Environment, Technology, Justification

Lester Embree

This volume contains eleven essays designed for use in small study groups or in college seminars to help increase understanding of and skill at phenomenological investigation - or what the author prefers to call 'reflective analyses'. Discussion of this material can be advanced by questions such as: Are things themselves observably as they are described? If not, how might they be better described? And if well described as far as they go, how can the descriptions be continued and improved on?

There is an extensive appreciation of culture and hence opposition to naturalism in this text. The attempt is made to clarify the overlapping concepts of environment and technology, which are unfortunately often considered separately.Egological phenomenology is practiced for the most part, but the place of intersubjectivity is regularly indicated and noetico-noematic analysis is relied on practically everywhere. Thus encounterings and things-as-encountered are analyzed into experiencings and positings and experiencings are analyzed into the perceivings, rememberings, and expectings of things in the now, the past, and the future with their manners of givenness and appearance. Then positings are analyzed into positive, negative, and neutral believing, valuings, and willing or actions (in broad significations) with the firm and shaky and also intrinsic and extrinsic positional characteristics in their correlates distinguished and described. The emphasis is on the prepredicative constitution of what it is urged be called “basic culture,” the difference between I-engaged operations and secondarily passive habits and traditions is recognized, and, despite that these are basically surface analyses, something is nevertheless said about identifying and differentiating intentional syntheses.  Finally, the need to carry analysis on beyond epistemology and axiology to praxiology is emphasized in descriptions of how believing, valuing, and willing or action can be directly or indirectly justified by evidencing. The author argues that technology is essentially a form of indirect action, and that environmentalism culminates in justified political action regarding pollution, overpopulation, preservation, and conservation.

· ISBN: 978-973-1997-15-5 (ebook) · Online access on this site · Published 2008 ·
· ISBN: 978-973-1997-14-8 (paperback) · Print and eBook available from Zeta Books ·

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