GestureAwareness
GestureAwareness, Psychologia - Różne, po angielsku
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The Gesture of Awareness
An account of its structural dynamics
1
Natalie Depraz
College Internationale de Philosophie
,
Francisco J. Varela
CNRS
,
and
Pierre Vermersch
CNRS
To appear in:
M.Velmans (Ed.),
Investigating Phenomenal Consciousness
,
Benjamin Publishers, Amsterdam, 1999
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Abstract
This article proposes a description of the structural dynamics of the act of
becoming aware based on the phenomenological method of
épochè
(or reduction),
but also incorporating observations from psychological and contemplative sources.
We propose as the core of this specific act an initial phase of
suspension
of habitual
thought and judgement, followed by
a phase of
conversion
of attention from "the
exterior" to "the interior", ending with a phase of
letting-go
or of receptivity towards
the experience.
I. Introduction
1. A new phenomenological approach
We wish to present here a structural description of the basic gesture of
becoming aware. Such a description does not come from nowhere: our work is rooted
in a renewed, contemporary phenomenology. The phenomenology we advance is
characterized by the way it works: its operational, procedural or performative
dimension. In a word, its
praxis,
its center is the practice of the so-called
phenomenological reduction or
épochè
. It is characterized far more by its enaction,
than by its internal theoretical structure or an a priori
justification of knowledge.
Which amounts to saying that what is important to us is to actually
engage
directly in
the description of phenomena. Only this allows moving forward in refining past
work, and to confirm or invalidate past descriptions. That, rather than the discussion
of the descriptions of other phenomenologists, past or contemporary, is our project.
Nor are we interested in calling into question those of their doctrinal arguments that
remain speculative, thus perpetuating the endless logic of commentaries upon
commentaries. Our immediate purpose, we repeat, is to renew the very heart of the
phenomenological approach as a method of categorical description and exploration of
conscious life.
This stance towards phenomenology immediately implies a shift of
philosophical paradigm, which leads takes us from hermeneutics to the pragmatic.
2
So it is from the philosophical horizon of pragmatism that the aptness and innovative
nature of the following approach is best appreciated.
2
2. Épochè: the heart of the structural dynamics of bringing into
consciousness:
The description of the practice of
épochè
presented here is embedded within a
larger project (cf.footnote 1) which aims to recapture the different steps in a process
whereby something comes into my clear consciousness, something which inhabited
me in a way which was confused, opaque, affective, immanent; something that is pre-
reflective, and eventually becomes part of shared, intersubjective knowledge.
According to the demands of the disciplines called upon, essentially: philosophy,
psychology, cognitive sciences, and spiritual traditions (mostly Buddhism), we have
variously called this gesture "phenomenological reduction", "a reflective act",
"becoming aware", or "mindfulness".
The scope of the broad project just evoked cannot be discussed here in its
entirety. It needs to be broken down into several component dimensions that can be
roughly sketched as follows:
1) A
basic cycle
of dynamic components: the
épochè
itself and intuitive
evidence as truth criteria;
2) Two optional steps,
expression
and
validation
, which allow for
communication and shared knowledge of the act;
3) The multilayered
temporality
of the act of becoming aware, that lends its
necessary dynamic to the description.
Thus although
épochè
constitutes the real heart of the gesture that concerns us
here, it is but an initial step, it primes the dynamic of the ensemble and gives the
starting impulse. It is also a movement carrying across the other steps of the becoming
aware in the sense that it maintains the required quality of presence for such an
exploration of experience.
II. Practicing épochè: between exercise and training
1. The three components of épochè
The present attempt at description follows a logic of
priming
, meaning that it
is not presented as a finalized result. Rather, it is a first attempt at a thematic
characterization of an individual experience, activated or reactivated individually and
subjected to a progressive and intersubjective control.
Épochè
as a gesture is always
complemented by a resulting intuitive evidence and its corresponding understanding
3
in a minimal self-sufficient cycle. In other words,
épochè
and intuitive evidence call
to each other, so to speak.
Epochè
finds its natural accomplishment in the intuitive
evidence of a strong internal obviousness, antecedent to and qualified by a gradual
process of filling-in which is a characteristic property of suspension, at the heart of
épochè
.
Let us now elaborate three principal phases we are proposing to describe the
unfolding of
épochè
:
A.
A phase of
suspension
of habitual thought and judgement. This is a basic
precondition for any possibility of change in the attention which the subject gives to
his own experience and which represents a break with a "natural" or non-examined
attitude.
B.
A phase of
conversion
of attention from "the exterior" to "the interior".
C.
A phase of
letting-go
or of receptivity towards the experience
We call
épochè
the
ensemble
of these three organically linked phases, for the
simple reason that phases B and C are always reactivated by and reactivate phase A.
Note in passing that in this recursive movement, the suspending movement which
begins the process, has a quality which is different each time around, at each step of
the structuring of the reflective act.
epochè
suspension
redirection
letting-go
2. Suspension and its immediate sequels
The initial suspension phase can be rooted or be started in at least three distinct
ways:
• an external or existential event may trigger the suspending attitude. For
example, confronting the death of others, or aesthetic surprise.
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• the mediation of others can also be a decisive, for example a direct
injunction to accomplish the act, or a rather less directive attitude, as is the case when
someone plays the role of a model.
• exercises initiated by the individual, presupposing a self-imposed discipline
including long phases of training and learning until the newly acquired habits are
stabilized.
These three possibilities of priming are not exclusive, but come into play
together, the one in relation to another. They amount to motivations: from living in
the world, intersubjective, and individual. All three motivations are not of equal
importance, depending on the unique chqrqcteristics of the individual and his/her
stage of development. But all converge in making possible and then maintaining
phases B and C.
To speak of the "initial", as if there was a supposed "starting point" regarding
suspension, requires an immediate qualification. In some sense there cannot be of
"starting point", since suspension has already taken place in one's life. Yet at the
same time, it seems to unfolds anew each time it is mobilized. What is needed for the
reflective act to be set in motion? - a suspending move. So we seem to land into a
paradox where we must already have in action that we are trying to trigger. Thus the
very fact of posing this question in this manner shows that there is a problem.
Considered in terms of the products of its activity, the precise moment of the
initiation of the reflective act, its priming, is perhaps not relevant. But at the same
time it is not possible to describe the reflective act other than in having put it into
action, that is, unless we already know how to trigger its initiation. Thus we find
ourselves in the provisional circle of having to describe an act in its very putting it
into play, as in a bootstrap. The central nature of the starting up process is obscured
by the fact that this beginning has already taken place for someone who uses it to
describe this very same transition, as we are doing here.
This pragmatic Gordian knot cannot be resolved theoretically. Its circular
character must be addressed by means of different techniques (methods, know-how,
training) which permit a person to internalize or become masterful of such ongoing
re-instantiation at every moment. Only an actual engagement with such techniques
will also enable the evaluation of the difficulties which must be overcome in order
that suspension be a stable capacity, accentuating the unusual character of becoming
aware.
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