Julian Sommerschuh

Phenomenology, by comparison: from ethnographic variation to experiential structure

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences June 18, 2026 Michael Schnegg, Julian Sommerschuh

Abstract Both phenomenology and anthropology study lived experience, but they have traditionally done so in different ways. Phenomenology aims to identify universal structures of experience via the epoché, reduction and eidetic variation. Anthropology, by contrast, foregrounds cultural diversity as documented through ethnography. Ethnographic accounts provide thousands of cases of lived...