Beyond Reified Consciousness: A Dialogue Between Interpretation and Emancipation
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | This paper explores the transformative potential of the phenomenological reduction in shifting our understanding of the world, the body, and nature from seemingly self-evident entities to constituted meanings. Departing from the "natural attitude" where these are experienced as pregiven, existing, and being, phenomenology reveals them as the "meaning of the pregiven as a world," the "meaning of the existing as a body," and the "meaning of a being as a nature." This phenomenological reflective standpoint has profoundly influenced interpretive sociology, particularly ethnomethodology and qualitative research, informing strategies focused on elucidating mundane reasoning and lived experience. The paper further maps the dialogue between this interpretive approach and critical perspectives concerned with challenging institutional reifications and pursuing emancipatory goals. It argues that events of disruption, leading to a loss of familiarity, can serve as crucial junctures for expanding our horizon of understanding. Such events can unveil the conditioned nature of our prior understanding, exposing underlying misunderstandings rooted in blindness, hope, and concealed power dynamics. Drawing upon Paul Ricoeur, the paper will trace the implicit philosophical anthropology and eschatology of non-violence that underpin both the phenomenological emphasis on meaning-constitution and the critical commitment to emancipation. By examining this interplay, the paper aims to illuminate the synergistic potential of these seemingly distinct perspectives. |
| Related projects: |