The next meeting of the IAP-UNCA joint program will be held on December 6, 2000, Wednesday evening at 7:30 PM. Our subject for the evening will revolve around the question: "What does it mean to be a citizen?" "What is political philosophy?" The talk will be presented by John McClain, Ph.D. from the department of philosophy of UNCA.

Our last meeting, Duane Davis covered the topic of Phenomenology. He provided a brief overview of the history, major figures and dominant themes in phenomenology. The roots of phenomenology arose from the fields of psychology and mathematics, beginning with Franz Brentano and Edmund Husserl. Phenomenology is an analysis of the way things are perceived! It arose out of the attempt to provide a different approach to the sciences. It attempted to give an account of 'phenomena' and the way things are perceived. Brentano offered an empirical basis for psychology founding it on the fact that all phenomena arise 'through the senses'. Consciousness is intentional, that is, consciousness is always 'about' something. We are always conscious 'of' something. He questioned: 'how is consciousness related to the world?'

Edmund Husserl, a German mathematician, thought he saw a way to analyze how psyche is related to the world from the ideas of Brentano. He offered a new science, a science of the sciences, called Phenomenology. Consciousness is related to the world by 'intentionality'. Intentionality is that relatedness because consciousness always has an object. But each object of consciousness is perceived by biased observers. We all carry presuppositions which alter our perceptions. He offered a mechanism whereby all presuppositions are set aside, bracketed, so that their roles are diminished. He noted that consciousness has a temporal component; subject and object are both temporal. He struggled for certainty in his extensive works and tried to provide a logic to account for the relationship between consciousness and the world.

Husserl questioned how one consciousness could recognize the consciousness of others. If mind, psyche and experience are all internal, how do we account

for the ability to recognize other consciousnesses? Answer: consciousness is empathetic. It is predisposed to recognize other consciousnesses. Some ideas from existentialism influenced phenomenology because of the emphasis on the individual, on individual perceptions and choices which give unique meaning to each person's life. Husserl offered that one's unique perspective and perceptions gives the world unique meaning for that consciousness.

Martin Heidegger wrote "Being and Time", considered one of the most profound writings of the 20th Century. It was a radical departure from phenomenology of Husserl. Heidegger 'existentialized and relativized' phenomenology, opposing the certainty that Husserl sought. He offered that there is no pure transparent knowing. We never get to the truth. Phenomena have an appearance which means they arise from a perspective. Thus appearance is relative. He also asked: "What is the meaning of being?" He offered that being means to care about things. One's consciousness is related to things about which one cares. The real meaning of existence has to do with temporality. The meaning of being is time!

Maurice Merleau Ponty was trained as a psychologist and was interested in perception. He felt the quest for apodictic knowledge was a failure and was futile. No complete reproduction of knowledge was possible. He emphasized that 'we have bodies'. Our bodies, actions and movements conform to the world, through bodily intentionality.

The question remains: Can phenomenology provide an alternative basis for science, a different method? It seems that phenomenological language may be useful for a material-based science, for matter. However, it may not be able to provide answers for non-physical phenomena such as psychology. In addition, could phenomenology be a psychology of experience?

If you understood all of this, you are smarter than me! I hope to see you all on Wed. to deal with a more mundane matter (or is that non-matter?). Al Iosue