Preparatory Material for the Summer School

Here you will find a number of resources that we and our keynote lecturers have provided to prepare you for the Summer School. Even if you are familiar with phenomenology in your own studies, the below materials should be helpful to orient you to the specific topics that will be covered during the sessions.

We have also added the discussion questions, submitted by our keynotes, that we will be using for the afternoon discussion groups each day. Find them at the bottom of this page.

This year we have prepared a video presentation that will introduce you to basic ideas in phenomenology. We especially encourage those of you who are not already familiar with phenomenology to see the video.

Readings Recommended by Our Keynotes

We also encourage you to take a look at the following readings before arriving in Copenhagen. The readings were identified as relevant for understanding the lectures and will be part of the group discussions. We thus strongly recommend that you read them as preparation for attending the Summer School.

Note: You will need an academia.edu account (free of charge) to access some of the readings.

Dan Zahavi

• Finlay, L. (2009). Debating phenomenological research methods. Phenomenology & Practice 3(1), pp. 6-25. URL: https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/pandpr/index.php/pandpr/article/view/19818 

• Zahavi, D. (2010). Naturalized phenomenology. In S. Gallagher & D. Schmicking (eds.) Handbook of Phenomenology and Cognitive Science. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 2-19. URL:  https://www.academia.edu/8705558/Naturalized_Phenomenology

Tanja Staehler

• Staehler, T. (2014). Social networks as inauthentic sociality. Metodo. International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy, 2(2). URL: www.metodo-rivista.eu/index.php/metodo/article/view/95 

• Staehler, T. & Kozin, A. (2017). Between platonic love and internet pornography. Sexuality & Culture 21(4), pp. 1120–1139. URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12119-017-9440-z

Fredrik Svenaeus

• Svenaeus, F. (2017). Preface & Table of Contents. In Phenomenological bioethics: Medical technologies, human suffering, and the meaning of being alive. Routledge. URL: https://www.academia.edu/34424609/

• Svenaeus, F. (in press). Dying bodies and dead bodies: A phenomenological analysis of dementia, coma, and brain death. In E. Dahl & C. Falke (eds.) Phenomenology of the Broken Body. London: Routledge. URL:  https://www.academia.edu/36393306/

Mark Rowlands

• Rowlands, M. (2015). Consciousness unbound. [Penultimate Draft]. Journal of Consciousness Studies 22, 3-4, pp. 34-51. URL: https://www.academia.edu/10284931/Consciousness_Unbound 
  
  
  
• Rowlands, M. (in press). Sartre on intentionality and pre-reflective consciousness. [Penultimate Draft].  In M. Eshleman, Christophe Perrin & C. Mui eds., The Sartrean Mind. New York: Routledge, 2019. URL: https://www.academia.edu/36359435/Sartre_on_Intentionality_and_Pre-Reflective_Consciousness
  
  

Søren Overgaard

• Broad, C.D. (1965). Some elementary reflexions on sense-perception. In R. J. Swartz (ed.), Perceiving, Sensing, and Knowing. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, pp. 29-48. URL: http://selfpace.uconn.edu/class/percep/BroadElementaryReflexions.pdf

• Millar, B. (2014). The phenomenological directness of perceptual experience. Philosophical Studies 170 , pp. 235-253. URL: https://d65b5280-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/boydmillar/Phenomenological%20Directness-Web.pdf

• Martin, G.F. (2002). The transparency of experience. Mind and Language 17 , pp. 376-425.  URL: http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/courses/concepts/martin.html

Discussion Questions

Dan Zahavi (Monday)

• Is it sufficient to simply consider the perspective of the agent/patient/client in order to make the approach in question phenomenological?
• Should phenomenological qualitative research take remain purely descriptive and seek to disclose essential structures, or should it rather focus on the particularity of individual persons and employ interpretation?
• Should it embrace and adopt part of Husserl’s philosophical methodology, or should it rather let its research be guided by various phenomenological concepts and distinctions?

 

Tanja Staehler (Tuesday)

• Does phenomenology offer a coherent basis for thinking about lived corporeality?
• Does the concept of intercorporeality overcome difficulties tied to the concept of intersubjectivity?
• What would be the benefits of these concepts, especially for issues around sexual difference or the medical humanities?

 

Fredrik Svenaeus (Wednesday)

• Who/what is the entity to be considered alive or dead in the case of human beings, the body or the person (or yet some other alternative)?
• Who/what is the entity being healthy or not healthy in the case of human beings?
• In what ways could phenomenology contribute to analyses and evaluations of ethical dilemmas in health care?

 

Mark Rowlands (Thursday)

• What makes an intentional act conscious?
• Does consciousness entail self-consciousness?
• What is intentional directedness?

 

Søren Overgaard (Friday)

• In hallucinations, the world may seem to be as present to us as in veridical perception. Can the naïve realist offer a plausible account of this?
• Might there be ways for an intentionalist to capture perceptual presence?
• Is an ‘error theory’ about perception necessarily a bad thing?