Towards a Dynamic Ontology: The Philosophical Scope of Micro-phenomenology

Abstract

Micro-phenomenology, a research method dedicated to the study of lived experience, starts from the observation that a large part of it ordinarily remains invisible, concealed by tensions directed towards its objects. After describing the techniques used by the method to loosen these tensions, the article presents a surprising result: this gesture tends to soften or ‘subtilize’ the structures that characterize our ordinary experience, in particular the separation between a subject pole and an object pole that usually appears essential to it. In other words, the very process of becoming aware makes the dual structure of ordinary experience more subtle. The correlate of this result is that this dual structure is not simply given, but created and sustained from moment to moment by usually unnoticed micro-tensions — a process that micro-phenomenology allows us to investigate. Exploring this double process leads to what we describe as a ‘dynamic’ ontology.