EXISTENTIALISM AND

PHENOMENOLOGY
 Introduction
• An understanding of Philosophy of Man involves a basic
knowledge critical analysis and reflection of phenomenology
and existentialism. And what may be the reason for this? It is
because philosophy of man subscribes to the major themes of
these two contemporary philosophical movements.
• We will notice that in the foregoing discussions there is a
change of axis from what to who – from what is man to who
is man. The change of axis bears a significant result looking at
man not anymore an object , but rather a subject.
OBJECTIVES:
After the lesson , the students are expected to

1. to define and discuss the nature and meaning to the two

philosophical movements(Phenomenology and Existentialism)
relative to the study of the course;

2. to understand the phenomenological methods explained by the

two prominent people in understanding man;

3. to regard these method as significant in the attempt to

understand man.
 Phenomenology
• Phenomenology is viewed as a philosophy and a method of
thinking. The man behind phenomenology is a German
mathematician turned to philosopher named Edmund Husserl. But
the one responsible for what is known as Existential
Phenomenology is another German philosopher named Martin
Heidegger.
• Etymologically ,phenomenology comes from the two Greek words
phainomen which means the appearing or that which appears and
logos which means science of study. Thus it is defined as a science
or study the appearing or that which appears.
• As a philosophy , phenomenology is a philosophical study of
that which appears as meaningful to consciousness in living
experiences by means of direct awareness
(Zwaenepoel,1974)
• A certain person comes in contact with other persons and
objects for certain reasons. Awareness could be the initial
step one must achieve.
• Awareness of something that which appears connotes 3
things:

• 1.the object of our intention (noema):

• 2. the intentional act (noesis):
• 3. and the conscious self.
• Example 1-A.
• A nurse (self) approaches the patient (noema)
because she wants to give medical attention
(noesis)

