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Phenomenology (general science and discourse)

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For other uses, see Phenomenology (disambiguation).

Phenomenology in common sense is a study of natural phenomena, as the Greek meaning for the term and scientific practices do, as well as in the everyday sense of relating to life experiences to understand them as they are. Both start with subjective attention and appearances for phenomena of life subjectively observed and experienced, then seeking to see how to respond to them independent of appearances. Humanity has, of course, been doing that for many thousands of years, long before reflective philosophy.

Modern philosophy began to study the mental appearances of phenomena as an independent field [1] without distinguishing the difference, in connection to Husserl's philosophy in a 1907 article in The Philosophical Review.[1].

The original form and field of "phenomenology" seems likely to have been humanity's great creation of reliable language, connecting aural references to commonly recognized phenomena with personal and practical meanings, allowing humans to exchange insights and learn to work together in making their lives work as they explored the world and started to make things. That may have begun with the great ages and diasporas of the first three modern human species, starting around 900 thousand years ago [2], Homo Erectus, Habilis, and Sapien Three great human diasporas, ultimately producing *language* as what we'd now call our root phenomenology.

It would include the study of phenomena using scientific methods, analyzing data, and investigating with instruments and tests. One catch is the difference between representing nature as the rules and patterns science finds, taken out of context, and the very ancient accumulative study of phenomena in a context that brought us reliable and shareable knowledge.

Of course, observation is a bit unreliable, and so is recall, so reification of experience, methods of recall, learning how to check and retrace events and the behaviors of different designs, and how they change in different contexts are all part of the work of everyday life, and of course, needing cultural recognition and stability for knowledge to accumulate and become a lasting foundation [3][4] and for related informative examples see Observation, Observational Learning, Experience.

The method for organizing people around verifying meaningful features of observed and experienced phenomena, providing our first reliable foundation of knowledge, would seem to have been the portable and shareable culture-based vehicle of language. With aural traditions referring to phenomena and experience attached, that people could pass around, confirming and adjusting, would have been a great way to anchor our thoughts to meaningful references to commonly understood phenomena.

It appears to have begun in earnest with the first of the three great diasporas of the three modern human species; Homo Erectus, Habilis, and then Sapiens. Each vastly expanded the world they explored around them. For the most recent one, Homo Sapiens spreading the whole world, there's evidence that they kept in touch, communicating along the branching paths of their world exploration, at least for the diverse Indo-European_languages which have so very many meanings in common.

How language became humanity's anchoring phenomenology, learned bit by bit, like other environmental sciences, but like a very slow-growing tree, with trunks and branches, all communicating just enough to develop all together, seems to offer a practical non-traditional explanation. The picture is still so incomplete there could have been some still lost great "mother language" to explain all the connections we see now. Whatever happened, it was during the great Indo-European migrations as evidence of some unifying story, of more and more ambitious explorers having a way to keep, remotely, in touch.

Whether named as studies of phenomena or not, all fields appear to be anchored in connecting references to recognizable designs and qualities of nature to useful socially validated meanings. We are flooded by so much willful personal or untethered belief, persuasion, and abstraction that coherent communication seems almost impossible regarding today's most important challenges, a "multiplication of languages," one might, unfortunately, have to call it.

So recognizing the original structure of language that made it reliable, giving meaning to what is commonly observable, seems to be rather important. Clearly the struggle to find common meaning is going on everywhere as in the fields of qualitative research across different scientific disciplines, especially in the social sciences, humanities, psychology, and cognitive science, but also in fields as diverse as health sciences,[5] architecture,[6] and human-computer interaction,[7] among many others.

However, which of the above can be clear about whether their common references are to persuasive appearances, and which are truly referring to and anchored to common observables of nature independent of appearances? With growth still thought of as a path to infinite rewards, one does wonder if we have the sense to get back on track.

Pronunciation: Phe·nom·e·nol·o·gy -- /fəˌnäməˈnäləjē/

Etymology

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The term phenomenology combines the Late Latin term 'phænomenon,' which came from the Greek φαινόμενον, phainómenon, meaning: "that which appears or is seen" with the Greek λόγος, or lógos meaning "study". In Greek, the noun is the neuter present participle of phainesthai "to appear," passive of 'phainein' "bring to light, cause to appear, show" (from PIE root *bha- (1) "to shine") [8]

Phenomenology - disambiguation The term entered the English language around the turn of the 18th century and first appeared in connection to Husserl's philosophy in a 1907 article in The Philosophical Review.[9], emphasizing the philosophical study of appearances as discussed in Phenomenology_(philosophy) not the study of the observed phenomena. So, whether phenomenology refers to the study of things that catch our attention, independent of appearances, of the logic of our mental appearances... became confused, making it hard to tell which meaning is intended in many contexts.

References

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  1. ^ OED, 3rd ed.
  2. ^ Hu et al., 2023
  3. ^ in observation
  4. ^ how to observe
  5. ^ Davidsen 2011.
  6. ^ Seamon 2018.
  7. ^ Cilesiz 2011.
  8. ^ "Phe-nom-e-non | Search Online Etymology Dictionary".
  9. ^ OED, 3rd ed.
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