1. Identify keywords 2. identify concepts 3. synthesize 4. outline - don’t write essay for all 10 theses THESIS 1 PHENOMENOLOGY IS A WAY OF SEEING, OF GRASPING THE WORLD FROM ONE’S LIVED EXPERIENCE, AND AS A METHOD MAKES USE OF EPOCHE AND THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL REDUCTIONS (EIDETIC REDUCTION AND THE TRANSCENDENTAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL REDUCTION) TO DESCRIBE ONE’S EXPERIENCE. - Explain what phenomenology is. - Started by Edmund Husserl whose aim was to arrive at “Philosophy as a rigorous science” - Philosophy as a rigorous science meaning a presupposition-less Philosophy which is Philosophy with the least number of presuppositions - One arrives at Philosophy by transcending the “natural attitude” which is looking at reality as things or a “fact world”. The way of knowing in the natural attitude is fragmented, partial, fixed, clear, precise, manipulative, and no room for mystery. It is moving away from the heart of things. - Which is why, the motto for Husserl and the phenomenologists was “back to things themselves.” Back to things themselves, meaning the entire field of original experience. - Ultimate root of philosophy-> not to be found in a concept or in principle - Phenomenology’s attempt is to go back to the phenomenon, which presents to man, to see things as they really are, independent of any prejudice, thus phenomenology is logos of the phenomenon. - Phenomenological attitude - Posits unity before analyzing parts or aspects of this unity - By positing unity first-> faithful to original experience=> no opposition between subject and object - Phenomenologist-> describe, explicate, unfold what is already present - rich and inexhaustible reality-> description never final - Phenomenologist-> primary concern: experience with man, with the world as lived by man -> uses epoche - Explain epoche - Epoche is the bracketing of natural attitudes. - Bracketing of natural attitude towards the object I investigate… my prejudice, my clear and conceptual knowledge that is unquestioned - Do not deny nor affirm but hold abeyance; suspend judgment - see the world with “new eyes” and return to original experience - Explain eidetic reduction - eidetic reduction is the reducing of the experience to its essence wherein one may not experience if he is immersed in its entirety and details - varying the elements of the experience until one arrives at those elements which cannot be varied without making the experience a totally different one - Explain transcendental-phenomenological reduction - reducing the experience to the very activity of my consciousness - I become the conscious subject - aware of the subjective aspects of the object when I inquire into the beliefs, feelings, desires which shape the experience - object is seen in relation to the subject and vice versa - Connect points together (summarize) - Phenomenology is looking at the natural attitude of an experience. It is composed of three steps. The Epoche which is the bracketing of natural attitudes, the eidetic reduction or the reduction of an experience to its essence, and the phenomenological transcendental reduction wherein one reduces the experience to the very activity of his consciousness. - Example: Cebu is the best place to visit in the Philipines Epoche: suspend my bias for my love for Cebu Eidetic Reduction: What is it that makes Cebu the best place to visit in the Philippines? Phenomenological Transcendental Reduction: I love Cebu because I have lived there all my life
THESIS 2
Primary reflection breaks the unity of original experience. Secondary reflection, on the other hand, recaptures the unity of original experience. Secondary reflection sees the human being as incarnate subject rather than as a composite of body and soul. Thesis 9 - Man cannot be absolutely determined because we know that we are capable of choosing the determination - just because you’ve manipulated the circumstances, doesn’t mean that you will always get that outcome—a person, a subject, is still there to decide (fact of deciding) - not absolutely free because we are restricted. We are embodied however at the same time even if we are not absolutely free of determined, we have a going between which is a certain notion of situated freedom and this situated freedom tells us that we are limited by our bodies, our facticities, temporality, historicity but we are capable of transcending it that we are given in this sense both horizontal and vertical choices of realizing this freedom - authentically free by relating to others who you shared the exigency of being with, others you’re in communion with of being Thesis 10 1st sentence: horizontal freedom- capacity to act on our own to be the source of my own concrete actions and to be accountability of them - first notion of responsibility 2nd sentence: notion of vertical freedom and the second notion of responsibility -> response-ability 3rd sentence: objectively direct project of life because it holds true for all human beings because it’s entailed by our very fact of humanity. It’s self possessed because we have to be conscious of our exercise of freedom. And it’s authentic then because to be truly free is to exercise freedom responsibly to be just to the needs of others to help other realize their own freedom Useful line: The rights of all men to be free would have to be defended in order for us to discern our own personal freedom - building block for social justice
