Phenomenology is halfway between theories and experiments.
The concept of phenomenology has several uses in the field of philosophy . The first meaning mentioned by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) in its dictionary refers to the theory of phenomena .
Between theory and experiment
A phenomenon , in this framework, is what a subject perceives and which, therefore, appears in his or her consciousness . Phenomenology is understood as the establishment of relationships between various empirical observations that allow the generation of knowledge in line with a theory.
Phenomenology, in this case, is halfway between theories and experiments . It does not derive directly from theories although it is consistent with them, and at the same time it presents a higher level of abstraction than experiments.
Husserl's Phenomenology
Phenomenology, on the other hand, is a method devised by the German Edmund Husserl to access the essence of entities through their description . For Husserl , by describing what is available through intuition, it is possible to capture its essence, which goes beyond one's own consciousness.
Husserl 's phenomenology, known as transcendental phenomenology , seeks to expose how reality presents itself in people's subjectivity . For this it aims to discover and detail what its essential structures are.
Hegel's Phenomenology
The notion of phenomenology also appears in the work of another German philosopher: Friedrich Hegel . According to Hegel , phenomenology is the spiritual dialectic that makes it possible to achieve absolute knowledge based on sensible knowledge.
This phenomenology assumes that, by knowing the phenomena fully, one can build an awareness of absolute truth. In fact, Hegel presented the foundations of absolute idealism in a work entitled "Phenomenology of Spirit."
Phenomenology of perception
Another important name in this framework is Maurice Merleau-Ponty , a philosopher born in France in 1908 who was considerably influenced by the work of Edmund Husserl. In 1945, he published his work Phenomenology of Perception . In it he discussed several topics, such as the perception of color , which he states has a variation correlative to that of lighting and the surface of the elements that are arranged in the perceptual field.
In other words, according to Merleau-Ponty's theory we cannot speak of a pure perception of colors, but rather they appear linked to the objects that display them and their lighting. Color can also be associated with other properties of things, as is the case with certain fruits and their flavors. Furthermore, although they present different shades throughout the day, depending on the place where they are located and the light conditions, the perception of their color remains stable for us: we always think that the lemon is yellow. , the tomato is red and the broccoli is green.
We always associate lemon with the color yellow, although it has other nuances.
Within this conception of phenomenology, we also find a section about the experience of perception itself , which according to the French author is always made up of structures. These are various parts and their respective relationships, which are made up of smaller ones, so that the unit of perception (or sensation ) is in itself a structure .
On the other hand, it deals with the natural world , things like the sky, which were not created by human beings nor are they directly related to their bodies, although it is through them that we can perceive them. Although at first this statement seems to present nature and artifacts as opposites, Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology places them in the natural world because they are part of our environment.