Philosophy Course: Introduction to Phenomenology
Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.
Phenomenology has been, and still remains one of the most significant philosophical movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Phenomenology attempts to take the relationship between body and experience seriously, and find the complex inter-relation of body to mind, consciousness and language.
Phenomenology is a vibrant part of contemporary philosophy and the theory has had many applications in fields such as medicine, psychology and the arts. We will consider a range of philosophers who are currently working in the field including one of the top researchers at present, Prof. Dan Zahavi of the University of Copenhagen.
Outcomes
By the end of the course, you should be able to:
- identify the key concepts in phenomenology
- discuss the ideas of Edmund Husserl, Max Scheler, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Prof. Dan Zahavi and more, and apply them to practical domains such as medicine
- relate phenomenological ideas to our contemporary world and current issues, and apply these ideas to their personal lives and choices.
Content
Week 1: What is phenomenology?
The philosophical background of phenomenology is discussed in this lecture. We will discuss the relationship between thought and perception; the idea and its expression; reason and emotion.