In establishing the core of his psychotherapeutic perspective, Eugene Gendlin constantly refers to the natural sciences in general terms and the behavioural sciences in particular terms, stressing their limitations in addressing human foundations of subjective experience. He argues, for instance, that science does not have concepts or methodologies to properly address the process of bodily felt experiencing. He argues that science is based on the empirical testing of logical statements, and that these impose an artificial order on the natural concretely felt human experience, as if everything was reducible to mathematical formulas. This paper examines Gendlin's arguments on the matter in some detail focusing on Gendlin's 1962 book (Experiencing and the creation of meaning) and 1991 book chapter (Thinking beyond patterns: Body, language, and situations), which contain his main arguments. Gendlin's reference to Logical positivism in his characterization of the ways of science is presented and critically examined. Gendlin's claims to a phenomenological perspective is also presented and critically examined. It is concluded that (1) Gendlin overlooked the possibility that the debate over what science is might not be resolved with the proposals of Logical positivism, (2) that, consequently, he overlooked the possibility that more recent views of what science is might satisfactorily address some or all of the difficulties raised by his possibly outdated view, and (3) that his phenomenology was idiosyncratic rather than profoundly rooted in the philosophical tradition. Popperian Critical Rationalism, as a philosophy of science. is shown to resolve some of the major difficulties noted by Gendlin, and the limitations of this more recent epistemological perspective vis-a-vis the understanding of the conscious flow of human experience are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/8466 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Leblanc, Jean-Luc. |
| Contributors | Lamontagne, C., |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 208 p. |
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