reliance on direct knowledge turns out to be common to many different epistemological programmes and, in particular, the meeting point of phenomenology and analytic philosophy. R. Carnap considered peculiar “epistemological atoms”, from which a system of knowledge should be logically constructed. M. Schlick considered verification as a criterion of the significance of theoretical statements— through this, statements are derived or confined to the immediate data. According to Husserl, comprehension of truth is associated with its obviousness. Intellectual intuition understands the subject as it presents itself. A thorough systematic comparison of phenomenological and analytic philosophy of consciousness is difficult to accomplish, most likely because the two philosophies use different languages that cannot be applied to each other. Therefore, phenomenology and hermeneutics have claimed status as a methodology and philosophy of humanities, while analytic philosophy is focused on scientific knowledge. Meanwhile, they have common ground in the study of consciousness characteristics such as self-evidence, nonpositionality and intentionality. Contrary to popular perception of the opposition of phenomenological and empiric programmes to justify knowledge, techniques of phenomenological analysis of consciousness are being assimilated in postanalytical philosophy. Social attitudes and cultural backgrounds form the external context in which acts of consciousness take place. Thanks to common standards and rules for ensuring social order, communication of “I” and “Other” is possible.

Phenomenological Mechanism of Inspection in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Inspection is the crucial process to gain the physical condition of a patient before diagnosis and treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Unlike the completely objective description of a patient in Western Medicine, the subjective thinking of the medical practitioners is comprised of TCM inspection. What’s more, Master of Chinese medical practitioner (CMP) could make a diagnosis only with inspection and without self-ratiocinate and demonstrate the process. This article revealed how the knowledge and experiences instantly appear in a CMP’s mind when he/she makes an inspection with the methods and conclusions of phenomenological philosophy. When a CMP sees a patient, he/she can “see” the symptoms of a patient with the help of intentional intuition, which is synthesized of retention. On this basis, pathogenesis knowledge will be given by the way of passive association. This conclusion drawn from phenomenological philosophy offers a new road for many problems remained pendent in TCM diagnosis and treatment.

Sobre la condición del diseño urbano y arquitectónico

Postmodern architecture, across the 1960 and 1970 decades, was concerned to semiotic and meaning theories, including the existential and phenomenological philosophy. Build space’s perceptual experiences took relevance under new space-thinking view, shared by another same matter researching disciplines in a phenomenological frame, but constructivist, poststructuralist, and deconstructivist too, which drives the stream of architectonic and urban design forward to today. The importance of a revision and critique of key concepts such as identity or urban imaginaries, which refer to the point of view of the city's actors, is raised as an indispensable factor in understanding the "complex nature of design". The result is a change of theories and concepts to understand both the complex reality faced by design and one of its levels of reality: the significant dimension of urban actions, interactions, and imaginaries.

The Way into Transcendental Philosophy from the Argument in Suhrawardī’s Philosophy of Illumination

Abstract This paper presents a phenomenological analysis of the argument in The First Discourse of Part 2 of Suhrawardī’s Philosophy of Illumination. Specifically, this argument is considered with regard to temporal extension of its logos, i.e., the succession of logical steps. Contrary to traditional views of Suhrawardī as a Neoplatonizing proponent of the primacy of essence over existence, the steps of his argument convey a much more nuanced picture in which ligh t emerges as the main metaphysical principle. First, Suhra wardī explicates full evidentiality in visible light (which is the most patent, ’aẓhar, from the Arabic root ẓ-h-r = ‘to appear, be [made] manifest’): this light gives us the world as “this-there”; and second, as self-evidentiality (ẓuhūru-hu, ‘being obvious to itself by itself’) in the first-person consciousness of the knower. Suhrawardī accesses these modes by reduction(s) which liberate the transcendental character of light. The correlation in the evidential mode of light between the knower and the objects serves as a ground for the claims of transcendental unity of the self and the world, and as a condition of possibility for knowledge. A juxtaposition of this approach with phenomenological philosophy suggests that in Suhrawardī’s analysis, the evidentiality of visual light plays a role of a new universal a priori. I show that under the phenomenological reduction, this a priori participates in constitution of ontological validities; and within the transcendental empiricism of the physics of light, this a priori underlies the construction of causality. Thereby, the Philosophy of Illumination suggests a new horizon of entry into transcendental phenomenological philosophy. The paper also contains a justification of a phenomenological reading of Suhrawardī’s work, including explanation of the historical reduction.

