StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

The Phenomenological Mind - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
This work "The Phenomenological Mind" describes the book Gallagher and Zahavi and the fact that cognitive science and phenomenology are mutually constraining and compatible disciplines. The author outlines the phenomenological approach to understanding the human mind, higher-order consciousness theories, and representational perception views…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER98.3% of users find it useful
The Phenomenological Mind
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Phenomenological Mind"

The Phenomenological Mind Of the phenomenological method, Husserl used the maxim that things are described and shaped through the individual’s act of experiencing the objects. This once revolutionary claim has, however, paved the way to a more cooperative and reformist stand due to renewed interest in various mental phenomena that could have been left out by such a view, as well as staggering neuroscience advances. Gallagher and Zahavi (2008) premise their book on the fact that cognitive science and phenomenology are mutually constraining and compatible disciplines. The phenomenological mind as used in their book could mean either that the mind is phenomenological in nature, or it could refer to a methodology of phenomenology used by the two authors. In this case, the authors intend the latter connotation. They provide a brief history related to philosophical inquiries into the mind in the first chapter, of which the content consists of both the phenomenological and analytical tradition, after which they introduce the phenomenological method in the second chapter. The authors’ guiding idea is that, although transcendental phenomenology’s conceptual tools constrain empirical research in illuminating, new ways, enactive and embodied scientific knowledge of the mind, in turn, could help to re-define phenomenology. According to Gallagher and Zahavi (2008: p6), one concept underlying phenomenology is that preoccupation with functionalism, identity theory, materialism, dualism, and other metaphysical issues may lead to highly abstract and technical discussions, which fail to connect to experience. Thus, one essential concern regarding the philosophy of the mind should be about providing an account of experience that is phenomenologically sensitive. A phenomenological account of one’s perception is distinct from a neuroscientific or psychophysical account. In this case, phenomenology mainly deals with gaining a proper description and understanding of our mental experiential structure. In achieving this, the phenomenological approach neither attempts to come up with a naturalistic explanation for the mind’s consciousness, nor its neurological or biological basis. The authors draw from Husserl’s understanding of phenomenology as not being interested in analyzing the human mind’s psychophysical make up or in investigating the mind’s consciousness empirically but, instead; to comprehend what characterizes feelings, judgments, and perceptions intrinsically (Gallagher & Zahavi, 2008: p10). Gallagher and Zahavi (2008: p10) identify the concept of phenomenology being necessarily introspective as a major misconception of the phenomenological method, including the definition of phenomenology as only being concerned with mental dimensions involving aspects that are purely subjective. While phenomenology involves knowledge of subjective experience of an object or things and is, therefore, usually in the first person, it does not need to be always introspective in nature. Rather than being a subjective account of one’s experience, phenomenology is an account of one’s subjective experience. Phenomenology is an inquiry method that seeks to comprehend conditions underlying the possibility of how the human mind experiences their surroundings and the world. In the phenomenological approach, the central concern is consciousness as the human mind’s essentially subjective manner of experiencing the world and being open to this world (Gallagher & Zahavi, 2008: p11). In their work, the authors explore areas that cognitive and analytical science tend to neglect, specifically as these will be the areas in which phenomenology can collaborate with psychology and neuroscience most successfully and apparently. In chapter 4 of the book, the authors explore the temporality of experience, which is identified as one of these neglected aspects of cognition and consciousness, despite being of utmost importance to both cognition and consciousness. Gallagher and Zahavi (2008: p77) contend that everyday human encounters and activities that they engage in are permeated with various temporality aspects. In this case, the human mind anticipates things about to occur and those that occurred in the past, while also maintaining a working sense of things that just happened. Expectations of any event or person and the fulfillment or otherwise of such expectations are projected into a yet-to-be future. Temporal navigations are important for individuals to navigate various streams of experience, without losing themselves, in order to exist in a meaningful and coherent world. One core finding reported in the book is that memory consists of different faculties of the human mind, in which there are various dissociable and distinct processes. This distinction between different memory types, including semantic, procedural, working, and episodic memory can be substantiated both conceptually and phenomenologically (Gallagher & Zahavi, 2008: p79). The temporality of experience in phenomenology is also referred to as time-consciousness, which the authors contend is one of phenomenology’s most difficult topics. Memory disorders, such as severe anterograde and retrograde amnesia, in which people lose one of the identified types of memory as another is retained, illustrate the fact that temporality are of critical experience to action, perception, and experience (Gallagher & Zahavi, 2008: p80). Quoting Husserl, the authors argue that perceiving an object that is temporarily extended, along with perceiving change and succession, would not be possible where consciousness was only a series of experiences without connecting points, or if it only provided a momentary slice of the thing or object. This would mean that a manifest phenomenological difference between hearing or seeing and imagining or remembering exists, especially in light of intuitive presentation of succession. The depth and width of experience are of