An Opinionated Introduction to Phenomenology (Jeff Yoshimi)

Phenomenology studies the structure and dynamics of conscious experience. Sincxe its inception in the early 20th century, hundreds of thousands of pages of detailed phenomenological analysis have been produced. In the last few decades this work has been increasingly integrated with the cognitive sciences, via "neuro-phenomenology" and "naturalized phenomenology". I advocate an approach to phenomenology which treats it as a vast database of hypotheses about consciousness, subject to rejection, revision, and refinement on the basis of contact with other work in the cognitive sciences. I give an opinionated overview of the field, focusing on several lines of research I believe to be especially promising. First, a "field theory of consciousness" according to which experiences are organized into a central "theme" surrounded by two kinds of peripheral structure (a "thematic field" and a "margin"). Second, a theory of "horizons" according to which we never experience objects in isolation, but only relative to an implicit sense of possible ways they could manifest themselves in further experience. By explicating or "unfolding" these horizons we can introspectively "model" our sense of an object, and ultimately our sense of the world as whole. These phenomenological models can be linked to computational and behavioral studies of agents in environments.

Видео An Opinionated Introduction to Phenomenology (Jeff Yoshimi) канала Mathematical Consciousness Science