Phenomenology and empirical research are not naturally compatible and devising an empirical technique aiming at researching experience is a challenge. This article presents second-person indepth phenomenological inquiry -a technique that tries to meet this challenge by allowing the transformation of a participant greatly interested in the investigation of their own subjective experience, into a co-researcher. It then provides an example of this technique being used in a study on enaction of beliefs, more closely showing the cooperative research process of researcher and coresearcher and its result: a grounded theory. The article ends with a discussion on the techniques strengths and weaknesses.

No abstract

In this article, I set off to explore the question "What is belief?" from a first-person perspective. Finding the explanations in analytical philosophy insufficient, I delve into the phenomenological tradition -starting with Edmund Husserl's concept of the horizon. In doing so, I find that the phenomenological tradition seems to contradict the presupposition of beliefs as representations. Directing my attention to finding an alternative explanation, I present Hubert Dreyfus' explanation of learning without representations, but show that (by Dreyfus' own admission) he does not truly take a decisive step away from representationalism. I present the idea of enaction as a proper alternative to representations. Within this new framework, I present the idea of sense-making as a potential direction towards an answer to the question at hand.