The question of meaning—a momentous issue for qualitative research

ABSTRACTIn this article, we identify some worrying problems in the contemporary practice of qualitative research, such as the confusion regarding content and meaning in content analysis, the frequent use of standardized methods that avoids philosophy, as well as the description/interpretation dichotomy in empirical research. Since they all arise from a failure to understand the concept of meaning, we return to the question of meaning as the axis that qualitative research pivots around. We examine the meaning of meaning, and how meaning differs from content, and we then ask what consequences this has for research. Even though our analysis is rooted in phenomenological philosophy, we argue that that the ideas that we present are valid for any qualitative research approach. The question of understanding and relating to meaning, we argue, is a momentous issue for qualitative research, where we either continue safeguarding the very essence of qualitative research as dealing with human phenomena, or give it up in favor of more pragmatic and clear-cut methods that seemingly does away with the question of meaning.

The New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy 17

The New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy 17

Кантовский трансцендентализм в сов­ременных философских дискуссиях. Обзор Международного научного семинара «Трансцендентальный поворот в современной философии — 3»

The review presents the International Workshop “Transcendental Turn in Contemporary Philosophy-3: Nature (Specificities) of Transcendental Philosophy” held in Moscow on 19-22 April, 2018. The workshop was co-sponsored by the State Academic University for the Humanities, the Russian State University for the Humanities and the Foundation for the Humanities. The review examines the main topics of the workshop, summarises the main presentations and explicates the problem area of modern interpretations of Kant and the development of transcendentalism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The presentations, questions and discussions centred around the main problems of transcendentalism: the differences between the phenomenon and the thing in itself, between the first and second editions of the Critique of Pure Reason, the relationship between realist and constructivist aspects of Kantian transcendentalism, the transformation of Kantian transcendental philosophy in Neo-Kantianism and phenomenology and more.

Phenomenological Consulting: Long-Term Mental Training With an Elite College Football Place Kicker

This case study depicts the approach taken by a sport psychology consultant who worked with an elite college football place kicker from the beginning of the individual’s freshman year to the end of his senior competitive season. The player expressed an interest in adding mental training to his conventional practice habits to manage the mental and emotional demands he expected to face throughout his career at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level. The consultant used an approach rooted in the philosophy of existential phenomenology, referred to as phenomenological consulting. The effectiveness of interventions was determined by the player’s description of his experience and reflections of the consultant. The present study represents an example of the benefits athletes might derive from a phenomenological approach to long-term performance consulting.

The ‘I think’. What it is all about

Kant distinguishes two kinds of knowledge of one-self: empirical self-knowledge due to inner sense and a priori self-knowledge achieved by transcendental apperception. This conception encounters a host of problems. I try to solve these problems from the perspective of today’s phenomenology and analytical philosophy. I first introduce a new conception of inner sense and time-consciousness and argue that empirical self-knowledge must be based on the category of person, a category Kant did not list in his table of categories. I explain how the schematism of this category works. Then I introduce the a priori notion of the subject which corresponds to Kant’s ‘I think’. However, unlike Kant I hold that the notion of the subject is the notion of a being which has certain a priori capacities. Kant did not see that the term ‘I’ must be conceived of as an indexical. I argue that this indexical refers to both, the subject who does the thinking and the person who is thought. On this basis I give an answer to the question how genuine de-se knowledge is possible. I further defend—against Wittgenstein and others—the use of a private thought language. Finally, I show that what I have developed is—notwithstanding the refutation of important elements of Kant’s theory—still essentially a Kantian approach.