Thesis 3 1. In secondary reflection, I cannot separate my “I” from my experience in this world. Because I can never explain it without my perception, perspective 2. So then I can exist only through my body. Which is also the one that materializes me to the world. It is the intermediary of me and the world. So if I recognize my body, I have to recognize its otherness with other bodies. Thus, I am in a world with other bodies/beings. And I can only be recognized by other bodies, so if I recognize other bodies. Thus, they must also recognize my body, my existence. 3. It is through my body because it is through the manifestation of my face. 4. My body entails us to having it and it being us a. I have my body as long as I see it as an object - can be affected by other externalities - and as long as I recognize other bodies like mine, same components b. but it is true also that I can only manifest my spirit through this body - even though I have the same components as other bodies, I can definitely say that I have different spirit, because I am not them - Thus, I am me - I am my own consciousness Thesis 5 1. Human work liberates man because man can only be man through labor and in doing so human labor makes nature, nature for man - man makes everything be - it is through human labor that man is distinguished from animals because man thinks of the future and other people too - for other purposes too - animals, because man thinks of the future and other people too. In contrast to animals which are carried by their instincts, this only do labor for their “now” A. nature becomes nature for man, because as man changes nature we also change himself. Thus, him becoming his more own human through nature b. as man works he uses nature so there is an interdependence of man’s labor and nature 2. human labor can be humanizing in a sense that it gives opportunity for a human being to live, so if it gives him an opportunity to line it provides humans to exercise his humanity - human labor can also dehumanize if in doing it, humans see only the rewards he want out of labor. He then limits his existence as a means to achieve a material goal. Thus, he objectifies himself like a machine to achieve a product. - to live is to have an avenue to exercise humanity without life you have none - labor is humanizing because then you will recognize your value to other people. You can then have an avenue to socialize easily because you recognize yourselves as interdependent fellow-workers - when you recognize other’s value, you then recognize your value to them through work. So you manifest your existence then - labor since the primitive days, is a lifestyle so it becomes closely related to culture because culture is a way of living. Culture also penetrates labor because culture and labor both entails an end-goal product and sign. Even though both may be different, they both manifest the existence of humans. Sign is a manifestation directed to fellowmen, product will manifest collectively all the beings responsible for the product.
Chanchan’s Outline Thesis 1 *No longer talking about existence, about what we can know in an object
I. Phenomenology was started by Edmund Husserl a. Philosophy as a rigorous science-> presuppositionless philosophy b. Going back to original experience -> holistic, basic c. transcending natural attitudes vs. scientific attitudes II. Epoche is the bracketing of the natural attitude a. suspending judgment, prejudices, conceptual knowledge III. Eidetic reduction reduces the experience to it essence a. find the invariant of eidos of the experience IV. Transcendental-Phenomenological Reduction adds the dimension of I a. where insight is obtained through intentionality of consciousness Thesis 2 I. Reflection is a part of our life and experiences a. comes after a break-> valuable-> personal b. reflection helps one find his center-> life has a center outside itself c. richer experience, more reflective person and vice versa II. Primary reflection breaks the unity of the original experience a. instrument of scientific knowledge III. Secondary reflection is the instrument of Philosophical reflection a. recaptures unity of original experience b. seeming contradiction -> “silly feeling”-> not definite-> contingency c. other “I”s exist IV. Incarnate subject-> no separation of body and soul/consciousness a. body is an intermediary between self and world b. both a bridge and obstacle (familiarity and distance) c. I am my body/ I have my body -> body is an instrument d. parallelism of body and soul -> Cartesian: dualism of body and soul Thesis 3 I. Secondary reflection recaptures the unity of the experience a. primary reflection of “who am I” -> experiences are broken down b. However, all my lived experiences = who am I -> existence c. other somebodies exist d. touchstone of existence-> cannot deny II. Do I exist? I is seen as an object a. I exist= I manifest = I feel b. “exis-tere” -> out + stand -> Here I am! III. I cannot know myself completely -> my body a. incarnate subjectivity b. intermediary c. facticity- transcendence Thesis 4 I. I am an embodied spirit-> not only spirit but body and spirit a. I exceed the manifestations of my body b. I cannot be totally identified with my body c. No separation between me and my body II. My body -> being-in-the-world-with-others a. my body is an intermediary b. facticity-transcendence -> we were given a certain perspective c. man is a self-projecting project -> static and dynamic presence III. Temporal -> movement which continually reaches beyond itself a. time is like a river b. being-toward-the-world -> my relation to things c. time is intersubjective -> there must be a continuity for change to happen IV. Historicity-> temporality and sociality-> destiny + responsibility a. point of intersections of historical lines of events b. be conscious of limitations -> aware of possibilities c. source of creativity-> make history V. Man humanizes the world through work a. embodies spirituality in the world-> transform nature for higher purpose b. liberate ourselves from nature c. history becomes common history because of work Thesis 5 I. Man is a body-> he is limited a. needs to provide for his physical well-being -> needs to work II. Man is also a spirit a. he wrests a surplus from nature b. he transforms the surplus for higher purposes
