Phenomenology, Empiricism, and Creation in Man
This article was also published on the Symbolic World blog . Phenomenology vs. empiricism In a recent article on the Symbolic World blog , Jonathan Pageau and JP Marceau explored certain practical considerations around two different approaches to symbolism, those aligned with the worldviews of Maximus the Confessor and of Thomas Aquinas. 1 The Maximian approach, as the two men explained, goes all in on phenomenology, centering around the notion of human consciousness as a sort of ontological anchor for the things of the world. The Thomist approach on the other hand is less overtly phenomenological and more willing to consider the independent existence of a world outside man. In other words, it’s fully amenable to empiricism. It allows us to live in a world built upon science without the constant nagging of metaphysical considerations which seem to subvert the foundations of the enterprise. While Pageau and Marceau undertook to present certain dangers of jumping into the phenomenol