ABSTRACT
In a recent introduction to cognitive science, Friedenberg and Silverman devote ten lines (out of 529 pages) to phenomenology. They write that phenomenology refers to subjective experience rather than objective description, and that phenomenological description differs from introspection in that it focuses on the immediate and subjective perception of an external stimulus and does not require training or an intensive examination of one’s internal state (Friedenberg and Silverman 2006, p. 77). As should be clear from the preceding chapters, this is not only a very misleading description of what phenomenology amounts to and what it has to offer the study of the mind, it also reflects a rather strange prioritization, or lack of one. In fact, in our view – but this should hardly come as a surprise at this stage – any contemporary introduction to the cognitive sciences should include a substantial discussion of phenomenology. This is so, not only because phenomenology has made quite substantial contributions to the study of the mind, but also because contemporary discussions in the cognitive sciences are becoming increasingly aware of the rich possibilities offered by phenomenological approaches to certain central issues, and any timely introduction to this area of research ought to reflect this.
