Intersubjectivity, Empathy, Life‐World, and the Social Brain: The Relevance of Husserlian Neurophenomenology for the Anthropology of Consciousness
Anthropology of Consciousness March 1, 2023 DOI: 10.1111/anoc.12171 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that Husserlian phenomenology provides a methodology for studying social consciousness that is compatible with neuroscience and can deepen cross-cultural anthropological understanding of intersubjectivity. |
Abstract
AbstractOur species of hominin, Homo sapiens, is an extremely social animal. We are born with social brains. The phenomenology of Edmund Husserl is a methodological approach to social consciousness that offers significant advantages in terms of uncovering and describing the essential structures of our social perceptions and actions. This is especially true in this period of post‐neuro‐turn social science, because the structures described by Husserlian “pure” phenomenology with its emphasis upon “returning to the things,” performing reductions, and developing the skills available to the phenomenological attitude are in synch with neuroscientific research on the neural correlates of consciousness. For the anthropology of consciousness, the Husserlian methodology allows us to explore consciousness in cross‐cultural settings in greater detail and depth of understanding. This is especially the case with respect to the experience of intersubjectivity, the roots of which are found to be part of the inherent life‐world that all normal humans depend upon to true their experiences of the environing world, regardless of cultural background. The Husserlian approach to intersubjectivity challenges the discipline of anthropology to move past its knee‐jerk distinction between nature and nurture, and its erroneous assumption that human experience is somehow “culture all the way down.”
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From dopamine to salience to psychosis--linking biology, pharmacology and phenomenology of psychosis. | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How do the brain's time and space mediate consciousness and its different dimensions? Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC). | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The phenomenology of deep brain stimulation-induced changes in OCD: an enactive affordance-based model. | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 7
- Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences June 28, 2007
- Phenomenological Approaches in Anthropology Annual Review of Anthropology September 27, 2010
- Husserlian Meditations and Anthropological Reflections: Toward a Cultural Neurophenomenology of Experience and Reality Anthropology of Consciousness September 1, 2009
- Experience, Coherence, and Culture: The Significance of Dilthey's 'Descriptive Psychology' for the Anthropology of Consciousness Anthropology of Consciousness March 1, 2002
- Apodicticity: The Problem of Absolute Certainty in,Transpersonal Ethnology Anthropology & Humanism December 1, 1994
and 2 more in the library