Open and Reflective Lifeworld Research: A Third Way

Abstract

With the mission in mind to articulate an approach that is scientifically competent to meet the appeals from health care, education, social work, and other disciplines, the theme of this article is to rethink the essential ideas of phenomenological and hermeneutical research approaches, by exploring their philosophical underpinnings and especially the essential ontological idea of inseparability. We examine the fissure between approaches that favor description or interpretation and explore the arguments for a third approach that has the power to close the false epistemological methodological gap.