importance with consciousness retaining the sense of an initial experience as the second experience happens, which is, in turn, enriched by anticipating the next experience. As the human mind experiences something, every concurrent moment of consciousness is kept intentionally, creating a coherency stretching over a temporal duration that the individual experiences (Gallagher & Zahavi, 2008: p84). Consciousness and its temporal structure can be described in terms of primal impression, retention, and protention. Using the example of a conversation, Gallagher and Zahavi (2008: p85) state that retention ensures that the words’ intentional sense are kept available even following the end of the conversation, while consciousness’ protentional aspect provides a sense of where the conversation is headed, which are all essential to the individual’s experience of speaking meaningfully. Retention, in this case, is not a specific aspect of consciousness but, rather, consciousness possesses a structure of retention, which makes retention a type of intentionality as consciousness retains what passes consciously. Human time cannot be considered as the objective or subjective time of consciousness but, instead, should be considered as a bridge between cosmological and phenomenological time. Human time constitutes the time in which the individual’s life stories occur, while it is also a narrated time articulated and structured by narratives that are symbolically mediated (Gallagher & Zahavi, 2008: p95). Moving on, Gallagher and Zahavi (2008: p171) point out that phenomenology considers the human existence in the world as being characterized as practical action, in which the human mind encounters worldly entities through their use, instead of perceiving or theorizing about them detachedly. The world as perceived by the mind consists of practical use references, rather than a complex unity of objects that are characterized by extension, materiality, and substantiality. The nearest object to an individual is not really what is geometrically closest but what that individual is concerned with, and can attain and utilize. The human mind is not theoretically occupied with perceptual things but with using, handling, and caring for these things. The individual’s mind in cognition relates afresh with entities in a world that they already know, meaning that cognition defines secondary modification of the individual’s primary existence and can only be attained as the individuals already exists in the world. Rather than relating with theoretical objects, humans in daily life interact with objects of personal, aesthetic, emotional, or practical value. Generally, action takes place in a specific environment that is both social and physical, which, in turn, shape the human mind’s intentions (Gallagher & Zahavi, 2008: p172). The presence of a phenomenology of agency is not a broadly accepted fact in the phenomenological approach in the study of the human mind. However, Gallagher and Zahavi (2008: p177) recognize the phenomenology of agency as being dependent on the individuals consciousness of agency, meaning that where one thing causes something to occur, they are not an agent and have no idea they have caused the occurrence. Conscious knowledge required for an entity to be involved in agency does not, however, have to be complicated or of a high order and is in most cases involves a pre-reflective awareness. It may also involve explicit consciousness that consists of reasons that are well developed. The authors also relate the phenomenology of agency with the individual having an experience of an intention to commit an action, which they associate with exercising free will. It would seem that intentional action exists, therefore, where one makes a deliberate decision to act. However, intentional actions are not always predated by such deliberations and decisions, especially where one acts prior to having a chance to decide whether to act (Gallagher & Zahavi, 2008: p178). Thus, intentions reside in the individual’s actions and the perception of any observer would view the intentions as being expressed through the individual’s actions. The phenomenological approach to understanding the human mind proposed by the authors is critically acute, particularly when orthodox views pertaining issues being discussed are put forth. Their criticisms are motivated invariably by their suggestions of a shift in relevant features of specific aspects of the human mind. The notion of a lived body and bodily awareness, for example, are identified as trumping objectivist and mechanical agency notions, which even get to a point of rejecting embodied views of cognition. They argue that it is not possible to build intelligent and simple agents that can perform specific tasks in messy environments and in real time, especially when the study of the mind seeks to comprehend the sense of agency on the basis of lived bodily experience. Thus, only research frameworks that can work from an embodied perspective of the first person are considered useful in the phenomenological approach to studying the human mind. On the other hand, higher order consciousness theories and representational perception views are considered insufficient in understanding the first-person, pre-reflective awareness that characterizes the individual’s experience of their environment as situated and embodied agents. Reference Gallagher, S., & Zahavi, D. (2012). The phenomenological mind. London: Routledge. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(The Phenomenological Mind Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words, n.d.)
The Phenomenological Mind Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words. https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1845428-explain-gallaghers-and-zahavis-conception-of-a-phenomenological-approach-to-the-study-of-mind-in-the-phenomenological-mind
(The Phenomenological Mind Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words)
The Phenomenological Mind Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words. https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1845428-explain-gallaghers-and-zahavis-conception-of-a-phenomenological-approach-to-the-study-of-mind-in-the-phenomenological-mind.
“The Phenomenological Mind Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words”. https://studentshare.org/philosophy/1845428-explain-gallaghers-and-zahavis-conception-of-a-phenomenological-approach-to-the-study-of-mind-in-the-phenomenological-mind.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Phenomenological Mind

