About phenomenology, Simon Blackburn wrote in his Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy:
«Phenomenology A term that emerged in the 18th century, in the writings of Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-77) and Kant to denote the description of consciousness of its intentional content (see INTENTIONALITY). In Hegel, phenomenology is instead the historical enquiry into the evolution of self-consciousness, developing from elementary sense experience to fully rational, free, thought processes capable of yielding knowledge. The term in the 20th century is associated with the work and school of Husserl. Following Brentano, Husserl realized that intentionality was the distinctive mark of consciousness, and saw in it a concept capable of overcoming traditional mind-body dualism. The study of consciousness, therefore, maintains two sides: a conscious experience can be regarded as an element in a stream of consciousness, but also as a representative of one aspect or “profile” of an object. In spite of Husserl ´s rejection of dualism, his belief that there is a subject-matter remaining after “epoché” or bracketing of the content of experience, associates him with the priority accorded to elementary experiences in the parallel doctrine of phenomenalism., and phenomenology has partly suffered from the eclipse of that approach to problems of approach to problems of experience and reality. However, later phenomenologists, such as Merleau-Ponty, do full justice to the world-involving nature of experience. In a different usage, the phenomenology of a subject (such as religion) is the study of what it means to pursue a particular form of life, regardless of whether anything that is said in following it out is true or false.» (Simon Blackburn, Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, page 275, Oxford press, 2005).
Let´ s explain two fundamental critics to the content of this article. First, opposite to the speech of Blackburn, Husserl does not reject dualism: he, just like Descartes, suspends the existence of external world, characterized by continuous changes and movement, to “photograph” the quiet essences of things. The rejection of dualism is merely instantaneous, not definitive, in Descartes as in Husserl.
Second, phenomenology is not characterized in this article on ontological level by Simon Blackburn: in fact, despite the ignorance of Blackburn, phenomenology is placed between realism and idealism, is the third ontological position, as Heidegger postulated. This is not theorized by Blackburn in the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy and in any of his books (at least to my knowledge).
I sustain that phenomenology is phenomenalism added or distorted with a metaphysical description in some aspects. Blackburn seems to be absolutely ignorant about this. He has lack of theorist visualization as many academics of the so called “Analytic philosophy” – only some confused minds sustain that «analytic philosophy» is clearer than «continental philosophy». The term analytic has not magic proprieties. The analysis is not only a question of internal coherence of concepts and propositions but is also a question of external correct reference to ideal or material objects.
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