What, Briefly, Is Phenomenology?
The definition of phenomenology has often been discussed within the tradition. Space is available for very few remarks. To begin with, phenomenology can be contrasted with two other positions, notably representationalism and naturalism. While indirect experiencing via indications, depictions, and linguistic expressions is recognized in phenomenology, representationalism is rejected where perception, recollection, expectation, and the seeing of ideal objects are concerned. In these cases, no image is reflectively discernable between the mental process and its object. Then again, rather than being modeled in its metaphysics as well as epistemology on naturalistic science, phenomenology, be it mundane or transcendental, is fundamentally concerned with sociocultural life, something returned to below. Phenomenology itself is better characterized as an approach than as a set of doctrines. The method is not straightforward, but reflective, and thus it thematizes things-as-encountered as well
