Experimenting with phenomenology. Philosophy and Cognitive Science

Shaun Gallagher

Canisius College,
Buffalo, New York
gallaghr@canisius.edu


Abstract

I outline two positive ways to employ phenomenological procedures in scientific experiments on consciousness.  The first is based on Varela's notion of neurophenomenology and involves the training of experimental subjects (Varela, 1996).  Following this approach phenomenological methods have been directly and productively incorporated into the protocol of experiments on perception in Lutz et al (2002).  Such procedures hold great promise for specific types of experiments, including those that use neuroimaging.  A second approach may have wider application and does not involve training experimental subjects in phenomenological method.  It involves front-loading phenomenological insights into experimental design (Gallagher, 2003).   I review several experiments that have, or that could have employed distinctions and insights developed in phenomenological analyses to inform their protocol.

Experimenting with phenomenology in the sense of using phenomenological method or insight in scientific experiments also involves experimenting with the very notion of phenomenology as found in the philosophical tradition initiated by Husserl.  In light of the actual empirical use that is being made of phenomenology I revisit the ongoing debate about how phenomenology can be naturalized (e.g., Petitot, et al., 1999; Braddock, 2001).  I suggest that naturalizing the phenomenological method on the neurophenomenological model is, from the phenomenological perspective, more problematic than naturalizing phenomenological results.

Keywords:
phenomenology, neurophenomenology, naturalization

References:
Braddock, G. 2001, Beyond reflection in naturalized phenomenology.  Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8 (11): 3-16.
Gallagher, S. 2003-in press. Phenomenology and experimental design.  Journal of Consciousness Studies.
Lutz, A., Lachaux, J.-P., Martinerie, J., and Varela, F. J. (2002), Guiding the study of brain dynamics using first-person data: Synchrony patterns correlate with on-going conscious states during a simple visual task. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA: 99, 1586-1591.
Petitot, J. Varela, F. Pachoud, B. and Roy, J-M. (eds). (1999), Naturalizing Phenomenology.  Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Varela, F. (1996), Neurophenomenology : A Methodological Remedy to the Hard Problem. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3: 330-50.