<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The author juxtaposes two extreme approaches to the relationship between consciousness and the physical world: phenomenological-idealistic (represented by Edmund Husserl) and radically naturalistic (represented by Paul Churchland). These two positions are interpreted in terms of opposite if symmetrical types of reduction (on the one hand, the reduction of the world to a sense for consciousness, and on the other hand, the reduction of consciousness to an element of the physical world). They emerge as two ways of abstracting from the ambivalence of ordinary experience, in which consciousness and the physical world are both mutually entangled and non-identical with each other. In conclusion, the author argues that contemporary philosophy, which follows both the idealistic and the naturalistic path, fails to solve the problem of this relationship.</p></abstract>

The author juxtaposes two extreme approaches to the relationship between consciousness and the physical world: phenomenological-idealistic (represented by Edmund Husserl) and radically naturalistic (represented by Paul Churchland). These two positions are interpreted in terms of opposite if symmetrical types of reduction (on the one hand, the reduction of the world to a sense for consciousness, and on the other hand, the reduction of consciousness to an element of the physical world). They emerge as two ways of abstracting from the ambivalence of ordinary experience, in which consciousness and the physical world are both mutually entangled and non-identical with each other. In conclusion, the author argues that contemporary philosophy, which follows both the idealistic and the naturalistic path, fails to solve the problem of this relationship.

Reductions of Consciousness. From Husserl to Churchland

Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Reductions of Consciousness. From Husserl to Churchland"}

The author juxtaposes two extreme approaches to the relationship between consciousness and the physical world: phenomenological-idealistic (represented by...

Reductions of Consciousness. From Husserl to Churchland

Published Online: Oct 11, 2020

Page range: 169 - 185

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/slgr-2020-0018

Keywords
phenomenology, idealism, naturalism, reduction, consciousness

© 2020 Małgorzata Kowalska, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Reductions of Consciousness. From Husserl to Churchland

Published Online: Oct 11, 2020

Page range: 169 - 185

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/slgr-2020-0018

Keywordsphenomenology, idealism, naturalism, reduction, consciousness

© 2020 Małgorzata Kowalska, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
phenomenology, idealism, naturalism, reduction, consciousness