Fenomenologia in "prima" e in "terza" persona: Searle e Dennett critici di Husserl
Federica Buongiorno
Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia December 29, 2014 DOI: 10.4453/rifp.2014.0022 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Analytic philosophy Theory of consciousness Cognitive sciences |
| Key points | Argues that Searle's and Dennett's third-person modifications of Husserl's intentionality lead to problematic consequences regarding mental act/content distinction, subjectivity, and the unconscious, and that these difficulties require identifying specific phenomenological problems addressable in science rather than adapting or returning to Husserl's theory. |
Abstract
“First” and “Third” Person Phenomenology: Searle and Dennett Critics of Husserl - In this paper I compare Searle’s and Dennett’s philosophies of mind with Husserl’s theory of consciousness. My aim is to show how they modified the phenomenological concept of intentionality turning it into a “third-person” model of description. This change leads to problematic consequences concerning mainly (i) the distinction between a mental act and its content, and the related criticism of the representational theory of mind; (ii) the Cartesian Theater argument and the related Homunculus argument as well as the claim that the notion of subjectivity needs to be dismantled; (iii) the rejection of the Unconscious. I my view Searle’s and Dennett’s positions follow from embracing a contradictory notion of reductionism, which is also implicit in the developments of “naturalized phenomenology” and neurophenomenology. These difficulties cannot be solved by adapting or applying the phenomenological method to cognitive sciences, nor even by merely returning to Husserl’s theory. Rather, we need to determine what specific problems can be phenomenologically addressed in a scientific context: for instance the temporal structure of consciousness and the issue of the unconscious contents of mind.
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