Phenomenology Kitten—Not That Difficult

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On this day in Round and Square History 
29 September 2012—Academic Autobiography: Tristes Tropiques (c)
29 September 2011—Fieldnotes From History: Cuisine

[a] Appearing to consciousness RF

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the 
understanding,and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

                             —Immanuel Kant, 1781

There is no need to belabor this. Let's just get it out of the way.

All sorts of thinkers beyond the West had a grasp of what we might call "phenomenology," and long before anything like a concerted program of study had been established.

[b] Perceptual Autumn RF

Just think of a Chinese thinker named Wang Yangming. One of the great figures in all of Chinese philosophy, Wang stated that intellectual labor could never be separated from how to put it all into practice. 

Beyond that, he asserted that things did not exist independently of the mind's apprehension of them (and this, several centuries before our Kant-ented friend from Germany). In short, the mind was central in shaping them, and our sensory experience could never be discounted in trying to find a "world out there."

Phenomenology—not as crazy as you (might) think.

Just ask Wang.

[c] "Things" RF

[Originally posted on September 4, 2014]