Phenomenological Psychology as a Human Science
Start Date
August 2024
End Date
August 2024
Location
ALT 207
Abstract
What is consciousness? This question has been the source of many important findings in both philosophical contemplation and scientific research for centuries. René Descartes’ famous cogito argument (“I think, therefore I am”) provided psychologists with a philosophical foundation for the view that human consciousness consists in the ability of the mind to relate to itself in self-awareness. Descartes’ separation of the mind from the body also influenced the late 19th century German distinction between Naturwissenschaften (the natural sciences) and Geistwissenschaften (the human sciences.)
In the early 20th century, the founder of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl, used his background in mathematics and physics to propose a method to identify the a priori correlation between mind and reality. This school of thought proved to be an important crossroads in the relationship between philosophy and psychology, the latter of which had shifted from a science concerned with the intangible, to one driven by data and statistics.
It was not until the work of Duquesne University psychologist, Amadeo Giorgi, in the 1970s, that the methodical scope of psychological research broadened to include the intrinsic relation of consciousness to an object outside of itself, and not just the material components of consciousness, like neuroscience. The purpose of this presentation is to show how someone like Giorgi has helped contemporary psychologists grasp consciousness as a totality, which is irreducible to its material parts.
Phenomenological Psychology as a Human Science
ALT 207
What is consciousness? This question has been the source of many important findings in both philosophical contemplation and scientific research for centuries. René Descartes’ famous cogito argument (“I think, therefore I am”) provided psychologists with a philosophical foundation for the view that human consciousness consists in the ability of the mind to relate to itself in self-awareness. Descartes’ separation of the mind from the body also influenced the late 19th century German distinction between Naturwissenschaften (the natural sciences) and Geistwissenschaften (the human sciences.)
In the early 20th century, the founder of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl, used his background in mathematics and physics to propose a method to identify the a priori correlation between mind and reality. This school of thought proved to be an important crossroads in the relationship between philosophy and psychology, the latter of which had shifted from a science concerned with the intangible, to one driven by data and statistics.
It was not until the work of Duquesne University psychologist, Amadeo Giorgi, in the 1970s, that the methodical scope of psychological research broadened to include the intrinsic relation of consciousness to an object outside of itself, and not just the material components of consciousness, like neuroscience. The purpose of this presentation is to show how someone like Giorgi has helped contemporary psychologists grasp consciousness as a totality, which is irreducible to its material parts.
