ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the main philosophical underpinnings that guided her thinking, ongoing analysis, and writing. Foregrounding philosophical underpinnings enables the reader to attune to hermeneutic phenomenological writings. The study used an interpretive hermeneutic phenomenological methodology informed principally from the works of Martin Heidegger and Gadamer. Attunement is an ontologically descriptive notion that is made concrete in affective states, such as moods and emotions that can be shown to have causes, such as fear of childbirth and are material, measurable, and often visible. Conversely, examining an ontological background of attunements is to foreground ontic (material) moods and appreciate attunement as the backgrounded basis upon which ontic moods manifest. In other words, attunement is the background workings of Dasein. Daseins are always attuned somehow, making the foregrounded ontic affective states including moods and emotions possible.