Lotze’s System SIGMA

Hermann Lotze was an important influence for founding philosophers in major contemporary philosophical methodologies such as pragmatism (e. g. William James and Josiah Royce), phenomenology (e. g. Edmund Husserl), and analytic philosophy (e. g. Gottlob Frege). This chapter focuses on Lotze’s Logic for clues to Lotze’s widespread appeal to various contemporary philosophical movements. In particular this essay explores the logical status of Lotze’s Sigma as the sought but not yet fully understood subject. By finding in Sigma a shared term between idealistic and empirical sciences, Lotze provides an interpretive middle ground between pure (a priori) and applied (a posteriori) logic, as well as between purely logical scientific inquiries (as are found in mathematics and philosophy, for instance), and applied logical inquiries into the nature of the world (as for instance in the natural sciences). Sigma may have been a powerful influence on the phenomenologists, pragmatists, and analytic philosophers who followed, having shown a way beyond seeming dichotomies of idealism vs. empiricism. Lotze shows the fruitful interaction between these two modes of logical science but also their uniqueness; in turn, he shows how logic is both a unique philosophical science and also valuably related to ethics and metaphysics.

On intentionality and life, or why philosophers and psychologists should not abandon the historical roots of their sciences

Журнал «Вопросы теологии» — международный академический журнал по теологии. Журнал ориентирован на развитие всех направлений и областей, входящих в исследовательскую отрасль «Теология», прежде всего в том варианте, в каком она развивается в светских вузах и научно-исследовательских структурах, а также в духовных академиях.

Problematizing Boundaries of Care Responsibility in Caring Relationships.

IntroductionNursing care takes place within nurse–patient relationships that can be demanding. In exceptional circumstances, the relationship may be destructive, and when this happens, significant onerous demands, appeals, or challenges can arise from patients and be placed upon nurses.AimThe aim is to explore what can be termed boundaries of care responsibility when relationships with patients place significant destructive demands on nurses.MethodBased on a hermeneutical approach, this study introduces aspects of phenomenological philosophy as described by the Danish theologian and philosopher Knud E. Løgstrup and provides examples of nurses’ experiences in everyday nursing practice drawn from a Norwegian empirical study focusing on remaining in everyday nursing practice. Data in that original study consisted of qualitative interviews and qualitative follow-up interviews with 13 nurses working in somatic and psychiatric health service.DiscussionThe exploration of empirical examples demonstrates that nurses consider confronting demands from patients which manifest themselves as onerous and that they have to set limits to safeguard themselves. When the nurses had to manage acting out or actions from patients by opposing what was said and done, they experienced the situation as more than very unpleasant or connected to a perversion. Significant destructive caring relationships cannot be without boundaries, and explicating boundaries are of relevance to protect nurses from onerous demands. Protecting them implies reducing a hazard, that is, that nurses carry on even when this may be unhealthy for them.ConclusionConsistently pinpointing boundaries between demands is assumed to be essential in caring relationships, as onerous or destructive demands are strongly connected to a content where boundlessness is involved. To protect both nurses and patients as valued human beings, thus raising and preserving the status of the nurse and the patient, the nature and possible detrimental effects of destructive caring relationships should be considered and examined.

Религиоведческое наследие Жака Ваарденбурга: критический анализ

The article discusses the legacy of a Dutch scholar of religion J. Waardenburg. Waardenburg criticizes the classical phenomenology of religion for its theological orientation, its idea of religion as sui generis phenomenon, its construction of a system of religious phenomena, its departure from the principles of philosophical phenomenology. The project of Waardenburg’s Neophenomenology is based on social and anthropological studies of religion with special emphasis on the cultural anthropology of C. Geertz. The methodology proposed by Waardenburg is rooted in the philosophy of M. Heidegger and hermeneutics of H-G. Gadamer. Waardenburg proposes to return to the apparatus of philosophical phenomenology, focusing on the process of intention. It seems that the main problem of the neophenomenological project is its applicability. In the writings of Waardenburg we see a lot of criticism of classical phenomenology, much less guidance on the principles of neophenomenological research and lack of specific research program. Waardenburg uses the same empathy, because religious scholar should reconstruct the intention of believers with the help of his own imagination. It seems that such a path is much more subjective than the project of classical phenomenology of religion, since the declared intentionality rests not even on the intuition and personal religious experience, as it was in classical phenomenology, but in the practice of actor’s game. The article also examines his book “Religion and religion...”, in which the principles of the new project ought to be shown, but on the contrary, religion is defined there as separate and independent sphere and universal phenomenon with a set of essential characteristics.

