ICNAP II

Brock University, May 27-29, 2010

The Second Meeting of the ICNAP was hosted by Brock University. The invited speaker for the 2010 meeting was Amedeo Giorgi. The title and abstract of his presentation are below.

Amedeo Giorgi - Psychology - Saybrook Graduate School

Phenomenology:  From Philosophy to Science 

        Phenomenology started as a philosophy and it will always remain one. It has to continue to explore and develop all of its indigenous themes. However, as a philosophy, it can also serve as the basis of science since all sciences ultimately have philosophical groundings. If we can use empiricism as an example, we can see that it was a philosophy for a couple of centuries (at least) before it became the accepted basis for the development of the natural sciences. Phenomenological philosophy can serve a similar function for the human sciences. The themes that it addresses  -- consciousness, intentionality, experience, world-relatedness, etc. -- are all themes that are highly relevant wherever human persons are included as objects of study. By making a conscious effort to make phenomenological philosophy the basis of the various human sciences the power of phenomenology can be made manifest as it helps the human scientists in their multiple diversified applications.