neurophenomenology

The label was coined by C. Laughlin, J. McManus and E. d'Aquili in 1990.{{cite book | last=Laughlin | first=Charles | title=Brain, symbol & experience : toward a neurophenomenology of human consciousness | publisher=New Science Library | location=Boston, Mass | year=1990 | isbn=978-0-87773-522-9 | oclc=20759009}} However, the term was appropriated and given a distinctive understanding by the cognitive neuroscientist Francisco Varela in the mid-1990s,{{cite journal |last1=Varela |first1=F.J. |title=Neurophenomenology: a methodological remedy for the hard problem |journal=Journal of Consciousness Studies |date=1 April 1996 |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=330–349 |url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imp/jcs/1996/00000003/00000004/718 }} whose work has inspired many philosophers and neuroscientists to continue with this new direction of research.

Phenomenology is a philosophical method of inquiry of everyday experience. The focus in phenomenology is on the examination of different phenomena (from Greek, phainomenon, "that which shows itself") as they appear to consciousness, i.e. in a first-person perspective. Thus, phenomenology is a discipline particularly useful for understanding how it is that appearances present themselves to us and how it is that we attribute meaning to them.[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Phenomenology]Gallagher, S. and Zahavi, D. 2008. The Phenomenological Mind. London: Routledge, Chapter 2.

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the brain, and deals with the third-person aspects of consciousness.{{cite web |title=Neuroscience |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/medlineplus/neuroscience |website=c.merriam-webster.com |access-date=21 July 2021}} Some scientists studying consciousness believe that the exclusive utilization of either first- or third-person methods will not provide answers to the difficult questions of consciousness.{{cite book |editor-last1=Engel |editor-first1=Andreas K. |editor-last2=Friston |editor-first2=Karl J. |editor-last3=Kragic |editor-first3=Danica |title=The Pragmatic Turn: Toward Action-Oriented Views in Cognitive Science. |date=2016 |publisher=MIT Press}}

Historically, Edmund Husserl is regarded as the philosopher whose work made phenomenology a coherent philosophical discipline with a concrete methodology in the study of consciousness, namely the epoche. Husserl, who was a former student of Franz Brentano, thought that in the study of mind it was extremely important to acknowledge that consciousness is characterized by intentionality, a concept often explained as "aboutness"; consciousness is always consciousness of something. A particular emphasis on the phenomenology of embodiment was developed by philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty in the mid-20th century.

Naturally, phenomenology and neuroscience find a convergence of common interests. However, primarily because of ontological disagreements between phenomenology and philosophy of mind, the dialogue between these two disciplines is still a very controversial subject.[http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/chalmersdeb3dft.htm Debate Between D. Chalmers and D. Dennett: The Fantasy of First-Person Science] Husserl himself was very critical towards any attempt to "naturalizing" philosophy, and his phenomenology was founded upon a criticism of empiricism, "psychologism", and "anthropologism" as contradictory standpoints in philosophy and logic.[https://www.iep.utm.edu/husserl/ Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Edmund Husserl]{{Cite book |editor1-last= Carel |editor1-first= Havi |editor2-last= Meachem |editor2-first= Darian|date= 2013 |title= Phenomenology and Naturalism: Examining the Relationship between Human Experience and Nature |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn= 9781107699052}}

• {{cite journal |author=Evan Thompson |date=7 October 2014 |title=Phenomenology and Naturalism: Examining the Relationship between Human Experience and Nature |type=Review |url=https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/phenomenology-and-naturalism-examining-the-relationship-between-human-experience-and-nature/ |journal=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews}} The influential critique of the ontological assumptions of computationalist and representationalist cognitive science, as well as artificial intelligence, made by philosopher Hubert Dreyfus has marked new directions for integration of neurosciences with an embodied ontology. The work of Dreyfus has influenced cognitive scientists and neuroscientists to study phenomenology and embodied cognitive science and/or enactivism. One such case is neuroscientist Walter Freeman, whose neurodynamical analysis has a marked Merleau-Pontyian approach.{{Cite web |url=http://www.class.uh.edu/cogsci/dreyfus.html |title=Hubert Dreyfus 'Intelligence Without Representation: Merleau-Ponty's Critique of Mental Representation' |access-date=2008-11-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201043727/http://www.class.uh.edu/cogsci/dreyfus.html |archive-date=2008-12-01 |url-status=dead }}

• Antonio Damasio
• Autopoiesis
• Biogenetic structuralism
• Biosemiotics
• Embodied cognition
• Francisco Varela
• Hubert Dreyfus
• Neurosemiotics
• Walter Freeman

{{reflist}}

• {{cite journal |author-last=MacLennan |author-first=Bruce J. |date=April 2019 |title=Neurophenomenology and Neoplatonism |editor-last=Finamore |editor-first=John F. |editor-link=John Finamore |journal=The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition |location=Leiden and Boston |publisher=Brill Publishers on behalf of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=51–67 |doi=10.1163/18725473-12341422 |s2cid=171757240 |eissn=1872-5473 |issn=1872-5082}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Andrieu |first1=Bernard |title=Brains in the Flesh: Prospects for a Neurophenomenology |journal=Janus Head |volume=9 |issue=1 |year=2006 |url=http://janushead.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Andrieu.pdf }}
• {{cite book |last1=Petitot |first1=Jean |title=Naturalizing Phenomenology: Issues in Contemporary Phenomenology and Cognitive Science |date=1999 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-3610-7 }}

{{Wikibooks|Consciousness studies}}

• {{webarchive |date=2012-02-18 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218210013/http://lgxserve.ciseca.uniba.it/lei/mind/topics/00000032.htm |title=Eugenio Borrelli page: Phenomenology and Cognitive Science}}
• [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Phenomenology]
• [http://www.franzreichle.ch/images/Francisco_Varela/Human_Consciousness_Articles.htm Francisco Varela's Articles on Neurophenomenology and First-person Methods]
• {{webarchive |date=2012-12-09 |url=https://archive.today/20121209154959/http://www.imprint.co.uk/pdf/1263.PDF |title=Michael Winkelman}}
• [http://www.neurophenomenology.com http://www.neurophenomenology.com]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081201043727/http://www.class.uh.edu/cogsci/dreyfus.html Hubert Dreyfus 'Intelligence Without Representation: Merleau-Ponty's Critique of Mental Representation']
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081201154342/http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/chalmersdeb3dft.htm Debate Between D. Chalmers and D. Dennett: The Fantasy of First-Person Science]

{{Neuroscience}}

{{Philosophy of mind}}

{{Consciousness}}

Category:Consciousness

Category:Neurophilosophy

Category:Neuropsychology

Category:Phenomenology