Transcendental Phenomenology - Essay Example

? Transcendental Phenomenology Introduction Philosophy has a long history and many fields have been introduced in the subject. Philosophy has been developed by numerous philosophers both in ancient times and in modern times as a way to understand life and the nature of the highly existence of the world. From Sophocles, to Descartes to modern philosophers, these great minds have tried to understand the phenomena of nature, and how the human mind interacts with it. Although some of these can be seen as being too ambitious development, advancements in the subject of philosophy have given human beings a very fundamental foundation for understanding themselves and the world around them. Edmund Husserl's is one such philosopher who lived in the more modern world. His work was concerned about phenomena and how the human mind interacts with it. In his book titled Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology, Edmund Husserl (1960) introduces a number of significant philosophical thoughts. One of the most prominent of these is transcendental phenomenology in which the author gives a new way of analysing phenomena. This kind of thinking looks at phenomena from a different point of view. Although Edmund’s views can be seen as having been inspired by Rene Descartes, a French philosopher and mathematician in the 17th century, Edmund’s theories on phenomena seen to be developed in contrast to what Descartes developed. This can be particularly seen in his transcendental phenomenology which tries to see phenomena in a very different way. Unlike Descartes, Edmund and his school of thought argued that phenomenal can be seen in different dimensions (Husserl, 1960). In fact, Edmund argued that it is possible to take a phenomenal and strip it down to its very essence. In other words, transcendental phenomenology as developed by Edmund postulates that with regard to phenomena, there are those elements which are essential for that phenomenon to exist and there are those which are merely conceptual as conceived by human beings. To be able to separate the essential from the conceptual, Edmund used eidetic reduction. Eidetic Reduction Eidetic reduction is a process by which phenomena can be stripped to its basic essential aspects, without changing it. Eidetic reduction is a conceptual tool that can be used to understand Edmund’s transcendental phenomenology as a way to understand phenomena. Eidetic reduction can be traced back to Descartes. Descartes used a block of wax phenomena as a way to explain the layers of phenomena. For example, the wax can be experienced by the five senses in regard to its shape and the space it occupies, the smell it exudes, the texture, its opaqueness etc. However, by heating up the block of wax, these properties of the wax can be changed without changing it into another object. In other words, once the wax has been heated up, it will lose its texture, its shape, space and its opaqueness will be changed to transparency. Yet, even after all these characteristics have been changed, the wax will continue to be wax. This means that the block of wax is perceived in two particular ways. The first is one the essential properties of the wax and the second one are the perceived or non essential properties of the wax. Edmund argued that the same can be applied with regard to people’s thoughts. In other words, people’s thoughts can be seen to have both the essential aspects of phenomena and other aspects of phenomena which are more conceptual or perceptual. Using eidetic reduction however, Edmund argues that these thoughts can be stripped down to their basic or essential details. The importance of this kind of stripping is that it leads to a more practical reality, as opposed to when phenomena is understood while it is still shrouded in non-essential properties. Edmund was an essentialist in that he believed that phenomena should be understood in its very essence without being affected by the other factors. However, with regard to phenomena, to be able to strip a phenomenon down to its basics can only be done through the imaginative variations. Edmund argued that it is possible to have used imaginative variations of a phenomenon until all aspects of the phenomenon have been identified and considered. Once these have been identified and considered, it becomes possible to know which aspects of that phenomenon are necessary for that phenomenon to exist without changing it. This is very much like heating up a block of wax to see which aspects of its nature can be changed without necessarily converting it to into another form of object. Edmund argued that it was by using this method it would be possible to understand the nature and all phenomena in it. His main concern was that in trying to understand any kind or form of phenomena, one has to encounter the barrier of the perceived aspects of a particular phenomenon. It then becomes particularly necessary to have a way to deliver a better way to understand how to strip phenomena down to its final essential state. This kind of concern about phenomenon had been expressed by earlier philosophers such as Descartes. Descartes, whose thoughts and ideas are the basis of Edmund’s book (Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology), had expressed the fact there is a difficult in understanding phenomena due to one main reason; in trying to understand phenomena, one will have the barrier of the fact that the phenomena is happening outside one’s inner thoughts which are used to understand the very phenomena. As a result, the subjective aspect of phenomena then becomes a major barrier in looking at phenomenal because it distorts the phenomena. However, with Edmund’s eidetic reduction, these perceptual aspects of phenomena are stripped off to the point where the essential aspects of phenomena are reached. To reach this point, eidetic reduction is used as a kind of harvesting just like harvesting any crop. For instance when harvesting grains such as wheat, one has to separate the chaff from the grain. The same can be seen about harvesting pure phenomena from impure phenomena in which case the chaff is the perceived properties of the phenomena. By blowing the chaff of perception from phenomena, it then becomes possible to remain with the pure phenomena which are not contaminated with perceived qualities (Husserl, 1960). However, the main challenges here is the fact that one has to know how to mentally identify every aspect of a phenomenal in order to be able to have a way to separate the essential from the non essential. In fact, most of criticism that Edmund’s transcendental phenomenology has received comes from this area. The biggest question is how can one make it possible to identify these aspects of reality or phenomena and strip a certain phenomenon into its essential aspects? This is because unlike the block of wax that can easily be altered to know which aspects of it are essential, phenomena cannot be easily be changed because even so doing has to depend on perception. Transcendental phenomenology and the reality of phenomenon According to Edmund, phenomena are about human consciousness. Unfortunately, consciousness is affected by perception, and in order to be able to see the world better, it becomes necessary to have a way to withdraw from the natural consciousness. This moment when an individual withdraws from everything in order to get the essence of the things around himself is in order to get the essence of things around him her. This helps in making sure that the consciousness of the individual is free from perception and that an individual can understand the inner aspects of the objects