Chapter 3: Knowledge Phenomenology & Hermeneutics

1. Chapter 3: KnowledgePhenomenology & Hermeneutics Introducing Philosophy, 10th edition Robert C. Solomon, Kathleen Higgins, and Clancy Martin

2. Phenomenology • Phenomenology is the study of the essential structures of the human mind • Because these structures are essential, they can be known to be true, universally and necessarily

3. Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) • German-Czech philosopher and mathematician who was the founder of phenomenology, a modern form of rational intuitionism • With Gottlob Frege, he fought against the empiricist view of necessary truth defended by John Stuart Mill and developed an alternative view in which matters of necessity are not matters of ordinary experience but rather of a special kind of intuition • His best-known works are Ideas (Vol. 1) (1913) and Cartesian Meditations (1931)

4. New kind of rationalist: the truths of arithmetic and geometry are known, with certainty, by an appeal to a certain kind of intuition, which he called essential intuition • Argues against Dilthey: historicism degenerates into “extreme skeptical subjectivism” • Using Kant’s terminology, Husserl attempted to develop a transcendental phenomenology that would discover the basic rules of all experience • Because these essential rules of consciousness are the only ones we use to “constitute” our world, they become our new anchor for truth

5. Hermeneutics • Old term for interpretation, with an eye to getting at the Truth • In philosophy, it now refers to the discipline of interpreting and understanding the world, which becomes, in effect, our text, and different cultures’ views of the world

6. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) • German phenomenologist and student of Edmund Husserl whose rebellion against his teacher began the “existential” movement in phenomenology • His best-known work is Being and Time (1927) • Although focusing on metaphysics and phenomenology, this work is also one of the first existentialist studies of “human nature”

7. Life is like a text, and the purpose of our lives is to understand that text • Heidegger was a student of Husserl and was thus a phenomenologist • But in his hermeneutical phenomenology he tries to “uncover” the hidden meanings in the structures of life itself, including our sense of history, which defines human life

8. Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) • Until his death was the leading German promoter of hermeneutics • Hermeneutics must resist the temptation to become a method • Does not reject the notion of truth but discards the idea that there is a Truth wholly outside of us that we need a method to discover • Insists truth must be understood historically, within a tradition, and asks “Do we need to justify what has always supported us?”

9. Hermeneutics and Solidarity:Richard Rorty • American philosopher and public intellectual, currently teaching at Stanford University • Associates “solidarity” with “pragmatism,” contrasting it with the traditional notion of objectivity • Pragmatic theory of truth: truth has a moral standard—the solidarity of a community—rather than a metaphysical one, which is objectivity

10. Truth defined as “what is morally best for our community to believe” • Our metaphysical theory of “truth” has political overtones • The belief that there is one single truth can lead to condescension and disrespect toward people who believe differently from oneself

11. The Analytic Turn:Bertrand Russell and W. V. Quine • Russell: a British philosopher and one of the founders of the analytic movement • Argues for a “common-sense” theory of truth • “Minds do not create truth and falsehood . . . what makes a belief true is a corresponding fact”

12. Quine: American analytic philosopher • Associates epistemology with natural science • Sees language, and the study of our language, as inherent to our knowledge of the world

13. Feminist Epistemology • Not just a social movement for equality • Women’s knowledge is different from men’s • Knowledge is not gender-neutral • Knowledge is defined by males—patriarchal—and entrenched in our language