It Takes… Three! Enhancing Phenomenological Evidence in the Triangulation Approach to Aesthetic Experience

At the heart of Murray Smith’s proposal of a methodological “triangulation” is the principle that in our research we take into serious account three levels of analysis, with their respective types of evidence: the phenomenological level; the psychological level; and the neurophysiological level. However, the author’s trust in phenomenological evidence appears to be fluctuating, and the issue of how to concretely take advantage of it appears underexplored. On this grounding, I will address the broad topic of a rigorous usage of phenomenological evidence by touching upon three main points: 1) The nature of phenomenological evidence; 2) The methods to gather phenomenological evidence; 3) The reliability of this type of evidence. In my discussion, I will focus on a particular method stemming from Francisco Varela’s neuro-phenomenological framework and developed by Claire Petitmengin, i.e. “micro-phenomenology”.