Phenomenology

Liz Smythe

of banana’s, chairs, mountains and roses

Noun: A plant allied to the plantain, with soft luscious fruit

epistemology

What does this tell you?Is this the meaning of a banana?

concept

Does the representation of the concept give you all there is to know?

getting nearer to the ‘thing in itself”

Is a picture of the ‘real thing’ the same as the ‘real thing’?

Edmund Husserl1959-1938

Mathematician2A=h(a-b)

“Back to the things themselves”Numbers are an abstraction,Not the “thing itself”

Need to uncoverthe “essence”

What is the essence of our experience of bananas,without which they would not be bananas?

From banana’s to chairs

Essence of a chairEssence of a chair

What are the things about a chairthat make it a chairwithout whichit could not bea chair?

What is the chairness of the chair?

What are the things that are irrelevant to the notionof chair?

Essence of a chairEssence of a chair

Edmund Husserl

Mathematician2A=h(a-b)

BracketingPut everything you already know about‘something’out of your mindand then study itas if for the first time.

Mathematician2A= h (a+b)

BracketingPut everything you already know about‘something’ out of your mind and then study it as if for the first time

How easy is that to do?

Martin Heidegger1889 - 1976

The interpretive turnOntology

Martin Heidegger1889 - 1976

Who was the man? This is an exploration each person needs to make for themselves.

We know banana’sin our experience of

• eating a banana• wanting a banana• finding a banana• seeing a banana• smelling a banana• not having a banana

Our meaning of a banana is alwaysfound within specific experience,Informed by everything we already knowabout bananas.

ontology(Heidegger)

A chair is a chair for ….sitting in to relaxsitting at my deskstanding on to reach the top cupboard

It is always a chair in the context of ‘Dasein’or being-there.

We know our experience of chairs through ‘being’ in chairs

Chairness of the chair

The chair as lived

Gadamer1900-2002

Understanding is interpretation, and is always ‘my’ interpretation

Its meaning in my life may have nothing to do with

‘sitting on’.

I have a chair by my bed that is for

stacking my pile of books on.

What is the meaning of the chairs in your life?

The hermeneutic ‘as’ … Chair as…

All the ‘prejudices’ we bring to understanding

DASEIN: Being-there Openness

Fundamental to phenomenology

Phenomenon: the experience of walking the mountain

The experience starts with what comes before, preparing for, thinking ahead

It brings to mind every other experience of walking this mountain, remembering how the weather can change (foresight-Heidegger, prejudice-Gadamer)

‘They say’not to go on the Mountain withoutthe right gear

Time (ontic)is the time the sign says this walk will take;Measured time,‘Watch’ time.

Dasein is about everythingIs is always already

Time (ontological) is the long moment of holding the smile

Walking is forgotten in the ease of simply following a path

It is a with-other experienceWith those left behindstill with us in their absence

What is to come is part of the moment of ‘now’

Space is vast…

It is the face that revealsthe recovering leg injury

One’s feet ‘walk’ without thoughtThey are ready-to-handUntil one slips… and suddenly they are called to our attention (present to hand) in the unready-to-handness of a sprained ankle

Time is ‘how long will it take’ before the weather changes, time is experienced as mood.

Going along is a solitary-together experience, each in her own Dasein, in her own experience, with her own understandings

Mood is always already there, impacted by everything around us and within us.

Yet, mood can change in a flash.Mood ‘is’

Going along is to be within one’s own thoughts,Which may be far removed from the mountain

Or, it is paying particular attention to something that captures one

Or it is to simply be-there, open to the sun on one’s back, but not seeing the grey cloud behind.

Dasein can never encompass ‘everything’; something always remains un-noticed, hidden, unthought…

Seeing the end, being nearly-there, changes the mood, releases the tension, revives one’s energy

The experience of walking the mountain lives on, remembered, retold, re-seen, re-enacted, re-interpreted in the warm comfort of bed.

Dasein

Dasein is quite simply ‘Here I am now’

The ‘I’ of Dasein is not a thing but a way to be,

not a what but a who, with its connotations of orientation to a unique situation.

Kisiel, T. (2002). Heidegger’s way of thought. New York: Continuum, p.52/54.

Dasein is always in an environment in which it is tempted, seduced, soothed, or estranged.

We never rise above our environment to some pure, lofty pedestal and pass judgment on the world, as if untainted by it. What we can do is liberate the hidden presuppositions of life even while living it, making those suppositions visible by interpreting them

Harman, G. (2007). Heidegger Explained, From phenomenon to thing. Open Court: Chicago. p.30/31.

