The philosophical method known as phenomenology was first developed, in its modern form, by the German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), whose motto was "To the things themselves!" Husserl held that philosophy should return to "the things themselves" by grounding all of its claims in a patient description of the structures and genesis of conscious experience. Husserl's work proved a fertile inspiration for much of 20th century Continental philosophy (and other disciplines as well), since it forms the philosophical background for Heidegger's hermeneutics of Dasein and fundamental ontology, Sartre's existential phenomenology, Merleau-Ponty's analyses of the lived body and ontology of flesh, Levinas's description of the encounter with alterity in the face of the Other, Derrida's writings on différance and the trace--and the list goes on. Each of these thinkers appropriates Husserl's insights in a unique and creative fashion, so that phenomenology has become a rich and varied tradition without a commonly accepted set of methodological principles. This profusion of approaches has not hindered the perennial interest in phenomenology or its application to new areas of philosophical investigation, such as feminism, philosophy of race, environmental philosophy, and philosophy of mind.

The study of phenomenology and hermeneutics is pursued on several fronts at the University of Oregon: First, we treat phenomenology as a philosophical method that may be practiced to gain insight into the structures and genesis of experience. In this vein, phenomenology becomes a useful method for the study of a full range of philosophical areas, including aesthetics, ethics, language, gender, embodiment, consciousness, the environment, interpretation, etc. Second, we recognize phenomenology and hermeneutics as traditions to be understood within their historical context. In addition to the figures mentioned above, this would include the study of a range of philosophers who are within or related to the phenomenological tradition, including Scheler, Jaspers, Marcel, Buber, Stein, Beauvoir, Fanon, Gadamer, Ricoeur, Henry, Irigaray, Marion, Nancy, and others. Moreover, understanding the historical context of phenomenology and hermeneutics involves recognizing their relation with key influences throughout the history of philosophy, such as Plato, Aristotle, and the major figures of German idealism and American pragmatism.

Faculty at the University of Oregon are currently involved in research projects that explore key figures in the tradition of phenomenology and hermeneutics, including Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas, and that apply phenomenological insights to the study of areas including art, ethics, the environment, embodiment, race, gender, and cognitive science. A particular interest in the department concerns the constructive relation between phenomenology and recent empirical work in the sciences, especially in linguistics, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and evolutionary biology.

Faculty:

Mark Johnson
John Lysaker
Bonnie Mann
Beata Stawarska
Cheney Ryan
Ted Toadvine
Peter Warnek
Naomi Zack