Can We Suspend Our Assumptions?

Edmund Husserl, the founder of the philosophical tradition called phenomenology, introduced the idea of bracketing or suspending our habitual assumptions about the world. He called this method by the Greek word epoché, which has deep historical roots stretching to the ancient Greek philosophy of scepticism that emphasised suspension of judgments.

Importantly for Husserl, his method of suspending our assumptions does not aim to negate or deny them, nor does it necessarily doubt their validity. Rather, the point is to change our perspective, to alter our attitude to familiar things by weakening the grip of the habitual on our perception.

So, if I suspend my assumptions about something, it does not mean I abandon them (at least, not necessarily) or pretend they have no influence on me. Instead, I loosen their hold on me in order to gain a different perspective.

“We do not abandon the thesis we have adopted, we make no change in our conviction, which remains in itself what it is so long as we do not introduce new motives of judgment… And yet the thesis undergoes a modification— whilst remaining in itself what it is, we set it as it were “out of action”, we “disconnect it”, “bracket it”. It still remains there like the bracketed in the bracket.”

_{Edmund Husserl, “Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology“}

keep exploring!

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