Epoché brackets speculative theorising to expose immediate experience

Evidence

This ‘setting aside’ or ‘bracketing out’ of speculative add-ons Husserl called epoché — a term borrowed from the ancient Sceptics, who used it to mean a general suspension of judgement about the world. Husserl sometimes referred to it as a phenomenological ‘reduction’ instead: the process of boiling away extra theorising about what coffee ‘really’ is, so that we are left only with the intense and immediate flavour — the phenomenon. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 142

Husserl therefore says that, to phenomenologically describe a cup of coffee, I should set aside both the abstract suppositions and any intrusive emotional associations. Then I can concentrate on the dark, fragrant, rich phenomenon in front of me now. This ‘setting aside’ or ‘bracketing out’ of speculative add-ons Husserl called epoché — a term borrowed from the ancient Sceptics, who used it to mean a general suspension of judgement about the world. Husserl sometimes referred to it as a phenomenological ‘reduction’ instead: the process of boiling away extra theorising about what coffee ‘really’ is, so that we are left only with the intense and immediate flavour — the phenomenon. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 142

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core technical term of the book’s entire subject — exactly what the reader needs anchored.
• XREF: Epoché as suspension of judgement echoes the ancient Skeptic pyrrhonist stance and the bracketing/epoché concept later picked up by Deleuze and neuroscience discussions of the default mode network. — connects to: Phenomenology’s epoché can neutralize political and ideological dogmas by prioritizing direct experience — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 148; The epoché brackets reality to focus on lived experience itself — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 146; The epoché discards received ideas to describe things as they present themselves. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 343 (+2 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 142

Broader Connections

• The epoché brackets reality to focus on lived experience itself #expands (0.95) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 146