Husserlian Phenomenology in the Light of Microphenomenology

This chapter traces the lineage of Husserl's transcendental epoché into the contemporary discipline of microphenomenology, which aims to describe the subject's singular, real-time lived experience with fine-grained precision. The author examines what microphenomenology borrows from Husserlian phenomenology and how it establishes its difference, particularly through the prefix "micro." The chapter then revisits the historical relationship between phenomenology and introspective psychologies (Titchener, Külpe), using the example of attention to demonstrate their intimate bond. Finally, the author relates the microphenomenological project to Varela's research program on the naturalization of phenomenology.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This chapter seeks to place itself in the lineage of the Husserlian transcendental gesture, which operates the epoché of pregiven positive contents, and to reveal the subjectivation inherent in objectivation. Now, such a becoming aware was taken up again by the recent discipline of microphenomenology, which questions anew what is called subjectivity by placing once more the subject at the core of the living experience, but more acutely this time, of his singular hic et nunc real life, and by proposing a rigorous fine-tuned description of its specific lived experiences.What does it borrow from Husserlian phenomenology, how it establishes its difference, what does the prefix "micro" mean? This is the first step of the presentation. On this basis I will come back to some aspects of the complex situation of phenomenology as a science describing the structures of lived experience in its relationship to the psychologies of introspection (Titchener's and Külpe's), and particularly the example of attention, which is situated at their crossroads. This will enable me to testify to the intimate bond between phenomenology and psychology. In a third stage, I will return to the project of microphenomenology, in relation to Varela's research program on the naturalization of phenomenology.