KnowledgeInSight
Phenomenology for Consciousness Studies
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Course 4 · Module 3

Experience and Science: The Blind Spot

Examine the argument of Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, and Evan Thompson that science has a "blind spot": it forgets the lived experience that makes it possible. You'll learn the key ideas of The Blind Spot, trace their roots in Husserl's critique of the sciences and Merleau-Ponty's primacy of perception, and weigh the main criticisms of the book. You'll finish by formulating your own phenomenologically informed position on a current question in consciousness studies.

Module objectives

  • Explain the blind spot argument that science's self-understanding overlooks the lived experience it depends on
  • Connect the blind spot argument to Husserl's critique of the sciences and Merleau-Ponty's primacy of perception
  • Formulate a phenomenologically informed position on a current question in consciousness studies

3 lessons · 28 items · 3h 39m

Lessons

  1. Lesson 1 Blind Spot: The Argument This lesson explains the central argument of The Blind Spot (2024): science depends on lived experience at every step, yet its dominant self-image treats experience as something… 61111h 3m
  2. Lesson 2 Blind Spot: Roots and Critics This lesson traces the blind spot argument to its sources: Husserl's claim that the sciences forget the lifeworld, and Merleau-Ponty's claim that perception is primary. It also… 61111h 3m
  3. Lesson 3 Blind Spot: Forming Your Position This lesson shows you how to build a phenomenologically informed position on a live question in consciousness studies, such as whether an AI system could be conscious, what… 611111h 33m

Further reading

These are the primary texts behind the ideas in this module. Reading them is optional: explore the ones that match your interests. You don't need them to complete the module, which explains their key ideas. Each entry gives the recommended edition, free options where they exist, and where to buy or borrow it.

  • Frank, Adam, Marcelo Gleiser, and Evan Thompson. 2019. "The Blind Spot." Aeon, January 8, 2019. https\://aeon.co/essays/the-blind-spot-of-science-is-the-neglect-of-lived-experience.
    • Module focus: The full essay (free)
  • Frank, Adam, Marcelo Gleiser, and Evan Thompson. 2024. The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    • Module focus: Introduction, chapter 1, and the chapter on consciousness
    • Free: None for the book; the free Aeon essay (Frank, Gleiser, and Thompson 2019) states the core argument.
    • Publisher: MIT Press · paperback: Penguin Random House
  • Husserl, Edmund. (1936) 1970. The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy. Translated by David Carr. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
  • Thompson, Evan. 2015. Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy. New York: Columbia University Press.
    • Module focus: Introduction and the chapters on dreaming and on the self
    • Free: None for the book; see Thompson (2016) for a free précis by the author.
    • Publisher: Columbia University Press
  • Thompson, Evan. 2016. "Précis of Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy." Philosophy East and West 66 (3): 927–33.