PHENOMENOLOGY

TRADITION
 PHENOMENOLOGY
Phenomenon refers to the appearance of an object, event or
or condition that is perceived.

- concentrates on the conscious experience of the person

- The process of knowing through direct experience
- It is the way in which human beings come to understand
the world through direct personal experience

All my knowledge of the world, even my scientific knowledge,

Is gained from my own particular point of view, or from some
experience of the world without which the symbols
of science would be meaningless Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Interpretation (verstehen) is the active process of assigning meaning
to something you observe, like text, an act or a situation any experiences.
discipline of PHENOMENOLOGY

Phenomenology studies
structures of conscious
experience as experienced
from the first-person point
of view, along with
relevant conditions of
experience.
principles of phenomenology
STANLEY A. DEETZ
- Professor of Communication
- University of Colorado at Boulder
- specializes in the study of organizational
communication

1. Knowledge is found directly in conscious

experience
2. The meaning of a thing consists of the potential
of thing in ones life.
3. Language is the vehicle of the meaning
Three schools of thought

1. Classical phenomenology

2. Phenomenology of perception

3. Hermeneutic phenomenology
Classical phenomenology
EDMUND HUSSERL
- considered as the founder of modern
phenomenology
- German philosopher

Interpretation of experience that is objective and

unbiased.

Truth can only be ascertained through direct

experience BUT we must be disciplined in
how we experience things.
Classical phenomenology
EPOCHE OR BRACKETING
Disregarding the particular
contents of an experience in
order to reveal essential
structures and transcendental
(beyond experience) conditions
that make the experience
possible

- Borrowed from Mathematics

and applied to Natural
Attitude.

- People can successfully

understand the true nature of
things by bracketing out their
own history or ideas.
Phenomenology of perception
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
- French phenomenological philosopher
- strongly influenced by Husserl and Heidegger

We know not through our intellect but through our

experience.

Interpretation of experience that is subjective

Experience is influenced by our perceptions

connected to the personal relationships we
have to things.
Phenomenology of perception
- indivisible body-subject, a unified physical-
mental being that creates meaning in the
world

- Human life is both affected by the world and

in turn defines and assigns meaning to the
world.

- Communication is the vehicle by which you

assign meaning to experience.
Phenomenology of perception

Speaking word use of speech to create meaning

Spoken word - speech used to convey meaning to others

This distinction captures the fact that both assign meaning and receive
meaning.
Phenomenology of perception
ALFRED SCHUTZ
- Contemporary of Merleau-Ponty
- Australian philosopher and social phenomenologist

THREE FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS

1. You assume that reality constant.

2. You assume that your own experience of
the world is valid.
3. You see yourself as having the power to act and
accomplish things, to affect the world.

The world, when filtered through my

biographical situation, becomes my
world.
Phenomenology of perception

What is real for us depends on the categories employed within our

culture.

Typification

Meaning is particular and peculiar to individual

groups
Hermeneutic phenomenology
MARTIN HEIDEGGER
- Chief critic of Classical phenomenology
- German philosopher

What is more important in human life is the natural

experience that inevitably occurs by merely existing
in the world.

Hermaneutic of Dasein or interpretation of

being

The reality of something is not known by careful

analysis or reduction but by natural experience.
Hermeneutic phenomenology
What is real is what is experienced through natural use of language.

Words and Language are not wrappings in which things are

packed for the commerce of those who write and speak. It is in
words and language that things first come into beings and
are.

It is linking experience with language and social interaction that

assumptions and presuppositions from traditions and past experiences
provide interpretative frames.
Hermeneutic phenomenology

The hermeneutic circle is the

pattern that develops in the
dialogue between us and our
world.

Interpretation involves going

back and forth between
experiencing an event or
situation and assigning
meaning to it, moving from the
specific to general and back to
specific again.
limitations

It is difficult to detect or prevent induced biases.

What we call reality and facts are largely perceptions and often others
will see things differently.
phenomenology

Experience is the best teacher Penelope Douglas