What is Continental Philosophy Phenomenology?
Hegel, in his inaugural address, Heidelberg, 1816, says
“The Being of the universe, at first hidden and concealed, has no power which can offer resistance to the search for knowledge; it has to lay itself open before the seeker — to set before his eyes and give for his enjoyment, its riches and its depths.”
Heidegger says:
“Both scientific and prescientific comportments are a knowing in the sense of uncovering what is previously concealed, of revealing what was previously covered up, of disclosing what so far was closed off.”
and
“In order to understand, Heidegger says, one must see phenomenologically. He thus invites us to the first exercise of phenomenological “kindergarten.” To tear apart [zer-reissen] means: to tear into two parts, to separate: to make two out of one. If a sock is torn, then the sock is no longer present-at-hand—but note: precisely not as a sock. In fact, when I have it on my foot, I see the “intact” sock precisely not as a sock. On the contrary, if it is torn, then THE sock appears with more force through the “sock torn into pieces.” In other words, what is lacking in the torn sock is the UNITY of the sock. However, this lack is paradoxically the most positive, for this Unity in being-torn is present [gegenwärtig] as a lost unity.” (Heidegger, Martin. Four Seminars p. 11)
“Twice the audience laughed over the “torn sock” saying. At first Heidegger answered pedantically, “I do not know why you are laughing. You must learn to endure the scope of a sentence such as the one I have cited.” (Heidegger, Martin. Four Seminars p. 100).
Phenomenology in Continental Philosophy is going beyond mere description to uncovering ideas through comparison and contrast. For example, “cause” may seem like and obscure concept, and so one strategy may be to replace the word “cause” with the more familiar word “made”. And so, “the heat caused the water to boil” is replaced by “the heat made the water boil.” Another strategy is to split “cause” into a threefold chord of 1 directionality of physical, partial form, form: 1. The ball hits the other ball causing a physical change while the form stays the same; 2. The cold causes a temporary change of form from liquid to ice; 3. Cooking an egg that then can’t be uncooked.
I’m always thinking about phenomenology from Heraclitus to Heidegger (especially Hegel), the idea that concepts (e.g., houseness) are inherently vague and indeterminate, but can be clarified by triangulating or intersecting related concepts. This means comparing and contrasting to un-cover from hiddenness. My basic example is houseness is “present” in an incarnate or exemplary way in the mansion, merely present in the average house, and deficient in the dilapidated house. Now, the next viewer may experience the mansion as gaudy and the shack as quaint/rustic. The other example I like is Niagara Falls may “appear” as a wonder of the world to the tourist, background scenery to the local commuter, or noise pollution to the local resident. On the other hand, the next local resident may love it even more than the tourist in that they are so intimately acquainted with it. And, the next tourist may be very let down as the waterfall fails to live up to expectations. Everything depends on the way the observer takes the object, so there is no hermetically sealed subject as Descartes thought.
In the last series of posts I did concept intersection with:
3 Upward Social Pretense/Acceptance/Downward Social Pretense/Slumming.
An example conclusion of this process in number 3 is that Wealth/Poverty are neither all good nor bad if the criteria we are addressing is how happy someone is with their life.