The Landscape of Contemporary Phenomenology
Marzena Adamiak, Marek Pokropski
Avant September 30, 2018 DOI: 10.26913/avant.2018.02.01 (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 phenomenology's earlier crisis served as a vital impulse for rethinking its foundations and its relation to other disciplines, and that contemporary phenomenology divides, following Dominique Janicaud, into an 'excessive' tendency (the 'theological turn') and a 'minimal' phenomenology focused on detailed analyses of intuition and local ontological regions. |
Abstract
When looking at contemporary phenomenology, the first impression one gets is that it is a very diverse philosophical movement.Phenomenologists not only develop their own research but, even more often, they also participate in interdisciplinary enterprises.Contemporary phenomenology now looks surprisingly vital, but in the 1960s and 1970s it appeared to be a decadent philosophy pervaded by the metaphysics of presence (e.g.Der rida, 1967/2010).Subjectivity, which is the main category of phenomenology, was deconstrued, demystified and thought to be-together with phenomenology-an outdated philosophical position.On the other hand, in the second half of the 20 th century, the rapid development of cognitive sciences, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience suggested that a naturalistic explanation of consciousness (excluding phenomenality and subjectivity from explanandum) was very close.These expectations turned out to be too radical and too optimistic (or pessimistic), according to which side of the discussion one took.In the 1980s, phenomenology was rejuvenated.Phenomenologists, especially in France, returned to fundamental questions about the nature of subjectivity and phenomenality.In the 1990s, phenomenology was critical of cognitive science, but this made possible the emergence of embodied cognition.The earlier crisis turned out to be a vital impulse for the development and rethinking of the fundamentals of phenomenology and its relation to other disciplines.How to describe the landscape of contemporary phenomenology?According to Dominique Janicaud (1991/2000, 1998, pp.94-119), phenomenology at the end of the 20 th century was divided into two tendencies: excessive and minimalistic.The former goes beyond phenomenology in search of the sources of phenomenality itself.This tendency is best represented by philosophers of the so-called "theological turn" (e.g.J.-F.Courtine, J.-L.Marion, M. Henry) who, when investigating the limits of phenomenality, turned towards theological considerations.On the other hand, "minimal phenomenology" focuses on detailed analyses of what is given by intuition: it builds local phenomenologies of various ontological regions (phenomenology of embodiment, phenomenology of perception,
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| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |