Heterophenomenology: Heavy-handed sleight-of-hand

Abstract

We argue that heterophenomenology both over-and under-populates the intentional realm. For example, when one is involved in coping, one's mind does not contain beliefs. Since the heterophenomenologist interprets all intentional commitment as belief, he necessarily overgenerates the belief contents of the mind. Since beliefs cannot capture the normative aspect of coping and perceiving, any method, such as heterophenomenology, that allows for only beliefs is guaranteed not only to overgenerate beliefs but also to undergenerate other kinds of intentional phenomena.Key words heterophenomenology . coping skills . belief . intentionality Phenomenology faces problems concerning the content and legitimacy of its introspective reports. It would be much appreciated if Daniel Dennett's heterophenomenology could avoid them, but, while it avoids the problem of the status of introspective evidence, it turns out heterophenomenology both over and under populates the intentional realm.Husserl originally thought of phenomenology as a descriptive science of the content of everyday consciousness based on a special method of reflection. However, the very idea that phenomenological description makes available what was already implicit in everyday experience begs the question of just how much the reflective stance transforms what it allegedly articulates.Later Husserl (1960) came to realize that things are experienced differently when I am involved with them than when I reflectively bracket their existence and report my beliefs about them. He acknowledges that "therewith, to be sure, an essentially Phenom Cogn Sci (2007) 6:45-55

A Rich Landscape of Affordances

“…We may, for instance, "feel a special attraction" to the mailbox when we have to mail a letter (Gibson, 1979(Gibson, /1986. So what we can call the "demand character" or "solicitation" (Dreyfus & Kelly, 2007) of the affordance is related to the individual's current concerns (unlike the existence of the affordance). Typically, it will only be those affordances that will improve an individual's grip on the particular situation (Bruineberg & Rietveld, 2014, pp.…”

Context-Switching and Responsiveness to Real Relevance

“…We normally take for granted that we are not responsive to all affordances, but primarily to relevant affordances for us. 8 I will use the term solicitations (Dreyfus & Kelly, 2007) as a synonym for the relevant affordances that we are responsive to.…”

“…For Dreyfus and Kelly (2007) Frijda, 2007) is intrinsic to the experience of a relevant affordance. The phenomenology of responsiveness to affordances in absorbed coping suggests that the individual feels immediately attracted or drawn to act in a certain way (Dreyfus & Kelly, 2007, p. 52).…”

Enactive Affectivity, Extended

“…However, talk of affordances can also help characterize the affective nature of our lived environments. An organism's Umwelt can be seen as a landscape of valued objects and events that invite to relate to them in different ways-not just motorically, but also psychologically, as forces that "attract" or "repel" in an affective sense (see also Dreyfus and Kelly 2007;Withagen et al 2012). Thus, for example, a predator is something that compels the organism to run away, but also a desire to keep a distance, to stay away.…”

“…I think this claim is problematic, although I shall not develop this point here. See also Dreyfus and Kelly (2007) for a phenomenological take on affordances.…”