Phenomenology and Andre the Giant
The philosophy of phenomenology, introduced in the late 1800's by Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), is a way to relate the phenomena of human experience with the consciousness of the self in society. In other words, by analyzing the self and the experiences that one has encountered in society, the subject will obtain a regained consciousness of who they are. In doing so, phenomenology digs into the roots of a culture's history and exposes it to the present culture or society. This increases wonder of one's surroundings and lets the subject learn more about themselves and their nation, thus strengthening nationalism and the pride of living. The past Enlightenment ideal of being an individual is readily apparent in phenomenology's pride of being. The philosophy thrives on the uniqueness of identity but adds a twist of universality of the self, thus updating an old ideal. In this way, each person's being or spirit is unique but is constructed from its many universal parts (experiences, historical cultures and past histories). The beauty of phenomenology is the contemporariness of it. The philosophy will forever remain young because it deals with consciousness in current society, through the precedent of its history. Thus, the change of phe
Unlike Husserl's strictly detailed theories, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) explored the everyday world rather than Husserl's universal world. In doing so, Heidegger related more to the people of his present society and directly advanced phenomenololgy over time. He discussed consciousness in social roles, the workplace, etc. and thus interested many sociologists. By using relevant examples to society, Heidegger interested more people to phenomenology. He describes phenomenology as "the process of letting things manifest themselves" , or more specifically, a reawakened consciousness. Heidegger's objective is to strengthen a person's consciousness of their being or spirit by questioning one's environment. Through questioning and learning, a person becomes more involved and knowledgeable about the society in which they live. Heidegger stressed that if this were not done on a grand scale, then history would degrade itself. If the "collective consciousness [of] a culture and society constructs the world historically" then without consciousness there is no history to pass to the next generation. In other words, one's unique character is the amalgamation of ancestral society and the society a person currently lives in. Through phenomenology the spirit has a historical identity, a reincarnation of your culture's spirits. This promotes nationalism and makes citizens active in their country. If citizens are clueless to the activities in their environment they are not contributing to society, in that way. Also, "by its essence, Being has history" and by not being active, a person loses the history of their being/spirit. This idea is similar to the idea of the germ theory by Charles Bonnett in 1764. The germ theory stated that all organisms contain the lineage of their race within themselves or their germ and Heidegger's theory stated that each Being contains the history of all the Beings (its culture) that make it. Bonnet contrasted Hiedegger in his "idea of universal progress" because Heidegger's theory couldn't be as broad (i.e. 'universal'). Ultimately, to Heidegger, if consciousness is lost, so is the culture and Beings that
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1439
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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