Philosophical basis
Three philosophers have established the philosophical basis preceding and underlying music
phenomenology: Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) and Maurice Mer-
leau-Ponty (1908-1961). Husserl presented his phenomenology in Logische Untersuchungen (1900-
- and Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie (1913). A
large number of his manuscripts have been published posthumously. Heidegger was Husserl’s as-
sistant, and he dedicated his major work, Sein und Zeit (1926)^2 to his mentor. Merleau-Ponty heard
Husserl’s lectures in Paris, studied the publications of Husserl and Heidegger, and had access to
unpublished manuscripts in the Husserl archives in Belgium. His major work is Phénoménologie de
la perception (1945).^3
Heidegger’s and Merleau-Ponty’s philosophies are indebted to Husserl’s published works as
well as his manuscripts, even if they dissociate themselves from some of Husserl’s standpoints. Hus-
serl’s manuscripts anticipate crucial fields of investigation, such as Heidegger’s emphasis on the im-
portance of the lifeworld of the human being, and Merleau-Ponty’s emphasis on the centrality of the
body. In continuation of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, Mikel Dufrenne (1910-1995) adds an aesthetic
perspective to phenomenology in his Phénoménologie de l’experience esthétique (1953).^4
Phenomenology investigates the first-person experience of the world. This investigation comprises
two inseparable aspects: to describe the world, and to describe the nature and structure of the con-
scious experience itself. Consciousness is not self-enclosed, it aims toward something, it is open to
the world and directed towards its objects and manifestations. The philosophical term for this direct-
edness is ”intentionality” (Zahavi 2003b:14, Thompson 2007:22).
Phenomenology is not based on introspection, it does not purport the existence of a self-con-
tained inner world (Merleau-Ponty 2002:XII, 66). Gallagher and Zahavi (2008:8) point out that ”The
phenomenologist studies perception, not as a purely subjective phenomenon, but as it is lived
through by a perceiver who is in the world, and who is also an embodied agent with motivations and
purposes.”
Seven basic guidelines for phenomenological investigation are the following:
- Suspend the natural attitude
The first step of a phenomenological investigation consists of suspending presuppositions about the
world. Husserl names the beliefs we take for granted ”the natural attitude”, and his term for evading
them is the Greek word ”epoché”, which signifies ”suspension” or ”putting brackets around”.
It is a goal of phenomenology to observe the world in an unbiased way in order to achieve a
clearer and more precise view of the experienced world (Thøgersen 2004:32, 74). This does not
mean that we have to disregard our ”natural attitude” completely. On the contrary, we can reflect
upon the natural attitude and take a stand on its manifestations. A fundamental assumption pertain-
ing to the natural attitude is the belief in a reality which exists independently of our perception and
consciousness. It is a task of phenomenology to perform a critical investigation of this belief, which is
deeply rooted in science and daily life (Zahavi 2003b:44). - Adopt the phenomenological attitude
The phenomenological attitude implies investigation of phenomena as they appear to conscious-
2 English translation: Being and Time (19 62)
3 English translation: Phenomenology of Perception (1962). Second edition (2002) with a different pagination.
The present text refers to the 2002 edition.
4 English translation: The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience (1973)