Abstract:

Neurophenomenology is an unusual perspective regarding consciousness, which is one of the challenging problems of the philosophy of mind. It points to a midway point between dualist and idealist approaches, accepting the subjective character of consciousness as scientifically inexplicable, and physicalism, arguing that consciousness is reducible to the physical. Neurophenomenology aims to analyze subjective reports of experience using neuroscientific methods and is based on an enactive approach that tries to overcome the subjective-objective dichotomy by means of the notion of embodied action. Based on the embodied cognition approach, which has its roots in philosophical phenomenology, the neurophenomenological approach describes the state of continuity between experience and the external world, and uses neural imaging data obtained from subjects who are able to purify their experiences from external influences through various meditation techniques to investigate the nature of subjective experience. The aim of neurophenomenology is to obtain enriched first-person data through systematic and rule-based investigations of phenomenological experience and to use this first-person data to reveal new third-person data about neural processes. In this paper, firstly, the philosophical foundations of neurophenomenology are reviewed, then the goals of the neurophenomenological approach and its proposed methodology are evaluated, and finally, it is discussed whether this approach can be considered as a legitimate solution to the problem of consciousness.

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