Eidetic reduction

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Eidetic reduction ( Greek  εἶδος = the look, the seen or essence (Plato) and Latin reductio = return) is a term and a method of the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl , in which the essence of a phenomenon is made comprehensible.

description

Phenomenology assumes that complex truths are built up from simpler ones, which in turn consist of even simpler ones. The end points of this chain of reasons are called phenomena . Thus the first task of methodical thinking consists in recourse to evident phenomena that are given with absolute certainty by intuition . This return of the factual properties of “intentional experiences” and their objects to the eidetic determinacy on which they are based and for which the factual properties are only interchangeable examples is what Husserl calls eidetic reduction . It is very important to abstain from any unsecured judgments. This means that during the phenomenological reflection everything that does not belong to the essence ( Eidos ) must be faded out , the epoché must become universal.

Kurt Wuchterl names five areas that are hidden in this process:

  1. learned knowledge from the sciences as well as metaphysical speculations - everything indirect (cf. atomic theory , formal logic , metaphysics )
  2. everything taken from tradition
  3. what is ascribed to the object under consideration only because of its relationship to myself , but cannot be verified by others
  4. any elements that can also be different, i.e. not essential for the object under consideration, e.g. B. the color of the house (as opposed to the house having a roof)
  5. Finally, the objective existence of what is experienced is faded out because, by definition, as a transcendental element, it does not represent any content of consciousness and thus cannot belong to the evident phenomena .

Since man has the ability to grasp a reality directly in perception, the being is grasped separately from the above-mentioned areas. This conception of essence brings to light a general, a general form which is inherent in all individual things of the same species.

literature

  • Klaus Held : Introduction. In: Edmund Husserl: The phenomenological method. Selected texts I. Stuttgart, 1985.
  • Kurt Wuchterl: Methods of Contemporary Philosophy. UTB, Stuttgart, 3rd edition, 1999.

Individual evidence

  1. Georgi Schischkoff (Ed.): Dictionary of Philosophy. 22nd edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1991, Lemma Eidos.