From Circumspection to Insight

This chapter discusses several features of the development of theoretical reflection out of pre-reflective practical behavior through reading passages from the work of Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Patocka. It shows how reflection relates to the horizon of what it reflects and also shows how scientific-theoretical reflection constructs such a horizon by means of abstraction. The chapter provides a distinction between scientific-theoretical and philosophical reflection. It also discusses the rise of reflection out of basic layers of bodily experience, in line with the work and views of Merleau-Ponty. Theoretical reflection has its roots in pre-reflective behavior and perception but abstracts from these horizons and develops insight into general structures, which is made possible by a new world disclosure, with a new understanding of "facts", and "truth". Practical reflections relate the acts reflected upon to the practical context and horizon within which they function, but they remain within the realm of circumspection, subordinated to the broader horizons of practice