How do you ‘do’ phenomenology?

Doing phenomenology

• Is about asking meaning questions• Tell me about the experience of being …..• Need to seek people who have had the experience, who

are able to articulate it in a language you can understand• For a masters study, 5-9 participants are usually enough,

for a PhD 12-20ish

The approach

• Tell me about your experience of ….• Tell me the worst time• Tell me about a good time• Tell me what happened yesterday• Tell me what happened next• How did you feel?• What did you do?

The questions

• are merely to prompt the story• sometimes the researcher merely sits and nods• sometimes they bring them back to ‘the’ story• sometimes they seek clarification or more detail

The data

• transcribe /listen /read/ dwell with• find stories• pull stories out, craft into evocative readings• write an interpretation of each story

I love bananas. When I was in Vanuatu I used to have a whole bunch at my door. I never knew how they got there, so it was always a bit of a worry when the bunch was nearly finished, but sure enough another one would appear. They were the one thing that felt like home, but that’s not really true because they were so different from the ones at home. They were delicious. I’m very fussy about my bananas. They have to be just right, not too ripe, and with no blemishes. I like them waxy, don’t like the floury ones. I can’t stand them when they get too ripe. In Vanuatu I had to work hard at eating them at just the right time because it didn’t seem right to let them go to waste. Food seemed so much more precious over there. So I’d have bananas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then there were the green bananas that they used for cooking. I didn’t really get into them.Tell me about banana’s feeling like home?Well I suppose a banana is a banana is a banana. A lot of the other food put in front of me, like lap lap, was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. The closest I could get to it was cold, congealed porridge. But I had a sense that I could trust a banana. I had a sense of already liking it before I’d tried it. But now banana’s at home will never be ‘up to standard’ because I have experienced the real thing –straight off the bunch, straight out of the bush. I guess the other thing is that a banana comes pre-wrapped in its own packaging, so in terms of hygiene and stuff it feels safe.

I love bananas. When I was in Vanuatu I used to have a whole bunch at my door. I never knew how they got there, so it was always a bit of a worry when the bunch was nearly finished, but sure enough another one would appear. They were the one thing that felt like home, but that’s not really true because they were so different from the ones at home. They were delicious. I’m very fussy about my bananas. They have to be just right, not too ripe, and with no blemishes. I like them waxy, don’t like the floury ones. I can’t stand them when they get too ripe. In Vanuatu I had to work hard at eating them at just the right time because it didn’t seem right to let them go to waste. Food seemed so much more precious over there. So I’d have bananas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then there were the green bananas that they used for cooking. I didn’t really get into them.Tell me about banana’s feeling like home?Well I suppose a banana is a banana is a banana. A lot of the other food put in front of me, like lap lap, was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. The closest I could get to it was cold, congealed porridge. But I had a sense that I could trust a banana. I had a sense of already liking it before I’d tried it. But now banana’s at home will never be ‘up to standard’ because I have experienced the real thing –straight off the bunch, straight out of the bush. I guess the other thing is that a banana comes pre-wrapped in its own packaging, so in terms of hygiene and stuff it feels safe.

Craft a story by joining togetherthe relevant bits.

When we talk, we don’t keepout thoughts in neat packages.

When I was in Vanuatu bananas were the one thing that felt like home, but that’s not really true because they were so different from the ones at home. I had a sense that I could trust a banana. I had a sense of already liking it before I’d tried it. I suppose a banana is a banana is a banana. But now banana’s at home will never be ‘up to standard’ because I have experienced the real thing –straight off the bunch, straight out of the bush. They were the one food that she knew, and yet she didn’t know these particular banana’s. Nevertheless, she felt safe in her knowing that she would like them. She anticipated that here was a food that could bring some normality to her diet, that could remind her of food at home. The paradox is that the Vanuatu banana’s were much nicer than the ones imported into NZ. Now when she eats a banana at home she remembers that they are not the real thing.

Story crafted from the data

InterpretationThe experience of eating a banana is about much more than the eating experience itself. It comes with all the eaters previous experience. It comes with anticipation, with pre-formed judgements. Within the experience there is a sense of knowing what is a good banana. Perhaps natural foods, such as banana’s, are how we gain a sense of connectedness as we travel the world. Liz says ‘a banana is a banana is a banana’. Amongst all that is foreign and strange, a fruit is known and trusted. In the everyday experience of eating, a sense of the known and trusted may be important. Yet, in this age of genetic engineering, of abundant pesticide use to produce the perfect specimen perhaps that trust is being undermined.

