Phuc Hong Nguyen

I am Vietnamese and currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Kentucky. My research interests center on Continental Philosophy, especially Heidegger and Phenomenology, as well as the 19th- and 20th-century German and French philosophy. My way of thinking is mostly shaped by an intercultural philosophical orientation, particularly an interest in bringing European philosophy into dialogue with East Asian thought to open new horizons for rethinking fundamental questions of philosophy.

I am currently working toward building a new branch of phenomenology- what I call Microphenomenology- which focuses on the microgenesis of lived experience. By addressing unresolved problems in Heidegger’s phenomenology, this project also seeks to open new possibilities for integrating phenomenology with other philosophical and interdisciplinary approaches.

Contact Information

hong.phuc@uky.edu

1402/1406 Patterson Office Tower

Education

M.A. (by research) in Philosophy, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom.

B.A. in Philology and Education, Hanoi National University of Education, Vietnam.

Research Interests

Martin Heidegger
Phenomenology/ Micro-phenomenology
Continental Philosophy
Comparative Philosophy
Buddhism
Asian Philosophy
Metaphysics

Affiliations

Philosophy

Research

Dissertation:

Microphenomenology: An Inquiry into the Microgenesis of Lived Experience

This project aims to lay the groundwork for a new branch of phenomenology concerned with the microgenesis of lived experience. It begins from what I take to be a limitation in Heidegger’s phenomenology: although Heidegger radically redirects phenomenology toward the ontological structures of existence, he also 'lowers the resolution' of phenomenology. That means, Heidegger makes phenomenology operate on a much more macro level; therefore, lacking the lexicon to explain in detail the microgenesis of the formation of projectable possibilities for Dasein as well as the origin and overcoming of metaphysics, which are central to Heidegger's entire thought. Microphenomenology therefore seeks to rework Heideggerian phenomenology so that it can describe the micro-scale processes of experience formation in greater detail than Heidegger’s phenomenology currently allows. In the project, I will define its distinctive domain of inquiry, clarify the nature of lived experience, and establish its main principles and ontological commitments as as a distinct field of phenomenological inquiry. Microphenomenology primarily examines how experiences such as seeing, hearing, feeling, or perceiving objects gradually take shape before they become explicit and meaningful to our us. Its conceptual and ontological commitments will draw especially on Husserl, Deleuze, Nishida, Buddhist phenomenology, and relevant research in Neuroscience. It also aims to provide new resources for explaining the formation and overcoming of metaphysical thinking, the constitution of subjectivity, and other possible philosophical and interdisciplinary applications.