Introduction to Phenomenology Part I

In this video, Professor Thorsby introduces some of the basic problems and ideas of phenomenology.

[avi]

A new world for me. I stayed away from Heidegger till now (and Derrida! Too much name dropping!).
I come to this from Indian Idealism *and* Indian 'Realism'. That includes Advaita (nondual consciousness), Buddhist idealism (Yogacara etc), Buddhist empiricism and the Vaiseshika-Nyaya system. The last analyses perception, knowing, worldly categories of all "objects", particulars and universals, language etc.
I am so excited to discover this aspect of Western philosophy. Thanks.

[hughjasse]

Best description of phenomenology on youtube. So much of the rest just never gets to the point, or makes it clear. Good job.

[creepycrawlything]

I found watching and listening to Professor Thorsby's narrative on phenomenology, useful. I got most of my formative education in the 1960's. That shaped me and gave me a personal understanding which I've then applied and developed across personal life experience; while memory of what educated me, has fallen away pretty completely. So its helpful to have that earlier educational experience, refreshed. At the same time it leaves me conflicted. It seems to me there are two broad streams of understanding in play: the one attaching to elite settings, such as universities; the other out on the street, as it were. It does then strike me that phenomenology is an activity out on the street, as well as an activity of scholastic reflection. That may come from earlier education being sociological, where Schutz rather than Husserl was the referred to figure.
I have found the idea of philosophising as an activity of active meaning making intrinsic to being human, to be useful in supporting autistically characterised young people educationally; in seeking to experience such individuals holistically and non-reductively, in the way that Carl Rogers might, I found it helpful to bend myself to asking and answering the question, "what active meaning making or philosophising, is mediating the being and person" of this and that individual. If you give over to the hermeneutic idea radically, you might consider that an autistically characterised individual is spinning up a being from "first things" that do not figure in the constituting or mediating processes in play in a contextualising collective; where I find the example of Neitzche (and others) to lend credence to that idea (of singularity in the becoming of made meaning). Again, grateful that resource such as this videoed talk/lecture, are freely available online; much appreciated.

[reneperez]

i watch these vids on YT and i think; had i had these kinds of guys, which put completly their heart in making and putting this information out in the most kindest and clearest of ways, as a teachers i wouldnt be so ignoramous right now

[AllanM.Savage]

A worthwhile set of videos for anyone interested in phenomenological philosophy as a method of understanding oneself and one's environment. In following this series one would do well to remember Leslie Dewart's insight: "The phenomenological method, then, is not the diametric opposite of the ontological; it is a more comprehensive one than the latter, whose merits it preserves and whose inadequacies it tries to remedy." Evolution and Consciousness: The Role of Speech in the Origin and Development of Human Nature (1989:31).

[andrewreeveart]

Dear Mark, thank you for taking the time and effort to make and upload these videos. They're immensely useful for beginners and those needing recaps on philosophical ideas. Best wishes, Andy

[charliespider]

Phenomenon comes from the greek word "φαινόμενον" which in its turn comes from the verb "φαίνεσθαι". The meaning of this verb ranges from _"that which becomes apparent"_, or _"that which makes itself visible"_ to _"that which vaguely seems to be the case"_

[cat_uhhh]

years later these videos are still gold

[AviweToli]

very useful content and made easy to understand by the graphics, thanks Mark

[andersbjorkman]

Thanks alot Sir, I am a Swede studying at a Swedish university, and your lectures are great, and helpful!

[nicoles_handle]

holy!! i just found your videos and im really excited

[Brunofromaraguari]

Your videos are amazing. Congratulations from Brazil.

[istvanhorvat]

I subscribed to your channel because of this philosophical movement or whatever we call phenomenology.

[shalinastilley]

Very lucid presentation! Good stuff. Thank you!

[matthewjohnson]

I am in the Masters program for architecture and I minored in philosophy in my undergrad. My thesis is going to be on the intersection of phenomenology and architecture. Naturally my ears perked when you mention that you work with architects. I was wondering if you could explain what that relationship is like and how you found yourself working with them. Does your input find literal manifest into their design or is it really just musings? Thanks!

[michaelbarker]

This is all very interesting. I come at this with a lot more experience with meditation especially non dual traditions like Dzogchen which has a similar objective as phenomenology which is to see our experiences for "what they really are". One thing that is interesting to me is the descriptions given of first person experience not just in this video but in the other stuff that I've seen and read about phenomenology. This is where it seems aligned with a practice similar to Zen or Dzogchen but at the same time is pretty different. For instance you gave the example of holding a pen and having the experience of a 3D object. From the meditative perspective with the intent on seeing experience for what it is prior to conception (putting aside the inherent limitation and conceptual nature of words) if we are going to say anything about it we might describe the experience of holding the pen something like; There's a pattern of yellow color which is easily changed by turning it, for instance a long thin pattern as opposed to a nearly perfect circle and this pattern will grow and shrink insofar as the pattern of color that is my hand grows and shrinks." This is just meant as the most literal description of my visual field as it is actually appearing to me from my first person view. As in when I am holding the pen I can turn it around and view it at different angles which is evident because of the way the pattern of its light is morphing into various shapes and perspectives that we would intuitively think that a long cylindrical object would do. For instance when I'm viewing it from the side it looks long and thin and when I view it directly head on it appears as a circle. Then if I were to hold it close to my eyes it would appear very large and when I hold it away from my eyes it would appear much smaller which we intuitively interpret as distance and motion to and away from ourselves. Or perhaps a better way to describe all of that would be to take a video from your first person view and then just describe the video in terms of its pixel content on the screen. There would be an area of many different shades of mostly yellow pixels. The yellow pixels would take on a long cylindrical shape or a circle and would morph between these shapes as the image of the hand moves it around. It would also be represented by many more pixels if held closer to the camera and far fewer pixels if held further away. There's no actual depth on a 2d screen just as there's no actual depth that makes up our first person visual field of color and shadow.

That is just a very brief example but the most important thing is to make very clear that all we are doing is trying to describe it in as literal a way as possible from our own first person view. That if we both watched the video of the pen together we would agree on what would then be objective descriptions of the pixel content of the screen. It would just be pointing out what is there to see which is exactly the premise of traditions like Dzogchen, to just see what is always there to be seen exactly as it is.

I bring all of this up to say that it seems phenomenology is kind of in the same realm of what I just described but at the same time is very different. Especially the existential phenomenologists, that almost has no equivalent in a non-dual meditative practice. But its all very interesting. Thanks for the content!

[JRey-rerl]

I enjoyed your introduction on Phenomenology.

[NameRequiredSoHere]

Wonderfully clear explanation of difficult ideas. I also like the upgrade to Prezi (?) software vs. earlier simple whiteboard.

[dromgarvan]

Thank you very much for the video.
You made Husserl very user friendly for novices like me.

[mark.J]

Definite watch later... have read and been taught much on this and these philosophers..