It usually takes twice as many words to

interpretthan the data itself

The experience of eating a banana is about much more than the eating experience itself. It comes with all the eaters previous experience. It comes with anticipation, with pre-formed judgements. Within the experience there is a sense of knowing what is a good banana. Perhaps natural foods, such as banana’s, are how we gain a sense of connectedness as we travel the world. Liz says ‘a banana is a banana is a banana’. Amongst all that is foreign and strange, a fruit is known and trusted. In the everyday experience of eating, a sense of the known and trusted may be important. Heidegger (1995, p.182) says “Understanding always has its mood”. For Liz, the bananas at her door are more than nourishment. They connect her with the familiarity of home, they provide her with food that feels safe, and she loves these special bananas. They are even better than the ones at home. Her mood uplifts in response to bananas.

Writing the meaning

What does phenomenology do?

• It sheds light• It reveals• It uncovers what lies hidden behind• It explores that which is taking for granted in the everyday

experience of ‘being’• It wonders aloud, it questions• It says ‘maybe’ ‘perhaps’ ‘it seems’

What doesn’t it do?

• it doesn’t explain ‘why’• it doesn’t solve problems• it doesn’t arrive at a generalisable Truth• it isn’t easily condensed into a brief article• But: neither does it pretend to do any of the above

It does

• Articulate the pre-understandings of the researcher to make bias explicit

• Take the reader on a journey of ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’ so they can make their own interpretations

• Provoke the phenomenological nod• Engender the deep silence of an audience attentive and

‘moved’

Phenomenological ponderings

The bootness of the boots

tells us

fools us

A phenomenon: Being …….The thing in itself is covered over and hidden, taken-for-granted

is an appearance ofwhat lies hidden

Phenomenology seeks to uncover, to get closer to understanding

the ‘thing in itself-as itself-for itself’

The uncovering reveals what lies behind,unseen, un-noticed, taken-for-granted

Being lonely

An example

What are the things about being lonelythat make it being lonely,without whichit could not beloneliness?

What is the loneliness of the being lonely?

What are the things that are irrelevant to the notionof being lonely?

Mark DaviesLonelinessTextorium (Max Van Manen)

The Emptiness of Loneliness

After my divorce I found myself living alone for the very first time. I hated it. I dreaded the thought of coming home to that empty apartment. Finally I decided to move to my new apartment. Its right across from the mall. At least now on the nights I don't have anything to do, I can go across to the mall and be where people are.

The vulnerability of loneliness

After 35 years of marriage May died and a year after her death May's husband shared his loneliness:

I walk into the kitchen and am already half way through my sentence before I realize May isn't there. I don't know how many times a day this happens. In the kitchen, in the bedroom, in the car. I turn, expecting her to be there and she's not. Its like, where did she go? When did she go? Then there is nothing. Just emptiness. Its like I've lost my way. Now I have no one to wittness my life.

The absence of relationship:

When I was 25 I spent my first New Year's Eve alone. I had moved to a new city where I did not know anyone but my roommate. He was going out to some party that someone from his work was having and invited me. But I declined. I just couldn't face the prospect of pretending I was having a good time getting drunk with a bunch of strangers. That was a long and boring evening. In this eternity I was angry and hurt and upset and depressed and restless all at once. I felt like everyone else in the whole world was out there having a good time. Everyone but me, and it hurt. Yet still, I preferred the honest loneliness of my empty apartment to the pretence of togetherness. I did not want a party where all those people would only serve to remind me that I didn't know them, nor they me.

Aloneness and loneliness:

I remember the first time I ever realized that I was truly alone. It was on a summer holiday with my wife and children. We had come to a … lake where I vacationed when I was a boy. It was here that I first learned how to swim and fish and drive a boat. The lake itself is spectacular and I had not seen it since I was a teenager. Upon arriving I could hardly contain myself. Immediately I borrowed a boat from the owner of the Lodge and piled my family in. Off we were to explore the lake. It was almost overwhelming for me to return to this most special of all places when I was a boy. Yet the further out in the lake we went, the more bays and inlets I recognized and pointed out, the more bored my family became with it all.

By the time we returned I was furious.

How could they find this wonderful lake boring?

It felt like a slap on the face.

After some harsh words with my wife, they left me down at the beach alone.

