Phenomenology Study: The Phenomenological Inquiry and the ‘Lived Experience’

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What are phenomenology study and phenomenology research? What is phenomenology in research? All of these are under the method of philosophy called phenomenological method or inquiry which deals with the “lived experience.”

In his lecture, Filipino Philosophy professor and textbook author Jensen DG. Mañebog explains phenomenology and phenomenological method in the following manner:

Phenomenological method studies phenomena, that is, objects and events as perceived and understood in the human consciousness, and not of anything independent of consciousness. Phenomenology is a method of philosophy that focuses on the essence of lived experience.

Phenomenology examines phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being. It centers on human consciousness and the objects of direct experience. The method was developed largely by the German philosophers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger.

Phenomenology in research: Dealing with human experience

Phenomenology in research deals with human experience. This is because Phenomenological Inquiry fundamentally deals with human experience and how people experience. This method examines structures of conscious experience as experienced from a first-person point of view (subjective standpoint).

Experience, in phenomenological inquiry, contains not only the relatively passive experiences of sensory perception, but also volition, thought, imagination, emotion, desire, and action. In other words, experience includes everything that we do or live through.

In phenomenology, an experience is conscious only if a person has a certain awareness of the experience while doing or living through it. Notice that this is not merely observing and engaging with things in the world, but actually experiencing them in a first-person manner.

Phenomenology study: The intentionality

Take note, too, that the conscious experiences’ intentionality, that is, the way an experience is directed toward a particular object in the world, is also studied in phenomenology.

Intentionality is the feature of consciousness whereby it is conscious of something, that is, its directedness toward an object. Intentionality implies that whenever there is consciousness, then consciousness is always consciousness of something.

In phenomenology, it is held that consciousness cannot be empty. The concept of intentionality implies that there is always something there for consciousness. This something can have different shapes and forms—physical, mental, logical, or emotional object.

Within phenomenology, a person does not have to be deliberate about his intent as people customarily are in situations from everyday life. It is said that intentionality is already there for us that we cannot avoid it.

Phenomenological inquiry focuses on descriptions of what people experience and how it is that they experience what they experience. Its aims are description, interpretation, and critical self-reflection into the “world as world.”

Phenomenology’s simple philosophical assumption is manifested in Edmund Husserl’s popular statement, “We can only know what we experience.” Accordingly, it sets aside “sciences of facts” and favors knowledge of essence, that is, the crucial underlying meaning of the experience shared within the various lived experiences.

Phenomenology study: Examples and Applications

So what are some examples and applications of this phenomenological inquiry? For example, in treating a sick person, phenomenology zooms in the veiled aspects of one’s existence such as components of his awareness like intuition and feeling. These are normally often overlooked when doctors are absorbed in the anatomical and biochemical aspects of the patient.

Phenomenology intends to expose original experience and its meaning. Thus, in medicine and intensive care nursing, phenomenology presents a deeper understanding or ‘diagnosis’ that can lead to enriched praxis.

Phenomenology intends to understand human experience from an individual’s viewpoint. This is contrary to the objectifying and reductionist character of science and empiricist research methods that cut down a person to five senses. And so phenomenological method depicts the patient as a whole human being with various human needs other than recovering from a certain illness.

So what can we learn from phenomenological inquiry as a method in philosophy? Phenomenology thus teaches us to look at human experience to bring a holistic approach to various endeavors like human treatment.

In understanding a human being, phenomenology teaches us to understand human behavior from the actor’s own frame of reference and to fathom how the world is experienced for him or her.

To better understand this method of philosophy, compare it to Socratic Method: The Elenchus and Methodic Doubt: The Cartesian Method of Philosophy

Note: Teachers may share this as a reading assignment of their students. For other free lectures like this (especially for students), visit Homepage: Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person

*Free lectures on the subject Pambungad sa Pilosopiya ng Tao

Philosophy of Man Articles:

Distinguish Opinion from Truth

Do a philosophical reflection on a concrete situation from a holistic perspective

Realize the Value of Doing Philosophy in Obtaining a Broad Perspective on Life

Distinguish a Holistic Perspective from a Partial Point of View (Holism vs Partial Perspective)

The Blind Men and the Elephant: Attaining a Holistic Perspective

Socratic Method: The Elenchus

Methodic Doubt: The Cartesian Method of Philosophy

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