barebones communication

… a blog on communication

Introduction to Phenomenology


This is it.
Robert Sokolowski’s recent (2000) book on phenomenology “Introduction to Phenomenology” is what I have been looking for for many, many years. I picked it up by browsing the shelves at Bergen University in Bergen, Norway two days ago.
Why? Because it treats phenomenology as a doing, living philosophy, which is just what it is, and also the way phenomenology will be engaged on this blog. And in the barebones communication project. You will find indications of this understanding of phenomenology by reading some of the already submitted pitstop posts. For instance this quote from Stephan Strasser.
If you, by now, have taken an interest in phenomenology as a prerequisite to communication, just go pick up the book. It is important for its content, but even more for its attitude. It contradicts the notion that phenomenology first and foremost is of historical interest. Something that once was. Old men with strange names and long white beards. 
Phenomenology is not that at all. Phenomenology is a present, living philosophy, and Sokolowski tells that story well.
No, I am not on any kind of commission. I’ll even spare you for the obligate picture :-) That is how refreshing this book is.
When you have finished with Sokolowski’s eminent little introduction you can always turn to Edmund Husserl’s originals. He left some 40.000 plus research pages. They were all smuggled out of Germany in the late thirties. Originals are at the Husserl Archives at Leuven in Belgium. Quite a thriller that one. Bringing his papers out of Germany.
Or you could take a shortcut by Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Hans-Georg Gadamer or Paul Ricoeur. Or Jean-Paul Sartre for that matter. Or any other major figure who link into Husserl’s extensive work. All important elaborators on Husserl’s thought among many others. They even managed to add some to the movement.
By the way the combo Sokolowski and Strasser seems a particularly good starting point for your phenomenological endeavor :-) They both practice phenomenology.
Go to amazon to get the book. Or anywhere else you can find it.
Thanks. So far.

March 5, 2008 Posted by knut skjærven | phenomenology | , , , , , | No Comments

What am I doing here?

Yes, you can ask that again. 

The section on phenomenology that I am now working on will lay bare some of the steps of the phenomenological method.

I could have chosen between a number of sources, but Spiegelberg’s big book on the history on the phenomenological movement was at hand. Apart from being an extensive historical introduction to the movement, it does a good job in enhancing the essentials of the method.

It does not really matter what source you use for this ground work, anyway. Operational phenomenology does not have much in common with phenomenological history when it comes down to it.  It is nice to know, not necessarily need to know. But as good a starting point as any.

Remember what Stephan Strasser said in one of the pitstop quotes? I do. Husserl says about the same thing. I’ll see if I can find the quote for you.

So, please bear with me for a couple of posts yet, and I and hope to make the phenomenological inspiration much more interesting. ’cause it is. 

Be aware what Herbert Spiegelberg rightly says: Phenomenology begins in silence. Sorry then for being so noisy :-)

I’ll make it up to you with one of my pictures. Actually, one of my favorites  (and a prize winner), that I will use for proper illustration later on. 

 

Down Under. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2007. 

Yes, phenomenology will bring a different perspective to things :) . 

Enjoy. And cheers. It’s late.

February 19, 2008 Posted by knut skjærven | hermeneutics, phenomenology | , , , , , | No Comments

no substitute for original thinking (pitstop 07)

“… it is of course also possible to adopt a purely historical attitude toward the phenomenological movement. One would then devote oneself wholly to the task of editing and interpreting, to the hermeneutics of the texts written by phenomenological philosophers and to biographical research or historical monographs. This is, no doubt, an important task but it should not be considered the most important. We readily admit that such historical and critical text studies, thematic and hermeneutic examinations are useful and even necessary. But they are no substitute for original thinking about the problems in a spirit which is always ready to modify the conceptual apparatus if this is demanded by the adequate handling of the problems. If this spirit is lacking, then we would have here the beginning of the end of the phenomenological movement”.

Quote: Stephan Strasser: “The Idea of Dialogal Phenomenology”, page 2, Duquesne University Press, USA 1969. Library Thing.

More on barebones pistops.  

January 7, 2008 Posted by knut skjærven | barebones pitstop, hermeneutics, phenomenology | , , | 2 Comments