Defense Date
11-13-2024
Graduation Date
Fall 12-20-2024
Availability
Immediate Access
Submission Type
dissertation
Degree Name
PhD
Department
Philosophy
School
McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts
Committee Chair
Lanei Rodemeyer
Committee Member
Fred Evans
Committee Member
Will Adams
Committee Member
Drew Leder
Keywords
applied phenomenology, phenomenology, Husserl, ophthalmology, phenomenology of vision
Abstract
While medicine makes visible symptoms of disease, phenomenology provides a different tool for making illness experience visible. Phenomenology offers a tool for a new kind of description and a different kind of knowledge of disease. It holds a unique epistemic power through the descriptions it generates through the application of the transcendental phenomenological method. Husserl’s method, outlined in Ideas I, provides the steps for its implementation in clinical research. This dissertation explores the application of the transcendental phenomenological method as a foundation for research on perception, with the goal of characterizing phenomenological validity as a proper goal of medical epistemology. I achieved this via a study I conducted in collaboration with the UPMC Vision Institute. This project explores a dynamic phenomenological approach to achieving phenomenological validity, focusing on the interplay between these three different phenomenological approaches to qualitative research. It also examines how vision cases reveal interesting features of perception, while Husserl's phenomenology of perception in Ideas II highlights the structural, universal elements of perception and embodiment that shape vision loss experiences. Together, these perspectives inform and deepen one another. This dissertation argues for the use of a transcendental phenomenological method as an approach for investigating diseases that affect perception, particularly eye disease. The reason for this approach is rooted in the unique nature of phenomenology as a science dedicated to accessing the domain of phenomenality—the realm accessible via. originary experience, the living present. Disease symptoms, particularly those affecting perception, often conceal this domain of phenomenality.
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Tucker, K. (2024). How Scientists Can Investigate Perception: Phenomenological Foundations for Qualitative Research (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/2281