Summary: The Phenomenological Method

Philosophy started studying from logic, metaphysics, cosmology, and it ends with the
philosophy man. To be able to retrieve philosophy from man, the phenomenological method
is the perfect way since man is the subject and the authenticity is needed when giving
reflections or opinions in order to gain knowledge to be philosophized. Phenomenological
Method was proposed by Edward Husserl. Husserl aimed to arrive to the idea that
“philosophy as a rigorous science.” However, Husserl was dissatisfied due to that natural
science has a lot of assumption in everything that made him shift to philosophy, he proposed
his own idea which is “the science of ultimate grounds” or “rigorous science” wherein there
will less presuppositions in Philosophy. According to Husserl, for a man to reach this kind of
philosophy, one must think beyond the box and don’t rely too much on scientific methods.
Husserl’s Phenomenological Attitude has some characteristics and these are the
following: (1) Phenomenologist analyzes as a whole before deconstructing to the smaller
parts or details, they analyzes information like an inverted triangle; from general to specific.
(2) It describes and provides every details from experiences since it is the ultimate origin of
everything. (3) It also pertains to the experiences of man because phenomenology is all about
the subjectivity of man. (4) Lastly, phenomenologists uses epoche or prevents having
assumptions to have a better understanding about everything. On the other hand,
phenomenological method has three important steps that will help man on how to acquire
this level of philosophy and these are the following steps: (1) Man should practice epoche,
that means bracketing in Husserl’s phenomenological method wherein before a man
investigate anything, he or she must remove the presuppositions about the certain thing and
to remove the scientific attitude in order to avoid prejudice. (2) Phenomenological Eidetic
Reduction states that man removes assumptions and analyzes information by breaking it to
details to find the meaning or essence of the being. (3) In Phenomenological Transcendental
Reduction, it reduces the information to pieces but through the individual’s consciousness
or point of view. In transcendental reduction, people have their own interpretations
depending on their self-evaluation so the meaning of the being is not fixed because of
different perspectives.
Since each individual is conscious about themselves, each person has the capability
to reflect on their experiences and give meaning on something. When a man reflects about
something, he or she undergoes the two levels of reflection which are the primary and
secondary reflection. Primary reflection’s foundation is scientific knowledge, wherein
objectivity is superior to subjectivity and there are variables that still affects one’s reflection.
Meanwhile secondary reflection focuses on the origin of experience, the subjectivity of man
wherein presuppositions are rejected when reflecting about the essence of the being and this
is the goal of phenomenological method.
 Why did the early philosophers didn’t think about phenomenological method earlier
wherein the knowledge that people use to philosophize are from their experience?
 Why is there a rubric when making a reflection in school when reflection should be
subjective and there shouldn’t be variables that might affect ones reflection?
 Is believing to “remove presupposition to avoid prejudice” a presupposition?