The Phenomenological Method

Here, I discuss in broader detail what I think phenomenologists do. I try to defend a relatively “classical” phenomenology that attempts to contemporize much of what Husserl wrote. I hold that transcendental methods, including the epoche, are key to phenomenological thinking, and that this approach has much to say for social thinkers today. I discuss the reductions, and I discuss eidetic variation as a method. In this chapter, I also discuss noesis, noema, and the hyle. This leads into a fuller discussion of ontology than in Chap. 2, and I discuss regional ontologies, referencing Ideas I. I take the concept of a region somewhat more broadly than many phenomenologists; the discussion here argues that games like chess are associated with forms of materiality that allow us to see them as regions from within the epoche. I think it’s worth thinking of regions and regional ontologies in this broad way because it helps us to shake off naturalistic assumptions when trying to understand forms of social life culturally distinct from ours. I also think it conforms more closely with the intent of the discussion in Ideas I.