Issues about Thinking Phenomenologically while Doing Phenomenology

Abstract

Th is methodological article explores issues related to having the ontological ground for phenomenological empirical research present throughout the research process. We discuss how ontology needs to be taken into consideration regarding the phenomena to be studied and how ontological aspects of phenomena need to be highlighted during various data collection and analysis procedures. Here, we discuss how philosophical works can be used in the context of specific research projects. In illustrating our statements, we present four empirical examples connected to the themes of life changes and learning processes with the purpose of exemplifying and discussing how general lifeworld ontology can be integrated as an active resource in empirical phenomenological research.

Meanings of existential uncertainty and certainty for people diagnosed with cancer and receiving palliative treatment: a life-world phenomenological study

“…The present study is a secondary aim of a larger project about information provision among people receiving palliative cancer care [28,29,31] where the fieldwork was informed by life-world phenomenology [12,32]. The analysis was performed according to hermeneutic interpretive principles out of Ricoeur’s theory of interpretation in three inter-related steps: naïve reading, structural analysis and interpreted whole [33-35].…”

“…According to Heidegger [10], to exist as a human means “being-in-the-world”; an integration of the life and the world. Merleau-Ponty [11] further developed this ambivalent and complex relationship as an embodied existence where the lived body is regarded as the starting-point for our experiences and actions [12]. Hence, to live in health and illness means to exist with body (breast, digestion), emotions (fear, happiness), thoughts (understanding, beliefs), social connections (family, friends) and more [13].…”

“It gave me something big in my life to wonder and think about which took over the space … and not MS”: managing well-being in multiple sclerosis through art-making

“…Resistance seems to be a common strategy among people attempting to live positively with MS, perhaps because there is relatively little effective medical treatment available [40]. Art-making offered opportunities not only for resisting the impact of MS but for achieving positive personal development.…”

Presenting phenomenology: faithfully recreating the lived experiences of Surfer Girls

“…In its literal sense, life-world is the uniting of life, as in living beings, and the world. Life and the world are interdependent; they are mutually dependent on one another (Berndtsson, Claesson, Friberg, and Oehlen 2007). In phenomenological terms, there is a phenomenon only if the subject experiencing it is present.…”

“…The concept of the life-world takes meaningful presence within the overall history and development of the phenomenological movement. What Husserl introduced as Lebenswelt, other phenomenologists also referred to as In der Welt sein (being in the world: Martin Heidegger), etre au monde (being in the world: Maurice Merleau-Ponty), and the everyday lifeworld (Alfred Schutz; Berndtsson, Claesson, Friberg, and Oehlen 2007).…”