It was a long time before my anger dissipated. It was replaced by depression.

And then standing there looking out over the soft water it hit me: here I was with the people I loved most in this world, and who loved me most in this world yet no matter how hard I tried, or how hard they tried they could not see this lake the same way I did. They could not know me like I did. No one could. The only constant travelling companion I have known throughout my life is me. It was there on that beach that I felt, not just lonely, but really alone in life. Stark naked alone.

I no longer felt any relationship with this familiar lake and its shoreline and its rocks and trees. Like a tree planted in the ground I was there, a complete and utter entity unto myself. Bounded by my own skin and breath. And it was frightening. To really understand in an undeniable way I journey through this life alone. That no one (except God) can really know my story, my life my being.

Naming what you do

Phenomenology: stays as close a possible to the experience itself

Hermeneutics: seeks to interpret text (comes from Biblical exegesis)Pays attention to the cultural, socialhistorical horizons embedded in boththe text and the interpreters prejudices

Critical hermeneutics: looks specifically at the language, conditions and influences that shape the social construction of reality.

What to call it?

Phenomenology: stays as close a possible to the experience itself- Always has real stories about real times, real places,

real people, real situations

Hermeneutics: seeks to interpret text

Text can be anything i.e. The participants opinion

Critical hermeneutics: looks specifically at the language, conditions and influences that shape the social construction of reality.

Will be looking for examples of power, influence, shaping

Getting it right

When I was in Vanuatu bananas were the one thing that felt like home, but that’s not really true because they were so different from the ones at home. I had a sense that I could trust a banana. I had a sense of already liking it before I’d tried it. But now banana’s at home will never be ‘up to standard’ because I have experienced the real thing –straight off the bunch, straight out of the bush.They were the one food that she knew, and yet she didn’t knowThis is hermeneutic data; the story generalises and gives opinions

Story crafted from the data

There was one day I remember well. It had started badly. The truck had a flat tyre. Somehow that got fixed, but it all took time. The road to the village was long and bumpy. It was so hot, perspiration was running down my back. When we got to the village there was a welcome ceremony, which was great, but I was wilting fast. I did not quite know what was expected of me, which was a bit daunting. Finally we sat down under a tree for lunch. I looked at the laplap (it tastes like stiff, cold porridge) and felt my heart sink. Then someone passed me a banana. How I savoured every delicious mouthful. How it revived me.

A phenomenological story

Is this for you?

• Do you like writing?• Do you prefer to work in a more intuitive

mode i.e. dwelling, pondering, letting the thoughts come?

• Are you content to let the power of the stories, and the insights drawn from interpretation, make their own impact?

• Do you want to go first to the experience to reveal that which has been forgotten, covered over, lost, in the taken-for-granted nature of the everyday world?

• Is it important to examine the phenomenon within its everyday world of Dasein?

• Do you enjoy reading philosophy?

Guides

van Manen (1990) Researching lived experience. Ontario, London: Althouse Press [How]

http://www.phenomenologyonline.com/inquiry/Philosohical n

Harman, G. (2007). Heidegger Explained, From phenomenon to thing. Open Court: Chicago.

Smythe, E., Ironside, P., Sims, S., Swenson, M. & Spence, D. (2008). Doing Heideggerian hermeneutic research: A discussion paper, International Journal of Nursing Studies, 45, 1389-1397

Finding your question

• What are the experiences in your own world of practice that you have a sense ‘matter’?

• Who knows those experiences? Who could you interview?

Phenomenology awaits the unfoldingknowing that therein

the mystery may be revealed

Phenomenologycapturesthe hues and complexityof the experiencein its moodof ‘being there’

take the road of phenomenology

find what you already knewbut have not been ableto put into words before

I want to write somethingso simplyabout loveor about painthat evenas you are reading

you feel itand as you readyou keep feeling itand though it be my storyit will be common,

though it be singularit will be known to youso that by the endyou will think-no, you will realize-that it was all the whileyourself arranging the words,

that it was all the timewords that you yourself, out of your own heart had been saying. Oliver, M. (2009). Evidence. Boston: Beacon Press, p.42

Let me keep my distance, always, from thosewho think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say"Look!" and laugh in astonishment,and bow their heads.Oliver, M. (2009). Evidence. Boston: Beacon Press. From Mysteries, Yes, p.62

Auckland University of TechnologyLibrary

Scholarly commonsLiz SmytheJudith McAra Couper

liz.smythe@aut.ac.nz