• Example !-B
• A teacher (self) enters the classroom, prepares her
students (noema) because she wants to introduce
another lesson (noesis)
 Explanation for example
• The experience of a nurse in treating the patient is a total
experience because she is totally aware during the time she
performs the act. The person (noema) appears to her as a
patient who needs medical attenyion. The whole situation is
her assigns a nurse to perform the task(self). Including in this
situation is her motive to serve the patient as the reason for
such an act(noesis) .
 Explanation for example
• A teacher during the performance of the act of educating her
students must be consciously aware of the things that will
transpire in the information of her student. Her total
experience must include the self, her awareness of the
personalities of the students, the program of the school and
her very own motives as the reason for such an act. As a
teacher, he must also include in her awareness the
environment that can also affect in the formation of the
students. All these comprise the total li
 The Virtue of Constant Awareness
• This is a story about the boy who is about to
graduate from his studies whose dream is to
become a teacher. In that particular institution it has
been their culture that one cannot graduate unless
he passes the last test. Failure to such means an
extension of another three more years.
 The Virtue of Constant Awareness
• One day Daydreaming went to wisdom, his teacher
whose office is only one block away from his house.
On his way heavy rain dropped. What could have been
the message from the above? He said.
• He wore his best clothes and nice robber boots and an
umbrella to protect him from getting wet.
• He knocked at the door opened it and a usual greetings
have been addressed to his teacher already in his desk
busy doing some paper works.
• “Good morning sir”, he said
• “come in Daydreaming” a warm reply from his teacher, “
sir down”
• Silence a broke a little minute that added a feeling of
nervousness to him.
• You left your boots and umbrella at the door steps,
didn’t you? Asked the teacher in his masculine voice.
• “yes sir”, replied daydreaming
• “Did you placed the umbrella at the right side of your
boots or at the left side of it”’ a follow up question
from his teacher.
• Unprepared for the kind of question. Daydreaming was
not able to answer correctly. He has to remain for
another three years until he learns the virtue of
constant awareness.
• Message: the story is simply telling us to become
completely aware of all things around us not only once
or twice, not sometimes but always. Learn it to become
a habit. Established your attitude by keeping in touch
with reality-every piece of it. Don’t get misplaced by
day dreaming.
• To be touched with reality is to activate all our
senses. The same also applies when we want to
regard mas as our main concern. (we may be
enlightened in the next few chapters as we go
along.)
• Our next step is to consider now the views of the
two prominent people who are known in their
contributions.
 The Phenomenological Methods
• Manuel Dy (1986) a well known Filipino philosopher discussed
these methods in one of his books. Let us get started with
Edmund Husserl.
• Edmund Husserl
1. Epoche- epoche literally means “Bracketing”.
Husserl borrowed this mathematical term and applied it to natural
attitude. If you still remember in one of your mathematics subject.
When you see a set of numbers placed in a bracket we need to
apply principles that is required of it. Husserl found his method
also applicable in our endeavor. This is the preliminary step in
understanding man.
• What does this method mean? A person in order to arrive into a
valid conclusion, he needs to bracket all his natural attitudes about
the person he is investigating. What is natural attitude? Normally
we start to deal with this particular person with some advanced
notion already. These advanced concepts (prejudices; biases; clear,
fixed, precise and unquestioned explicit knowledge) can create
misconceptions sometimes and therefore found to be invalid and
unreliable. What the method wants to say is to bracket all these
natural attitudes we got. Allow the other person to reveal himself
and unfold his true personality fairly. This will give you a credit of
knowing him exactly the way how he managed to present himself
to you. What is our normal attitude when you see a policeman, a
nurse, a teacher, a priest?
• Do not get lost by your prejudice. Allow them to
unfold themselves well enough . Not all people are
the same . They can explain to you in a unique way
that might impress you or disappoint you. What
this method wants to teach us all is the everyone is
individually unique. Skilled enough to practice
awareness, let their uniqueness be felt.
 Example
• You Are a first year college student taking up nursing
or education course. You carry with you some
impressions about the school. What ever your
impressions are keep them with you for a while, for
in due time you will take them out…in order to affirm
or deny them.
• The same manner applies when you come to school
during your first day.
• You meet one student who appears very formal, well
mannered , refined, wearing eyeglasses and seem to be
serious. This particular person leaves an impression on you
that this guy is intelligent, suplado and hard to deal with. In
normal case we treat others based on the impressions we
have for them. What is ideal is to apply the approach
(epoche) where in we simply have to suspend these
impressions
• Since we do not really know that person is let him unfold
himself before us. In case he projects himself similar to what
you have in mind then that is the time to affirm or deny
what has been established.
 2. The Phenomenological Eidetic Reduction
• This is the second step. The term “reduction” is another term
borrowed by Husserl from mathematics to refer to the
procedure by which we are placed in the “transcendental
sphere”. The object bracketed will be put now in question after
the unfolding. This method will direct us to take a closer look
to the object where in we see him as he really is, independent
of any prejudice. To understand it better, Husserl mentioned
several reductions: the eidetic reduction and the
transcendental reduction
• The eidetic reduction is derived from the Greek word
“eidos” which means essence. We reduce the object of
our concern plainly in the level of the mind. Under this
step one reduces the experience to its essence.
What is essence? It is something that makes a thing what
it is. And it is this essence that puts me in a proper
perspective how to deal with this thing . What makes a
man a man? In the case of a person his essence is what
makes him a person. He is a man (in essence) just like me.
• I treat him the way I treat myself because we share the
common man-ness. Let us take an example : a teacher, a
policeman, a nurse or a priest. What is the conventional way
of dealing with these people? Normally we deal with them
the way how they presented themselves to us. “ I acted this
way because this is the way how to understand you” having
known him the way he unfolds himself to you (epoche) is to
deal with him in a manner he is supposed to dealt. Free from
prejudice what is the common idea of a policeman, a teacher,
a nurse, a priest?
• What is the essence that makes them they are?
Normally we arrive at the same answer by defining their
functions. Our level of understanding them as persons
lies on what they are and not who they are. Our main
concern to know them as they are is a failure. We have
not touched the very core of our inquiry. Who is man?
Reality speaks that “professionals” vary according to
function. This particular teacher teaches differently from
the rest. He teaches with boldness and love. The
policeman does his job well while others not.
• Yet they share the same figure as a teacher and a policeman
in virtue of their functions. What about a person who is not a
professional and is treated as such because of what he has
done? A criminal is such because of what he did. What have
been done in perceived to be another issue totally different
from the person who is doing the thing done. It does not
explain the total identity of the person. If we find this
method insufficient to understand man, is there another
alternative.
• This time let us try the last one. We might be enlightened
and hopefully get out of the same pit asking the same
question.
• 3. The Phenomenological Transcendental Reduction.
Under this step one reduces the object to the very activity
itself of his own consciousness . “ Instead of paying attention simply
to talking, listening, loving, seeing, during the time of the
encounter. I will now turn myself to the very experience of the “I”
who will decide on the validity of the objects in experience. I now
become aware of the subjective aspects of the object when I
inquire into the beliefs, feelings, desires, which shape the
experience”. What is it that I feel when I had my last talk with my
teacher? She is saying some unspoken words which believe carry
some meanings to me. Those unspoken words may be
senseless to you that it is why you just take them for
granted. The simple facial expression of an anguish mother
may mean something for ben but may not be for bert. The
third method is a deeper step to knowing a person. We
now reduce it to the experience of the “ I” itself . This
method gives us the idea that in its own way, there is
always truth to every experience and that only the “ I” can
validate it the “I” is not only aware of his own personal
experience as the subject but as well finds the others as
other subject like him capable of validating the same
experience.
Are we getting lost in our approach to man or are we
getting closer? Our approach is becoming subjective. Who
is man? The use of who implies unending search to
discover the true identity of the person. And it only
means that as long as a person lives, there are plenty of
unrealized, hidden and undiscovered gems in him worth
enough to value him a person.
 Gabriel Marcel
• Primary Reflection- Primary reflection is a term used to
underscore the distinction between the object of inquiry and the
subject who is doing the inquiry. It breaks the unity of
experience. The object is different from the subject and vice
versa. The subject treats the object as a problem, detached from
the self (Dy). This method is evidently considered the foundation
of scientific knowledge. If you still remember during our high
school days when we were required to study the interior parts of
a frog we usually dissect it in order to see by our own eyes the
cross section of the internal body parts and from there we
started to examine them as thoroughly as we can.
 What about our endeavor to study man?
• In line with the same thinking, primary reflection tells us that
the other is seen as object. To make a slight comparison, we can
equate this method to the transcendental eidetic reduction of
Edmund Husserl. When we want to know a person there are
series of questions we have in mind that need to be answered.
Basically we start our question like, who are you? Answers are
plain descriptions to describe who that person is who bears
unique identity from the subject. Answers might be in the form
of name. physical appearance, characters, beliefs and value. “ I
am tall, dark and handsome. What bearing does it have to you?
Until you end up saying, so what?
• We may say that the first reflection of marcel is
insufficient to know man and understand him the way
he should be understood. Be ready for the second
reflection.
• Secondary Reflection- secondary reflection, on the other
hand, recaptures the unity of original experience (Dy). It is in
this reflection that the subject finds reason to keep himself
being attached with the object. Because there is that element
of attachment between the subject towards the object, the
subject perceives the object meaningful and a value to him.
The second reflection does not go against the data of primary
reflection because what you may have started may end up
something fascinating or even worse ( as maybe) that you
personally alone can explain. To explain further, the second
reflection, the truth “I am in the primary reflection .
• In the second reflection the truth about your name
when you introduced yourself to me carries with it a
different meaning that only the “I” can explain. “ I do
not care who you are and what you are. The truth is
you mean so much to me. You may not able to
understand it but that is the truth.

