HUSSERLIAN ‘EPOCHE’ AND THE EXPANSION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
Husserlian ‘epoche’ requires the researcher to intentionally set aside prejudices, biases, presumptions and presuppositions previously acquired from culture, religion, and society. This 'epoche' will enable the individual to have his or her own personal unbiased or unprejudiced assessment of the phenomena – objects, persons, events. Most, if not all cultures, religions, and society seem rigid and dogmatic in imparting knowledge to younger generations. Most persons who can reproduce the knowledge imparted to them are often celebrated as intelligent persons even when they may not have expanded the knowledge in question; thus ignoring those who may produce an unbiased or unprejudiced assessment of the phenomena – persons who may contribute to and expand knowledge. While the reproduction of cultural or communal knowledge by a given generation has historical values, it limits the generation in question to the limits of the knowledge community. This paper, using the analytical and phenomenological methods, argues for the expansion of human knowledge by encouraging researchers to have their encounter with the phenomena using the Husserlian ‘epoche’. Such knowledge acquired by the individual should be seen as an expansion of or additional knowledge to that of the knowledge community.
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