HUSSERL’S TRANSCENDENTAL PHENOMENOLOGY: A HERMENEUTICAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE POSSIBILITY OF EVOLVING A NEW GLOBAL SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS.

SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: Department Of Philosophy

CONTRIBUTORS:

Zaato, M. Z. N;
Oguejiofor, J. O;

ABSTRACT:

Though the alignment of the world between the West and America and their people on one hand and the rest of humanity on the other, may have been informal, an ensuing social consciousness syndrome of “we and them” or “they and us” or “civilized and barbarians” has since been instituted. This informal arrangement has brought about a polarization of the people of the West and America, who, belonging to one camp, consider themselves as “superior” while the rest of humanity is prejudiced and stereotyped as being “inferior”. The consequence of this is resoundingly expressed globally in prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination, etc of people of other races. One of the fallouts of this attitude is the near illusoriness of fashioning out a way around the attainment of global peaceful coexistence. Global humanity through varied organs has embarked on relentlessness campaigns in dialogues’ forms to fashion out ways to counter the situation. However, as this dissertation espouses, the mere dialogues initiatives by the United Nations and other concerned institutions which preach harmonious coexistence on the background of “natural attitude” (bereft of philosophical attitude) in the reawakening of global social consciousness, have grossly failed. It is against this prevailing life-world or human condition and the ineffectiveness of dialogues that this dissertation articulates a position informed from Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology emphasizing the “phenomenological attitude”, as the panacea to the debacle confronting humanity today. Precisely, this research is anchored on Husserl’s phenomenological reduction as a method that purges the “natural attitude” in order to attain the essences of things. It equally insists that the investigation of things must proceed from a presuppositionlessness standpoint. This research thus, appropriates Husserl’s philosophy and method in the examination of the global human consciousness. It additionally, incorporates hermeneutics to expose the inner meanings and consequences of the contemporaneous world order. This effort is juxtaposed with the understanding of the essence of human essence in global social relations. Consequently, the research advances transcendental social consciousness as a necessary and resourceful theory to be employed in the mediation of global attitudinal transformation in order to counter the prevailing mindset whereby some people are reduced to sub-humans and caricatured. The dissertation subsequently concludes that the recognition of humanity as humanity through and through without reservations by their fellow human beings is a panacea to the prevailing global social attitude and an antidote to intolerance and discrimination.