• Let us be enlightened by the example.

 Chu Chu
• Chu Chu was the name of my pet dog. It was a big white female
dog. I saw my dog transformed from a sky puppy to a friendly,
jolly, tough dog whose baritone barks sounded fear for others,
yet security for my family. When she was young I remembered
exactly how many times I brought her to the clinic because of
skin problem. Anytime were away, she just stayed in the post
waiting for my arrival. In my arrival chu chu seeing me at a
distance would not only bark . She would run to approach me
wagging her tail, danced around me as she kissed me and
touched me with its paws. It happened actually three years ago.
One day , I played with my dog. During our moments
of playtime with her sharp little teeth she left a little
scratch in my hand. I did not mind it thinking it was
just a little scratch. Three days after the incidence . I
noticed something unusual to my dog that I led me
to conclude that I might have been affected by
rabies. She lost her appetite already, sickly and weak
too late to be treated. I went to the doctor for my
medical attention.
I recollected what had transpired. After the play
comes the painful moment of separations that will
soon to happen. I said ten days later, I noticed my
dog was feeling cold, her mouth bubbled. I could
not avoid my self to be emotional about what I
saw . I placed an old blanket over her body. That
was the least that I can do for her. I almost
extinguished all the ants and flier that clutter
around the body of my dog.
Here comes the final moment my dog died but the
memories remain. Anytime I see a white dog bearing
similar semblance of her, a smile shapes my faces
remembering happy and unforgettable moments
with her.
They say that dogs are man’s best friend. This time,
chu chu is not only my friend. She is a member of my
family.
 Who can explain the mysterious encounter between
the two characters in the story? Marcel considered this
phenomena something unexplainable. Yet only the
person himself can explain such an existence. Other
might find the phenomena something eclectic and
unconventional. But who are we to question such
experience? “ I do not care about what people say”
that might possibly be the last word we could hear
from someone who finds the experience meaningful.
 Existentialism
• Existentialism is the brainchild of a Danish thinker named Soren
Kierkegaard . It is a movement emphasizing the human
condition above the other things in the world. As Soren
Kierkegaard said: in our world today there are no human beings
because the individual man has taken refuge in the collective
idea which are the crowd, the masses, the group and the crowd
nothing becomes personal.
• The crowd. What is the characteristics of this crowd? Who are
these crowds? They are those who pull back the subject to be
what he wants to be. Pilling back means preventing the person
to become a person he wants to be.
• To Kierkegaard, man in this generation is superbly
rational. This is something that man must understand.
He must be conscious of his choice and not of his
reason. Man should stop to become to be too rational
in favor of his personal choice. Mas has forgotten to
live life. Man has forgotten to exist. This is a battle cry
of existentialism.
 What is the theory of existentialism?
• 1. Man is a subject.
• 2. Man is the source of his own action.
• 3. Man has feeling and emotions.
• 4. Man is self related and others related
• 5. Man is capable of transcendence, manning man
can go beyond what is actually given.
• 6. Man’s existence is a ‘thrown’ existence. He is
thrown in the world in order to exist.
• 7. Man exists in the body. He needs to assert
himself through his own body.
• 8. Man is Intrinsically free.
• 9. Man has to admit the fact of death his own death
• 10. Man is an open ended entity he is a box of
surprises.
 A Meaningful Life.

