Phenomenology
Phenomenology is a method of perception. It is a way of consciously experiencing the world. Working phenomenologically, with an allowing of a direct perception, a direct sensory experience of the world, is what is described as working with ‘what is’, with what comes up directly in one’s consciousness. This way of working allows the consciousness to be without the limits that judgments or preconceptions will put in the way of direct perception; it allows an acceptance of 'what is'.
Husserl and Heidegger
This method of perceiving was first developed by Edmund Husserl and later by Heidegger who is Bert Hellinger's favoured philosopher. In the 1930s phenomenology travelled to France and intertwined with the existentialism of Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and others.
In the act of perceiving phenomenologically, assumptions and previous experience are ‘bracketed’ therefore expectations of a desired outcome are also suspended. So the perception is conscious and direct, and about the actual experience, unburdened by judgements and previous assumptions.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Merleau-Ponty took the phenomenological stance further. In Phenomenology of Perception (2005) he focuses on the body and perception, of how we experience our bodies in the world.
He talks of the functional relationships of physics, which he feels does not adequately describe the way we experience the world, which is through the body and all the senses. He talks rather of a consciousness as being a perceptual consciousness, as that of existing in the world, through actual patterns of action and experience.
Husserl and Heidegger
This method of perceiving was first developed by Edmund Husserl and later by Heidegger who is Bert Hellinger's favoured philosopher. In the 1930s phenomenology travelled to France and intertwined with the existentialism of Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and others.
In the act of perceiving phenomenologically, assumptions and previous experience are ‘bracketed’ therefore expectations of a desired outcome are also suspended. So the perception is conscious and direct, and about the actual experience, unburdened by judgements and previous assumptions.
‘Real meaning for the phenomenologist is to be derived by examining the individual’s relationship with and reactions to these real-world events.’ The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology (1985)
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Merleau-Ponty took the phenomenological stance further. In Phenomenology of Perception (2005) he focuses on the body and perception, of how we experience our bodies in the world.
‘I have the world as an incomplete individual, through the agency of my body as the potentiality of this world, .... because my body is a movement towards the world, and the world my body’s point of support.’ Merleau-Ponty (2005 p. 408)
He talks of the functional relationships of physics, which he feels does not adequately describe the way we experience the world, which is through the body and all the senses. He talks rather of a consciousness as being a perceptual consciousness, as that of existing in the world, through actual patterns of action and experience.