Methods of Research

An examination of the implications of the research methodology utilized begs a closer look at RCTs and the phenomenological approach to research.... the phenomenological approach to research, on the other hand, is one that dates back further than the advent of the experimental approach which utilizes RCTs.... These methods as delineated in the phenomenological approach to research offers a vehicle for exploring as well as explaining the experiences of the individuals being studied....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Theory of Perception

Ayer was not interested to emphasize about the mind dependence or mind independence of any entity.... He emphasized the conception of sense-data as mind dependent.... As Austin quotes it - “One of the most important things to grasp is that these two terms, ‘sense-data' and ‘material things', live by taking in each other's washing – what is spurious is not one term of the pair but the antithesis itself....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Phenomenological Paradigm and Qualitative Approach

With the phenomenological approach the focus is on “understanding the human behaviour from the participant's own frame of reference” (Collis & Hussey, 2003, p.... The research approaches… used in the study comprises a mixture of both the “phenomenological paradigm” which is also referred to as a “qualitative” approach, and the “positivistic paradigm” also known as the “quantitative” approach (Collis & Hussey, 2003, p.... 47). “phenomenological” An Overview of Research Methodology Submitted by: XXXXX XXXXXX Number: XXXXXXXX of XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXXSubject Code: XXXXXXXXDate of Submission: XX – XX – 2009Number of Words: 592 (Excluding Bibliography)Research MethodologyResearch for a dissertation or report is one of the most essential elements....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

A Qualitative Analysis of the Types of Goals Athletes Set in Training and Competition

Waters (2005) explains that qualitative phenomenological research involves the explanation of a lived experience and this makes phenomenological approach the most appropriate method of conducting this research.... “phenomenological Research.... This research is different in that it does not use researcher defined goals which limit responses given by participants....
2 Pages (500 words) Research Paper

Alaska Law: Voluntariness of Confession

The trial judge must be able to find the external phenomenological facts that surround the confession before inferring whether there exists an internal psychological fact that in this case denotes the mental state of the accused person (Thomas 96).... The decision by the trial court to convict Ridgely must be remanded and a new trial ordered as the state had not met its burden of proving that the confession which formed the basis of the evidence was voluntary (West Publishing Company 514) and that the accused had effectively… When a court is charged with an issue that is coming up for appeal meant to review the determination of voluntariness as decided by a trial judge, its standard of review must reflect the legal nature and the mixed factual nature of the This is as held in the case of Giacomazzi v....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Phenomenological Research in Nursing and Data Management and Organization

phenomenological research supposes that… Managing and organizing huge quantities of data can be done though categorizing and coding use of software and use of online data bases. Grounded theory and phenomenological research A Comparison of Grounded Theory and phenomenological Research in Nursing And Data Management and Organization Grounded theory and phenomenological research are approaches used in qualitative research of human behavior....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Case study and phenomenal study

Case study is largely generic in its usage and understanding, the phenomenological study in contrast largely pertains to the cognitive understanding of the human mind, ability and power to reason.... the phenomenological study in contrast may be directed towards the educational sector when the role of single unit or single individual is under scrutiny.... Case study presents the scenarios surrounding a given case and aims at allowing the readers to further investigate and assess into the… phenomenological study is often loosely associated with the scenario that may reflect its impact over the players involved in the given study so undertaken....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

PhD Management: Analysis of Phenomenological Research Method

phenomenological research is described as a qualitative analysis of narrative data.... The research or the inquirer Analysis of phenomenological Research Method Analysis of phenomenological Research Method Qualitative approach on PhenomenologicalResearchA phenomenological research is a research with a goal of describing a lived experience of a phenomenon.... phenomenological research is described as a qualitative analysis of narrative data....
1 Pages (250 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us