A phenomenologically based system of science

A basic discourse about adequate methodological approaches has dominated the various disciplines such as history, sociology, economics, psychology or recently neuro-sciences within the last 150 years. This still persisting debate essentially focuses on the question about a distinguished method that deserves the label of scientific exactitude as opposed to two heterogeneous competing scientific cultures as is the case in scientific-philosophical dualisms (understanding/explanation, idiography/nomothetics, humanities/natural sciences). Within this background it becomes clear why any dispute about a legitimate cognitive claim of the neuro-sciences - or generally speaking a dispute about the truth relevance of naturalistic theories - cannot reach a mutual acceptable end. Can the idea of a freedom of the will be falsified empirically or does an empirical approach not involve a categorical mistake? Such questions are not only important from an inner-scientific point of view. They also affect the very foundations of our human self-conception and are of an enormous practical relevance in so far as current socio-economic, political ethical and legal consequences are concerned. The research project shall shed new light on the debate by trying to apply a particular approach that both rejects scientific-philosophical monisms as unacceptable and tries to sketch a more complex picture of scientific conceptual and theoretical genesis as would be possible on the grounds of the above dualisms. Based on Husserl`s transcendental phenomenology, the proposal shall try to justify a pluralism of the sciences within the frame of a phenomenologically based system of science and without thereby enhancing a fruitless relativism of undistinguishable perspectives. For this purpose, the relevant essential concepts of `attitude` and `lifeworld` will be expanded to a global theory of scientific concept formation. Particular emphasis will thereby be put on the exchange with other philosophical paradigms such as hermeneutics, system theory, positivism or analytic philosophy. Furthermore, the developed theses shall be proofed by a concrete field of application. Therefore the project is embedded in a inter-universitary cooperation between the Karl-Franzens University Graz (department of philosophy) and the University for medical studies Graz (Clinic for medical psychology and psychotherapy). This cooperation deals with the question of a phenomenologically based subjectivity-research in medicine, with the key- sectors ethics and philosophy of science.

A basic discourse about adequate methodological approaches has dominated the various disciplines such as history, sociology, economics, psychology or recently neuro-sciences within the last 150 years. This still persisting debate essentially focuses on the question about a distinguished method that deserves the label of scientific exactitude as opposed to two heterogeneous competing scientific cultures as is the case in scientific-philosophical dualisms (understanding/explanation, idiography/nomothetics, humanities/ natural sciences). Within this background it becomes clear why any dispute about a legitimate cognitive claim of the neuro-sciences - or generally speaking a dispute about the truth relevance of naturalistic theories - cannot reach a mutual acceptable end. Can the idea of a freedom of the will be falsified empirically or does an empirical approach not involve a categorical mistake? Such questions are not only important from an inner-scientific point of view. They also affect the very foundations of our human self-conception and are of an enormous practical relevance in so far as current socio-economic, political ethical and legal consequences are concerned. The research project shall shed new light on the debate by trying to apply a particular approach that both rejects scientific-philosophical monisms as unacceptable and tries to sketch a more complex picture of scientific conceptual and theoretical genesis as would be possible on the grounds of the above dualisms. Based on Husserl`s transcendental phenomenology, the proposal shall try to justify a pluralism of the sciences within the frame of a phenomenologically based system of science and without thereby enhancing a fruitless relativism of undistinguishable perspectives. For this purpose, the relevant essential concepts of `attitude` and `lifeworld` will be expanded to a global theory of scientific concept formation. Particular emphasis will thereby be put on the exchange with other philosophical paradigms such as hermeneutics, system theory, positivism or analytic philosophy. Furthermore, the developed theses shall be proofed by a concrete field of application. Therefore the project is embedded in a inter-universitary cooperation between the Karl-Franzens University Graz (department of philosophy) and the University for medical studies Graz (Clinic for medical psychology and psychotherapy). This cooperation deals with the question of a phenomenologically based subjectivity-research in medicine, with the key- sectors ethics and philosophy of science.