Comments on Jack Reynolds' Book (2018) "Phenomenology, Naturalism and Science"

By Razie Mah

Prof. Jack Reynolds, faculty in Arts and Education at Deakin University, considers the question of an accommodation among phenomenology, naturalism and science. He calls his proposal "hybrid and heretical", without acknowledging the irony of the terms. Is there a battle between the phenomenologist and the scientist? What happens when there are two types of science: content-level hands-on science and situation-level visionary science? Can phenomenology hybridize with hands-on science and be heretical to visionary science? What is the nature of such hybridization and heresy?
These comments use the triadic structure of judgment and the category-based nested form. These comments rely on a prior commentary, Comments on Jacques Maritain's Book (1935) "Natural Philosophy". They are already set into motion through three prior commentaries on Phenomenology: A Reverie on Mark Spencer’s Essay (2021) "The Many Phenomenological Reductions", Comments on Joseph Trabbic’s Essay (2021) "Jean-Luc Marion and ... First Philosophy", and Comments on Richard Colledge’s Essay (2021) "Thomism and Contemporary Phenomenological Realism".
Ah, I guess that means that this is the fourth commentary in a series on Phenomenology.
The first three commentaries examine articles by Thomists, who wonder why engagements with phenomenologists have historically failed. None mention science. This is understandable, since phenomenology seems to have a life of its own, independent of science. It does not. It belongs, along with modern scientific naturalism, in the Laboratory.
Yet, the relation between phenomenology and natural science remains clouded.
Jack Reynolds attempts to construct a map and to propose some sort of accommodation between situation-level phenomenology and content-level hands-on science. In response, situation-level visionary science is not pleased. The normal context of each situation-level nested form excludes the other.
Amazingly, Reynold's themes of heresy and hybridization are on target. In their relational dynamics, these themes transform into disruption and innovation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Razie Mah
• Release date: Jan 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781955931069

Razie Mah

See website for bio.

Book preview

Comments on Jack Reynolds' Book (2018) Phenomenology, Naturalism And Science

By Razie Mah

Published for Smashwords.com

2022 AD

7822 U0'

Notes on Text

This work examines a book by Professor Jack Reynolds, in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University. My goal is to comment on this work using the category-based nested form and other relational models within the tradition of Charles Peirce.

‘Words that belong together’ are denoted by single quotes or italics.

Prerequisites: A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form, A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction

Precursors: A Reverie on Mark Spencer’s Essay (2021) The Many Phenomenological Reductions, Comments on Joseph Trabbic’s Essay (2021) Jean-Luc Marion and ... First Philosophy, and Comments on Richard Colledge’s Essay (2021) Thomism and Contemporary Phenomenological Realism

Recommended: Comments on Jacques Maritain's Book (1935) Natural Philosophy

Table of Contents

A Sealed Vessel

Content And Situation

Shifting Grounds

Phenomenology and Naturalism

Let The Heresy and The Hybridization Begin

Is There No Exit?

The Concordian Not

Thoughts At The End Of Part One

Time, Body and Others

A Sealed Vessel

0001 Contemporary books are snapshots in the flow of history. Or, should I say, in the theodrama of the ever-present now? Each of us pursues our search in the first person, except for the scientist. The scientist may dwell in the first person, but speaks in a technical disciplinary language.

The joys and miseries of everyday life, as well as the wonders and terrors of metaphysics, are sequestered in a bottle on the shelf of the Laboratory. Jack Reynolds picks up the apparently empty vessel, and wipes off the dust of the past century, since the time of Edmund Husserl (1859-1938 AD). His cloth does not remove the accretions of the prior three centuries. Rumor has it, Rene Descartes (1596-1651) put the cap on the bottle.

0002 Reynolds holds the glass enclosure, while standing in a larger enclosure. The Laboratory is home to diverse sciences, all concerned with observing phenomena, the measurable facets of their noumena, the things themselves. The scientists rely on their disciplinary languages in order to build mathematical and mechanical models of their observations. The scientists speak in the voice of the third person.

0003 The empirio-schematic judgment defines this large enclosure.

What is a judgment?

A judgment is a primal triadic relation containing three elements: relation, what is and what ought to be. Once one of Peirce's three categories is assigned to each element, the judgment becomes actionable.

Here is a diagram of the empirio-schematic judgment.

0004 Yes, Jack Reynolds professes in a Laboratory. He has found a vessel that has been studiously ignored. One hundred years ago, the Vienna Circle (1924-1936) declares that the contents of this vessel can be safely ignored, despite Husserl's protestations. The empirical sciences flourish while the vessel remains, sealed and ignored, on a Laboratory shelf.

And now, Reynolds holds it in hand.

0005 I know what is inside the stoppered glass.

It is a noumenon, a thing itself.

Phenomena are observable and measurable facets of their noumenon.

But, a noumenon