[Phenomenology] Phenomenological Inquiry

This summer I will take a course about phenomenology as a theoretical and methodological framework. I'm really exited about it. Here I would like to take some note of my reading for preparing this class.


The following information are extracted from Phenomenology Online:

Phenomenological Inquiry

--> may be explored and studied in terms of the following topical domains: orientations, sources of meaning, methodology, methods, writing, and practice.


Orientations:

1. Transcendental phenomenology: 先驗現象學, Hussel, Eugen Fink, Tymieniecka, and Van Breda.
2. Existential phenomenology: 存在現象學, Heidegger, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty.
3. Hermeneutical phenomenology: 詮釋現象學, Heidegger, Gadamer, and Ricoeur.
4. Linguistical phenomenology: 語言現象學, Blanchot, Derrida and Foucault.
5. Ethical phenomenology: 道德（倫理）現象學, Scheler, Levinas
6. Phenomenology of practice: the employment of phenomenological method in applied or professional contexts such as clinical psychology, medicine, education or pedagogy, nursing, counselling, and also to the use of phenomenological method in contexts of practical concerns of everyday living.

Source of Meaning: 意義來源

Phenomenological inquiry draws on many types and sources of meaning. These sources lie not only within the disciplinary boundaries of the social sciences but also in other human domains such as the arts, the humanities, everyday life experiences, language and, of course, in phenomenological studies.


Methodology: (Philosophical methods, or general attitude)

• Reductio (the reduction): 存而不論 The bracketing (放入括弧） or suspension of our everday “natural attitude”.
• Vocatio (the vocative dimension): The intent of writing is to produce textual portrayals that resonate the kinds of meanings that we seem to recognize in prereflective experience. The vocative dimension expresses this concern with language.

Methods: (Procedure methods or activities)

• Empirical methods: explore the range and varieties of prereflective experiential material that is appropriate for the phenomenon under study
• Reflective methods: aim to interpret the aspects of meaning or meaningfulness that are asociated with this phenomenon.

Writing: 

• Writing has already begun, so to speak, when one has managed to enter the space of the text, the textorium. The space of the text is what we create in writing but it is also in some sense already there.
• Phenomenological writing is the very act of making contact with the things of our world.
• Phenomenological inquiry-writing is based on the idea that no text is ever perfect, no interpretation is ever complete, no explication of meaning is ever final, no insight is beyond challenge.

Epistemology of Practice:

1. Knowledge as text: the phenomenological text differs in the manner that meaning is embedded in the text.
2. Knowledge as understanding: Phenomenology is the active and reflective participation in meaning.
3. Knowledge as being: Phenomenology does not provide us with “information” in the usual sense of the term. Instead, the practical significance of phenomenological knowledge is formative in nature: It enhances our perceptiveness, it contributes to our sense of tact in human relations, and it provides us with pathic forms of understanding that are embodied, situational, relational and enactive.