• Existentialists teaches that man must make his life meaningful.

This is a universal call. But how? As Heidegger puts it this way:
“Human existence is not alone – existence but an existence –
with – others. “Finding the meaning of his own existence is
only possible in the context of others.
 Finding the Meaning of Life With Others

• “Father, I want to become a nurse because I want to heal

the sick people. I feel happy helping them.”
 The Others as Crowds.

• It is healthy for man to be with others in the world, but not that he
has to resign his freedom and possibilities to these other. Man
becomes possible according to his own free will. It is a sad thing to
note when he becomes one not in accordance to his own free will.
“We’ve been married for 10 years already. And I could still feel
the pain in my heart. Oh, it hurts me so much!
“I should have been very happy this time only if my father
allowed me to marry the one I truly love.
 Freedom Entails Responsibility.
• Another case: I allow others to decide for me. I responsible to
the offshoot of my own decision?

“The girl at a distance wear a smile on her face and say: Thank
you dad because without you I cannot be what I am now.”

The girl is successfully working in one of the hospitals abroad and

enjoying a better life now.
 Who do you think is responsible? Analyze.
• “Son, I feel sorry about your life. You stayed 10 years in High School. You
almost spent your life the rehabilitation center, if not behind bars. What
else do you think will happen next son?
Mom, how dare you ask me that question? Why not ask yourself?
Where were you when I was yet a child. Where were you when I
needed you most? I was alone. I had nobody to turn to until I found my
friends.
You left me with those yayas(maids) who knew nothing to do yell at
me and squeeze my ears when I cry for your attention and love. You
taught me nothing but to hate you. Can you blame me if I grew up with
friends beside me? I could feel their love more than you do, mom. It is
you who molded me to become what I am now.”
The Starting Points.
“I wore this kind of face ever since when I was kid. How ugly it
appears to be, but I do still love this face. For me, I don’t see any
reason to stop dreaming. I will be a star. Because of this ugly face I
will be a star…a movie star.”

About Death.
Mom, why should people die? Why does it not have to be life all
throughout? Why is there death?
The mother must explain such intricate issue in a simple way.
“Son if God will not allow death to happen and everything is all
life , what do you think will happen to us? Do you think the world
can accommodate us all.
 Man as Existenz.
• “God , you have shaped me from scratch and form me according to
your design. You allowed me to savor the sweetness of your love.
Protect my family as my only resting place. Let no danger cross over
the harmony we used to share.
Guide my father home and let us be one once again. Amen”
Man as Encompassing – A Transcendent Being.
“Son , I really admire you learn how to become thrifty and wise
especially in matters like managing cash.
Dad , it is me who should be thankful of. You taught me how to
save money. Don’t you remember dad when you bought me that
small piggy bank when I was 7 years old? (the past).
 Man as Existenz.
Dad I come to realize that for something beneficial. Don’t you know
Dad that out of the money I saved I enrolled myself because I want to
become a nurse. (the present)
Really son! Wow great! You make a nice decision.
Dad , the money I saved is what I am using now so that in the years
to come I will make my harvest. (The future)
 THANK YOU AND
GOD BLESS   