Phenomenology: Retrospective and Prospective Approaches

Abstract

The article outlines ways to determine the theoretical preconditions for the formation of phenomenological philosophy and provides some examples of the practical application of the phenomenological method in current social and human studies. The specificity of the approach implemented in the article is that the authors deliberately refuse to consider the primary sources of phenomenology (Kant, Brentano, etc.) and turn to the primary sources of this doctrine in ancient philosophy. The authors assume that addressing ancient philosophy allows to reveal all capabilities of the phenomenological method. The application of the phenomenological method in psychology faces a number of difficulties. Firstly, there is a problem of distinguishing between philosophy and psychology. Secondly, there is a difficulty in combining scientific (dogmatic) and phenomenological (anti-dogmatic, critical) knowledge. The task of a phenomenological psychologist is to develop an understanding of the diversity of human experience, guided by unpackaged knowledge. Therefore, an appeal to the philosophical heritage of the past, and above all to ancient and medieval texts, is a justified decision, because the first prescientific attempts of thinkers to find ways to describe experience are found there.