Abstract

Some authors have highlighted the necessity of a phenomenologically inspired approach to cognition in order to solve the explanatory gap existing between natural sciences and the sciences of the mind. Bringing together phenomenology, as a philosophical endeavor, and experimental research may appear as somehow a paradox. But the contradictory nature of this challenge holds true only when phenomenology is understood as a subjective description of experience and not when it is correctly comprehended as a description of subjective experience, aspiring at understanding how subjectivity is the necessary, but not sufficient condition of objectivity. What follows is an attempt to sketch out how this coherence may be reached, considering some aspects of the contemporary debate on how we understand others and of the impact of the phenomenological approach on this topic. To this point I shall refer to specific studies on intersubjective understanding, aiming to highlight advantages and disadvantages of a phenomenological approach to applied cognitive science.