III. Man through his work humanizes the world a. objectifying/concretizing your will/yourself b. embodies spirituality in the world -> express yourself c. liberates ourselves from nature IV. Karl Marx a. believed in material things b. it is through labor that man becomes man, and nature becomes nature c. man not only produces out of physical need but when free from it V. Humanizing/Dehumanizing * talk about alienation, functionalization, and division of labor a. humanizing -> freely produced it/emancipated -> users have to see the “maker” through product (talk about division of labor here) VI. Labor and culture cannot be separated a. an activity may be called labor or culture b. labor-> aims at work; culture-> aims at himself to express Thesis 6 Pre-modern philo: know object based on object Modern philo: turned to subject for knowledge I. Consciousness -> knowing is difficult to explain a. 2 kinds of knowledge: pre-reflective and reflective e.g. counting consciousness and consciousness of counting b. from being in the presence to placing yourself in the presence II. Consciousness is intentional -> consciousness of something aside from itself a. must be open -> directed to reality of an object b. intercourse with reality -> no reality, no perception of object III. Without the self-giving, I may only be dreaming or imagining a. foundation of objectivity; the truth of a statement b. dialectical unity of noema and noesis (object for subject)(subject of object) c. knowing is being born together “connaitre” IV. I perceive an object only from a standpoint a. reality gives itself to me only in profiles correlated with my stand point b. perceive an object against a background (field of perception) i. object is in the foreground ii. Perception of the whole thing integrated with a wider field-> horizon of more remote meanings Thesis 7 I. Knowledge is neither truth or untruth without judgment a. The copula “is” used in every judgment b. copula asserts a being’s existence c. truth is saying what is that it is II. Question of truth arises with judgment a. original truth: aletheia (unconcealdness) b. requires a certain light -> “letting be” of the meaning of things c. relationship between subject and object is dependent -> dialectical d. however, we only know as far as perception e.g. fountain e. experience-> arbiter of truth III. Historical -> never pure unconcealedness; particular phase of collective history a. truth of now integrates truth of yesterday IV. Transhistorical -> indisputable a. intersubjectivity of truth
THESIS 8 1. Human knowing is a structured whole for sensing, understanding and judging. They are distinct but whole because they will destroy knowing if one is omitted. It is materially dynamic because it can be composed of not only materials. It is formally dynamic because it can produce itself.
2. Unrestricted intention is when the objectivity in potency is practiced omnipotently because humans think. It is in the human’s nature to think. When he stops to do so, he becomes unhuman. His intention to think is always unrestricted. 3. Pensee pensante entails us to be thinking of an object, because objects can not intend an object. A subject should be a subject to an object. Humans are always to be a subject because humans are the ones who ought to know. Unconditioned result entails that the result should have met the conditions presented by the world and the knower, the subject. In the reflection of knowledge, human try to know the good or how to achieve successful lives. 4. Knowing the self, we see that the self constitutes itself and never finish. We should then invite other to know the objectivity of knowing, to reflect on authentic living because for life to be authentic and good, we need to share it and invite others to be living good too. In reflective knowing, we need to know what the knowledge is for and knowledge should always be for betterment of self and others. Thesis 9 - Man cannot be absolutely determined because we know that we are capable of choosing the determination - just because you’ve manipulated the circumstances, doesn’t mean that you will always get that outcome—a person, a subject, is still there to decide (fact of deciding) - not absolutely free because we are restricted. We are embodied however at the same time even if we are not absolutely free of determined, we have a going between which is a certain notion of situated freedom and this situated freedom tells us that we are limited by our bodies, our facticities, temporality, historicity but we are capable of transcending it that we are given in this sense both horizontal and vertical choices of realizing this freedom - authentically free by relating to others who you shared the exigency of being with, others you’re in communion with of being Thesis 10 1st sentence: horizontal freedom- capacity to act on our own to be the source of my own concrete actions and to be accountability of them - first notion of responsibility 2nd sentence: notion of vertical freedom and the second notion of responsibility -> response-ability 3rd sentence: objectively direct project of life because it holds true for all human beings because it’s entailed by our very fact of humanity. It’s self possessed because we have to be conscious of our exercise of freedom. And it’s authentic then because to be truly free is to exercise freedom responsibly to be just to the needs of others to help other realize their own freedom Useful line: The rights of all men to be free would have to be defended in order for us to discern our own personal freedom - building block for social justice
