Introduction to Phenomenology

The question of what phenomenology is and what it does seems to be a relatively straight-forward question with a rather complex answer. In his Introduction to Phenomenology, Robert Sokolowski states that "phenomenology offers the pleasure of philosophy for those who wish to enjoy it" (15). This is a very fundamental and basic sentence, but nonetheless extremely important in the philosophy of phenomenology. In order to truly understand the importance of this simple sentence however, one must first understand the difference between our two most fundamental and essential attitudes/perspectives that we take on in our lives. These two attitudes are that of the natural attitude and that of the phenomenological attitude. While a distinction between these two attitudes is fundamentally necessary to the practice of phenomenology, the two attitudes are also interdependent of each other and cannot exist without the other.

Through the doctrine of intentionality, phenomenology portrays the idea that everything we do is based on intentions. Every minute that we spend in our natural attitude is based on intentionality. When we walk into a room we intend and we perceive what we see to be true at that moment. Sokolowski states that "the manner in which we accept things in the world, and the world itself, is one of beliefÐ'...doxa" (45). It is this fundamental belief in the reality of the things that we perceive that fills the natural attitude. Another idea presented by Sokolowski stems from the idea of the Ur-doxa. This is "the belief we have in the world as a wholeÐ'...not just a belief but the basic beliefÐ'...[which] is not subject to correction or refutation the way any particular belief is" (45). Here Sokolowski begins to discredit the Cartesian and Lockean belief in the public-ness of mind or the bias against the reality of the appearance of things. Through the natural attitude and the Ur-doxa and doxa, we are able to perceive the things presented to us as being true and real. Our basic belief in the world as well as the things we perceive to be in the world is fundamental to life and the natural attitude.

Phenomenology is mostly an attempt to relieve the confusion of many modern philosophies that attempt to disprove the realities that we perceive in our world. Its distinction between the natural attitude and the phenomenological attitude is precisely what gives phenomenology the ability to do this. In the natural attitude we perceive and we take things to be true and real: "we intend things, situations, facts, and any other kinds of objects" (42). The natural attitude is our default attitude according to phenomenology. It makes up our everyday actions and intentions. When we see food and eat it, we have intended those objects and actions through our natural attitude. In a way, the natural attitude is simply human nature. We see a fire and intend that it is hot. We do not need to test its heat because we have likely already done that at some point in our lives and no longer need to test the reality of the heat or the fire. In our natural attitude we are able to take things for what they are and act upon our intentions.

The phenomenological attitude, on the other hand, goes beyond these natural instincts or the natural attitude that we spend the majority of our lives in: "[it] is the focus we have when we reflect upon the natural attitude and all the intentionalities that occur within it" (42). The phenomenological attitude allows us to withdraw from the natural attitude and reflect upon what we have perceived or intended in our natural state. Through the phenomenological attitude we gain the ability to understand the three formal structures of the world: parts and wholes, identity in a manifold, and presence and absence. These three structures are the basis for our reflection upon the natural attitude while in the phenomenological attitude. They give us the ability to understand differences, identities, and forms as they are intended in the natural world. Because perception is infinite, we must use the phenomenological attitude to understand the differences between the parts of an object and the object as a whole, the manifold of identities that may be found in one particular object, and the ability to intend things that are present at any given moment or absent to us our entire lives.

Through the distinction between these two attitudes, phenomenology basically allows one to enter into a philosophical realm of thinking without having to clutter the mind with questions of what is real and what is simply false perception. Phenomenology is fundamentally the act of moving into the phenomenological attitude in which one can reflect on the formal structures found in every object in the world. While most modern philosophies clutter the ability to think philosophically