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Phenomenology of Information. The term phenomenology in science is used to describe a body of knowledge which relates empirical observations of phenomena to each other, in a way which is consistent with fundamental theory, but is not directly derived from theory.
For example, we find the following definition in the Concise Dictionary of Physics:
Phenomenological Theory. A theory which expresses mathematically the results of observed phenomena without paying detailed attention to their fundamental significance.
The name is derived from phenomenon (from Greek φαινόμενoν, pl. φαινόμενα - phenomena and -λογία - -logia, translated as "study of" or "research") which is any occurrence that is observable. |
From yee
Wikipedia:
Phenomenology is an approach to
psychological subject matter that has its
roots in the
philosophical work of
Edmund Husserl. Early phenomenologists such as
Husserl, Jean-Paul Sartre, and
Maurice Merleau-Ponty conducted their own psychological investigations in the early 20th century.
The work of these
phenomenologists later influenced at least two main fields of contemporary psychology: the
phenomenological psychological approach of the
"Duquesne School" including
Amedeo Giorgi and
Frederick Wertz (
The Descriptive Phenomenological Method in Psychology), the
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of
Jonathan Smith, Steinar
Kvale, Wolfgang Köhler, and others ; and the
experimental approaches associated with
Francisco Varela, Shaun Gallagher, Evan Thompson, and others (
embodied mind thesis).
Phenomenological psychologists have also
figured prominently in the history of the
humanistic psychology movement.
The
experiencing subject can be considered to be the
person or self, for purposes of convenience.
In
phenomenological philosophy (and in particular in the work of
Husserl, Heidegger, and
Merleau-Ponty),
"experience" is a
considerably more complex concept than it is usually taken to be in
everyday use.
Instead,
experience (or
being, or
existence itself) is an
"in-relation-to" phenomenon, and it is
defined by qualities of directedness, embodiment, and worldliness, which are evoked by the term
"Being-in-the-World."
The
quality or nature of a given experience is often referred to by the term
qualia, whose archetypical exemplar is "redness".
For example, we might ask,
"Is my experience of redness the same as yours?" While it is difficult to answer such a question in any
concrete way, the concept of
intersubjectivity is often used as a
mechanism for understanding how
it is that humans are able to empathize with one another's experiences, and indeed to
engage in meaningful communication about them. The phenomenological formulation of
Being-in-the-World, where person and world are
mutually constitutive, is central here.
Difficulties in considering subjective phenomena
The
philosophical psychology prevalent before the end of the 19th century relied heavily on
introspection.
The speculations concerning the mind based on those observations were criticized by the pioneering advocates of a more
scientific approach to psychology, such as
William James and the
behaviorists Edward Thorndike, Clark Hull, John B. Watson, and
B. F. Skinner.
However, not
everyone agrees that introspection is intrinsically problematic, such as
Francisco Varela, who has trained experimental participants in the
structured "introspection" of phenomenological reduction.
Philosophers have long confronted the problem of "qualia". Few philosophers believe that it is possible to be sure that one person's experience of the "redness" of an object is the same as another person's, even if both persons had effectively identical genetic and experiential histories.
In principle, the
same difficulty arises in feelings (the subjective experience of
emotion), in the
experience of effort, and especially in the
"meaning" of concepts.
As a result, many qualitative psychologists have claimed
phenomenological inquiry to be essentially a
matter of "meaning-making" and thus a question to be addressed by interpretive approaches.
Psychotherapy and the phenomenology of emotion
Carl Rogers' person-centered psychotherapy theory is based directly on the
"phenomenal field" personality theory of
Combs and
Snygg.
That theory in turn was
grounded in phenomenological thinking. Rogers attempts to put a therapist in
closer contact with a person by
listening to the person's report of their recent
subjective experiences, especially emotions of which the person is not fully aware.
For example, in relationships the problem at hand is often not based around what actually happened but, instead, based around the
perceptions and feelings of each individual in the relationship. The
phenomenal field focuses on
"how one feels right now".
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| Phenomenology? Oh, --- I thought you said Phantomology. |
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