within the environment. This means that with regard to transcendental phenomenology, there are at least two important aspects. The first aspect is the phenomenological reduction and the second one is the phenomenological constitution. Phenomenological constitution This is the consciousness of an individual as it is. It is the way people perceive the environment around them and the way they regard these things in the environment. With regard to phenomenology, this aspect of consciousness is the unsure aspect of phenomena in which every individual is contained. It is however within this that the pure phenomenon is contained and from which the individual can derive the pure phenomenon. This is where phenomenological reduction comes in as a tool to peel off the perceptual layers of the phenomenon in order to seen the essence or the pure core of any phenomenon. According to Edmund, every person is usually in the state of phenomenological constitution in which phenomenon appears the way it does due to the mixture of the pure and the impure aspects of the phenomenon. It therefore takes a form of reduction to reduce the impure phenomenon into pure reduction. This then leads to the next aspect of transcendental phenomenology are transcendental phenomenological reduction. Phenomenological reduction This is the moment of escaping from phenomenological constitution. To be able to get the essence of any phenomenon, an individual may have to escape from the normal world view in which both pure and essential aspects of phenomena are combined. During this escapade, the individual is able to now do two critical things. The first thing to do is to be able to separate the perceived aspects of the phenomenon from the essential aspects. The second is being able to see a particular phenomenon in terms of its individual properties. In fact, it is only by being able to single out each property of an individual phenomenon that one is able to now separate the essential from the non essential aspects of the phenomenon. However it is good to note that phenomenological reduction is only a temporary episode in which an individual consciously puts himself in as a means to know the best way to get the essence of certain phenomena. In this regard, one moves into three distinctive phases in trying to see the essential phenomena. That is, one moves from the Phenomenological constitution to the temporary state of phenomenological reduction and then back to the phenomenological reduction. Transcendental phenomenology and philosophy of being In developing transcendental phenomenology, Edmund was trying to separate the phenomenon of thought from the other types of philosophy of being. Thought is connected to consciousness (Husserl, 1960). For instance, a person is conscious about a certain phenomenon because they can think about it. If one can think about a dead cow on the side of the road, they are conscious about the dead cow. However, this kind of consciousness, according to Edmund, does not have to be directly connected to the individuals being. Edmund at the same time wanted to indicate the fact that consciousness can be analysis in terms of how an individual experiences it in their first person. In this regard, phenomenon of things around a person can be seen as individual experiences which can be experienced by an individual. This, according to him is the way the individual interacts with the environment around then. That is, the way they perceive things. This indicates that Edmund was concerned about how people look at things and how they experience various types of phenomena (the happenings around them). Although he does not say it in expresses terms, what Edmund seems to be suggesting is the fact that each individual experiences certain phenomenon in a different way. This is with regard to physical phenomena or virtual phenomena. Virtual phenomenon or phenomenon which cannot be expressed in terms of physical objects is also possible because it is a conception of the thought. People can imagine things based on their perception of a certain outside world. An individual can for instance imagine a paradise full of angles and other good things. This perception of phenomena however can always be described from the point of view of an individual (the first person) and the description of these phenomenon can therefore be done with the “I” or the first person as the anchor. For example, one can say; “I imagine a heaven full of peaceful angels” “I see a dead cow on the side of the road” “I wish I had a nice car” All these expressions of the person are essential in various ways. First, there are those things which are physical and those which are virtual. In both cases, it is the individual who relates to phenomenal or objects in the environment from a perceptual point of view. This perception, according to Edmund can be classified into two distinct categories, that is, the perceived and the inherent qualities of the phenomena. The perceived aspects of the phenomena are what create the difference in the way difference individual see things. Needless to say, the virtual phenomenon, such as the conception of heaven, even creates a bigger gap in the way two people relate to such a phenomenon. Edmund’s transcendental phenomenology theory and his use of the term noema to indicate the object of thought is particularly relevant for a number of reasons. First, debate on the meaning of noema as used by Edmund in which transcendental phenomenology theory seem to point to one significant issue; the perception of objects by an individual can be seen as determining how and whether those objects exist. In fact, one of Edmund’s students argues that with regard to intentional objects, they exist as long as an individual can perceive them and that the only difference is the mode of existence. The implication of this is the argument that even perceived things exists. For instance, a perceived chair does not exist any less than a physical one as long as the imaginary one can be perceived by a certain person. This postulation is quite significant with regard to transcendental phenomenology its very essence is to separate essence of phenomena and identify the core of any particular phenomena. Conclusion Edmund’s work was highly critical in forming a particularly good basis for understanding phenomena. Based on Descartes reasoning, transcendental phenomenology as developed by Edmund brought a new way of thinking about nature and the natural phenomena. Unlike other aspects of philosophy such as ontology, logic, etc, transcendental phenomenology brought in a new way of trying to understand the nature and phenomena. Edmund’s theory of phenomena is necessary in understanding how human interact with phenomena. It is probably Edmund’s work that brought in a different view of the world and understanding how human thought understands and relates to natural phenomenon. Although Edmund’s work still faces a lot of challenges and have been criticised heavily even by his own students, it was a magnificent work in the field of philosophy, and he will be probably stand to be credited for changing the way people look at philosophy and more especially the way people are able to understand natural phenomena. In the mean time, transcendental phenomenology will need more research since at the conceptual level, it is as extremely viable of understanding phenomena but faces challenges at the practical level. Research into how this can be easily achieved may aid in making sure that transcendental phenomenology is a viable way of understanding the nature. Reference: Husserl, E. (1960). Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology. Leiden: M. Nijhoff Publishers. Read More