ABSTRACT
Herman Dooyeweerd may be one of the best philosophers of everyday life yet to emerge, and this might partly explain why his philosophy is becoming useful in research. This chapter discusses everyday experience and the pre-theoretical attitude of thought, and their relationship with research—not only research application, not only research activity, but even research content. It examines three components of this relationship, about each of which a traditional presumption needs to be questioned: the relationship between researcher and the everyday world, between theoretical and pre-theoretical thinking, and between theoretical and pre-theoretical knowledge. The chapter reviews various discussions about everyday experience and introduces Dooyeweerd’s fuller approach. It discusses its relevance to research, focusing on research application, activity and content separately, but until then they are not differentiated.
