biology

Neurophenomenology

Neurophenomenology is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Neurophenomenology rather than just read about it. In short: Neurophenomenology refers to a scientific research program aimed at addressing the hard problem of consciousness in a pragmatic way. It combines neuroscience with phenomenology to study experience, mind, and consciousness with an emphasis on the embodied condition of the human mind.

Key takeaways

Neurophenomenology belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Neurophenomenology to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Neurophenomenology from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Neurophenomenology refers to a scientific research program aimed at addressing the hard problem of consciousness in a pragmatic way. It combines neuroscience with phenomenology to study experience, mind, and consciousness with an emphasis on the embodied condition of the human mind. The field is very much linked to fields such as neuropsychology, neuroanthropology, and behavioral neuroscience (also known as biopsychology) and the study of phenomenology in psychology.

Overview The label was coined by C. Laughlin, J. McManus, and E. d'Aquili in 1990. However, the term was appropriated and given a distinctive understanding by the cognitive neuroscientist Francisco Varela in the mid-1990s, whose work has inspired many philosophers and neuroscientists to continue with this new direction of research. Phenomenology is a philosophical method of inquiry into everyday experience. The focus in phenomenology is on the examination of different phenomena (from Greek, phainomenon, "that which shows itself") as they appear to consciousness, i.e. in a first-person perspective. Thus, phenomenology is a discipline particularly useful for understanding how it is that appearances present themselves to us and how it is that we attribute meaning to them. Neuroscience is the scientific study of the brain, and deals with the third-person aspects of consciousness. Some scientists studying consciousness believe that the exclusive utilization of either first- or third-person methods will not provide answers to the difficult questions of consciousness. Historically, Edmund Husserl is regarded as the philosopher whose work made phenomenology a coherent philosophical discipline with a concrete methodology in the study of consciousness, namely the epoche. Husserl, who was a former student of Franz Brentano, thought that in the study of mind it was extremely important to acknowledge that consciousness is characterized by intentionality, a concept often explained as "aboutness"; consciousnese is always consciousness of something. A particular emphasis on the phenomenology of embodiment was developed by philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty in the mid-20th century. Naturally, phenomenology and neuroscience find a convergence of common interests. However, primarily because of ontological disagreements between phenomenology and philosophy of mind, the dialogue between these two disciplines is still a very controversial subject. Husserl himself was very critical of any attempt to "naturalize" philosophy, and his phenomenology was founded upon a criticism of empiricism, "psychologism", and "anthropologism" as contradictory standpoints in philosophy and logic. The influential critique of the ontological assumptions of computationalist and representationalist cognitive science, as well as artificial intelligence, made by philosopher Hubert Dreyfus has marked new directions for integration of neurosciences with an embodied ontology. The work of Dreyfus has influenced cognitive scientists and neuroscientists to study phenomenology and embodied cognitive science and/or enactivism. One such case is neuroscientist Walter Freeman, whose neurodynamical analysis has a marked Merleau-Pontyian approach.

See also Antonio Damasio Autopoiesis Biogenetic structuralism Biosemiotics Embodied cognition Francisco Varela Hubert Dreyfus Neurosemiotics Walter Freeman

References

Further reading MacLennan, Bruce J. (April 2019). Finamore, John F. (ed.). "Neurophenomenology and Neoplatonism". The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition. 13 (1). Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers on behalf of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies: 51–67. doi:10.1163/18725473-12341422. eISSN 1872-5473. ISSN 1872-5082. S2CID 171757240. Andrieu, Bernard (2006). "Brains in the Flesh: Prospects for a Neurophenomenology" (PDF). Janus Head. 9 (1). Petitot, Jean (1999). Naturalizing Phenomenology: Issues in Contemporary Phenomenology and Cognitive Science. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-3610-7.

External links

Eugenio Borrelli page: Phenomenology and Cognitive Science at the Wayback Machine (archived 2012-02-18) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Phenomenology Francisco Varela's Articles on Neurophenomenology and First-person Methods Deprecated link at archive.today (archived 2012-12-09) http://www.neurophenomenology.com Hubert Dreyfus 'Intelligence Without Representation: Merleau-Ponty's Critique of Mental Representation' Debate Between D. Chalmers and D. Dennett: The Fantasy of First-Person Science

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Neurophenomenology

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Neurophenomenology claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Neurophenomenology before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Neurophenomenology ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Neurophenomenology

In research: Neurophenomenology appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Neurophenomenology in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Neurophenomenology is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Consciousness, Neurophilosophy, Neuropsychology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Neurophenomenology outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Neurophenomenology in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Neurophenomenology means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Neurophenomenology out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Neurophenomenology in simple terms?

Why does Neurophenomenology matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Neurophenomenology?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Neurophenomenology.