Stuck in between. Phenomenology’s Explanatory Dilemma and its Role in Experimental Practice
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences October 22, 2022 Mark-Oliver Casper, Philipp Haueis 7 citations
Phenomenology makes unique contributions to scientific practice—concept formation, experimental design, and data collection—but when it comes to explanation, it faces a dilemma. Either phenomenological attempts to explain conscious phenomena fail to satisfy a central constraint on explanations (the asymmetry between explanans and explanandum), or they satisfy this asymmetry only by merging with non-phenomenological explanation types. The consequence is that insofar as phenomenological approaches are explanatory, they do not provide an own type of explanation. Three case studies of phenomenologically inspired experiments in cognitive science illustrate each contribution to experimental practice while also showing how the explanatory dilemma arises.