Page 39 - Contribution To Phenomenology

32 LESTER EMBREE

approach may be preferable, provided one is not distracted or one's
results distorted by the specialization of the disciplines reflected upon. As
with the natural and formal sciences, the considerable accomplishments
of the cultural disciplines of aU three sorts appear to have been possible
through specialization. "Specialization" signifies that a perspective has
been adopted by which but one part and not others of the world is ap-
proached. It is thus an abstraction. One can remember that some
disciplinary perspectives are synchronic and others diachronic, some focus
on individualized life and some on collectivities, some focus on social life
and others on economic life or linguistic life, etc., and this omits
consideration of which species of animals is under consideration.
When cultural Ufe is approached obUquely for philosophical purposes,
the perspectives of the individual, species, and genus of the cultural
disciplines, when justified, can be used for guidance. But then it is
important to look beyond the philosophy merely of the social sciences or
of the historical sciences, or of architectural or medical disciplines
specifically or in particular, if only because a well developed albeit
circumscribed and straightforward perspective can be seductive. Phenome-
nologists are not the only philosophers who appreciate that the same
matter can present itself in a number of perspectives none of which is
privileged and all of which are disclosive, but they do seem the ones
most keenly involved with this approach, which is sometimes characterized
as an effort to go through subjectivity to reach objectivity. If they are,
then they will be interested in discussions concerning, for example, what
the historical sciences have in common, how they resemble as well as
differ from the social sciences, how the axiotic disciplines compare and
contrast with the cognitive and practical, what cultural life or the cultural
world in general is, etc.
The affinities between the cultural sciences, the axiotic disciplines, and
the practical disciplines and the traditional parts of philosophy called
epistemology, axiology, and praxiology, respectively, can also be used to
protect the philosopher from naivetd. The general philosophical concern
with cognition transcends concern with what, e.g., particularly sociological
knowledge is, the philosophical concern with evaluation goes beyond the
particular aesthetics of architecture, and the philosophical concern with
the ultimate goals of action are beyond those of business or medicine. It
is philosophical now to ask whether there is something beyond these
three parts of the philosophical task, which amount to specialization of
at least a high level of generality.