Husserl, Schutz, ?Paul? and me: Reflections on writing phenomenology

Abstract

This paper is a reflection on the boundaries of academic discourse as I came to be acutely aware of them while attempting to teach a graduate seminar in qualitative research methods. The purpose of the readings in Husserl and Schutz and the writing exercises was to assist students trained in quantitative methods and steeped in positivistic assumptions about research to write phenomenological descriptions of lived experience. "Paul" could not write the assigned papers due to a diagnosed writing "disability" but he did submit fictional stories and sketches which beautifully illustrated the concepts of Husserl and Schutz. Paul's disability presented a natural "bracketing" experiment which brought the positivistic assumptions surrounding academic research and writing to the forefront. I engaged in verbal dialogues with Paul, in which he discussed the philosophical ideas. My work with Paul highlighted the extent to which the academic lifeworld marginalizes those who seek to write from the heart, disguising even the work of those philosophers who wish to uncover direct experiences.The "crisis" of the sciences is the loss of meaning for life. (Husserl, 1970: 5)

Telaah Epistemologi Positivisme dan Fenomenologi (Sebuah Perbandingan)

“…Karena orang itu orang sering bilang, "cantik itu relatif." Bentz (1995), menyebut kesadaran ini bukan kesadaran biasa, tetapi sebuah kesadaran asal atau "the origin." Bentz menulis:…”

Janesick, Valerie J. 2015. "Contemplative Qualitative Inquiry: Practicing the Zen of Research". Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press

“…Using poetry in qualitative research makes sense, if it is generated spontaneously by the participants, if it becomes our tool for understanding its creator. If poetry is a way of expressing self and relation to the world by the participant, it certainly should be in the center of the analytical interest of the researcher (cf., Bentz 1995 where the author analyses and tries to understand the authentic and spontaneous but fictional stories by student Paul, who cannot write abstract of texts, and instead writes imagined stories). However, 1 "According to Husserl, poetry and fiction are primary aspects of phenomenological thinking.…”

Empathy! So What?

“…I am constantly writing contemplative notes; it is my way of researching the world through my mind (Konecki 2018;. I assume that the academic mind could be empathetic enough to investigate the world from the first-person perspective (Bentz 1995;Giorgino 2015;Bentz and Giorgino 2016).…”