Have Reports of Phenomenology’s Death Been Greatly Exaggerated?

Abstract

This concluding chapter is a response to the chapters by Tom Sparrow and Paul J. Ennis. On the one hand, Sparrow argues that phenomenology is too vague to count as a coherent movement. On the other hand, Ennis argues that phenomenology has been surpassed by recent scientific explanations. The conclusions of Sparrow and Ennis are remarkably similar: phenomenology is ‘over’. In response, Bruce Ellis Benson argues that phenomenology has flourished precisely because of its adaptability, which is why it will flourish in the future. Further, while scientific explanations of phenomena are no doubt helpful, they do not make other explanations superfluous. Benson provides reasons to think that phenomenology will be influential in the twenty-first century and thus reports of its death are premature.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, the ‘real’ quotation goes thus: ‘The report of my death was an exaggeration.’ As is well known, the quote is from Mark Twain, responding to newspaper reports of his death. But, in my title, I am working off the most oft-cited version of the quotation.