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William James, Niels Bohr, and Complementarity: V - Phenomenology of Subjectivity

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Abstract

Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology is intrinsically theoretical. Its beginnings are with naive self-evidence, basically verbal report, expressed repeatedly, as if in this manner valid solutions to problems will necessarily evolve, in a paradoxical fashion. It is reducible to Q-methodology: Husserl’s perspectives and essences are comparable to the quantized operant factors of Q, which are subject to Niels Bohr’s Principle of Complementarity, and also involve paradoxes. Some implications for Gestalt psychology, Dasein-analysis, and Carl Rogers’ Client-Centered Counseling are considered.

Husserl’s phenomenology, in any of its forms, and Q-methodology are on the same footing except for the denial of consciousness as substantive in Q, and its replacement by communicability. Q-technique stands uniquely as a new probabilistic that opened the door to quantum theory for subjectivity, just as Max Born’s new probabilistic opened the door for quantum physics.

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Stephenson, W. William James, Niels Bohr, and Complementarity: V - Phenomenology of Subjectivity. Psychol Rec 38, 203–219 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395016

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