Ludwig Binswanger: the construction of an epistemological foundation for psychiatry

Ludwig Binswanger (1881-1966) was one of the pioneers in the approach of the psychiatric psychopathology and the phenomenological philosophy field. A panoramic historiographical review of the author reveals the methodological development of his phenomenological work in three phases of distinct philosophical inspirations. The first one is the Husserlian phase with the application of the concept of intentionality of consciousness; the second one is the Daseinsanalytic of the Heiddeguerian inspiration phase, followed by the last phase, which is the return to Husserlian thought in his late writings. The present study will focus on the analysis of dialogues and the articulations between the phases of Binswanger’s thinking, proposing the hypothesis of a continuous axis in the methodological itinerary of his work, with the objective of creating a scientific epistemological framework for the field of psychiatry.

Nurse Leadership Development in Malta.

Leadership development has been studied extensively in many of the larger countries around the world, but there has been very limited research on nursing leadership development within small island countries. Explorative semistructured interviews underpinned by a phenomenological philosophy were conducted to seek understanding of the meaning attributed to the nursing leadership development within the Maltese culture. Six nurse leaders from administration, advanced practice, and academic backgrounds participated in semistructured interviews. Thematic data analysis was conducted with a focus on the competencies of nurse leadership within the context of authentic leadership theory. Themes moved from a general discussion of the wider cultural setting (Cultural Integration) to a more focused observation of practical factors that contribute to leadership growth (Developing as a Leader), to a personal reflection on their own experiences and journeys (Self-Reflection in Leadership). Indeed, 15 subthemes supported the broad themes addressed in the present study, providing additional context and detail. Nurse leadership strategies identified during this study may be effective in similar small island cultures.

The audience experience of immersion through intersubjective embodiment in Sensuous Geographies (2003)

Abstract This article analyses an immersive interactive installation Sensuous Geographies (2003), created by choreographer Sarah Rubidge in collaboration with composer Alistair MacDonald. It applies phenomenological philosophies to critical interpretations of audience participants’ embodied experience. Rubidge employs choreographic sensibilities in designing a performative human–computer interface where the participants create their own sonic signature through physical behaviours while interacting with each other. The digital sound emerges as the ‘dys-appearing body’, as philosopher Drew Leder terms it, because it becomes part of their doubled embodiment but is perceptible due to its otherness. Moreover, the emergent sound embodies the participant’s subjectivity, which develops out of inter-subjectivity, since it is not transparent for the participant him/herself but generated through the intertwinement of the self and others. The self-perception of the corporeal body is heightened through digital imagery, costumes, facial veils and tactile materials, which provide the participant with a more intuitive and embodying experience of the sonic environment.

МЕТОД ПРОЯСНЕНИЯ В ФЕНОМЕНОЛОГИИ Э. ГУССЕРЛЯ

The article is devoted to revealing the content of the clarification method (die Methode der Klärung) in phenomenological philosophy. The paper focuses on the following issues: What is the essence of the clarification method? What is its purpose? HOW to clarify the essence of phenomena, and WHAT IS the clarity of phenomena? The author points out the presence of problematic issues and that the possibility of implementing this method depends on their solution. Following the clarification of phenomena nature, the author also points to the presence of the other side of the clarification method. This side consists in the essential analysis of the notion. Here we concern the difference between bringing to clarity and clarification. As a result, the aim of the clarification method is found in the coincidence of the verbal meaning and the semantic aspect of the object. However, if we move from static phenomenology to genetic phenomenology, then the clarification method acquires hermeneutic features.