Neurophenomenology refers to a scientific research program aimed to address thehard problem of consciousness in apragmatic way.[1] It combinesneuroscience withphenomenology in order to studyexperience,mind, andconsciousness with an emphasis on theembodied condition of the human mind.[2] The field is very much linked to fields such asneuropsychology,neuroanthropology andbehavioral neuroscience (also known as biopsychology) and the study ofphenomenology in psychology.
The label was coined byC. Laughlin, J. McManus and E. d'Aquili in 1990.[3] However, the term was appropriated and given a distinctive understanding by the cognitive neuroscientistFrancisco Varela in the mid-1990s,[4] whose work has inspired many philosophers and neuroscientists to continue with this new direction of research.
Phenomenology is a philosophical method of inquiry of 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.[5][6]
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the brain, and deals with the third-person aspects of consciousness.[7] 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.[8]
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 theepoche. Husserl, who was a former student ofFranz Brentano, thought that in the study of mind it was extremely important to acknowledge that consciousness is characterized byintentionality, a concept often explained as "aboutness"; consciousness is always consciousnessof something. A particular emphasis on the phenomenology ofembodiment was developed by philosopherMaurice 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 andphilosophy of mind, the dialogue between these two disciplines is still a very controversial subject.[9] Husserl himself was very critical towards any attempt to "naturalizing" philosophy, and his phenomenology was founded upon a criticism ofempiricism, "psychologism", and "anthropologism" as contradictory standpoints in philosophy and logic.[10][11] The influential critique of the ontological assumptions of computationalist and representationalist cognitive science, as well asartificial intelligence, made by philosopherHubert 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 andembodied cognitive science and/orenactivism. One such case is neuroscientistWalter Freeman, whoseneurodynamical analysis has a marked Merleau-Pontyian approach.[12]
