Phenomenology must be understood as an area of philosophy, in the same way as metaphysics , epistemology, ethics, logic and the philosophy of law, among other branches. Philosophy is a general knowledge and phenomenology presents itself as a way of focusing on philosophical thinking .
The term phenomenology comes from phenomenon, which in philosophy refers to everything that appears before the mind. In other words, reality itself is one thing and quite another thing is how this reality presents itself in our thinking.
The most varied aspects of phenomenology
As a general idea, phenomenology analyzes how reality-based phenomena understand each other. From this global view, phenomenology can be understood and guided in different ways:
– As a theory of appearances, which means that behind an idea there is always something specifically concrete and where philosophers try to understand the complexity of how things seem to be, about what they really are and in relation to words with which we express the ideas.
– There are philosophical currents that see phenomenology as an evolutionary process of reason. In this line of thought, the romantic philosopher Hegel sentenced that the phenomenology of spirit acts as a complex reflection on the evolution of human reason. According to Hegel, man gradually created a reason or logic. In a first step, man was creating a sensitive consciousness (from an initial sensation to a perception), then presented another level (from the perception of something to the understanding) and, finally, the rational process that leads to individual self-awareness, that is, to an area of thought. In this sense, it should be noted that Hegel defined phenomenology as the science of consciousness.
– In general, philosophers who are in the current of phenomenology claim that there are only appearances (phenomena) in reality. Consequently, everything that is beyond the phenomena is something non-existent or it is something that it is not possible to know. This means that through phenomenology, it is understood that there is no obvious and real world, as everything we know about the world is mere appearance.
– As a philosophical movement, phenomenology contrasts with currents based on subjectivity as well as pragmatic thinking.
Finally, phenomenology must be understood as a path proper to philosophy. This path or method aims to reflect and debate based on three aspects: an external reality, human understanding and words that try to connect the world and our ideas.
