General Obstacles for Phenomenological Methodologies

This chapter explores two problems that any phenomenological methodology must address. The first problem is one of distortion, which can occur when one tries to take an experience as an “object” of reflection. The second problem arises as a result of the way many essential aspects of experience are necessarily concealed within that experience. I trace this to the centrality of intentional experience and the foundation of intentional experience on the foreground/background relationship. Much of what shapes human experience serves as background to what is foreground and must remain concealed in the sense of not becoming an explicit object of thought. Attempts to directly interrogate conditions of experience will fail to capture these essential but necessarily hidden features. I discuss these two problems and their origin, because the three methodologies I present have been shaped by and in response to these obstacles.