The phenomenological character of qualitative research in Max van Manen and Martin Heidegger’s “original science of life”

Abstract

Based on Dan Zahavi's questioning on the suitability of the phenomenological approach used by Max van Manen, the article aims to show that the work of this renowned researcher of Dutch origin offers an approach to the original meaning of phenomenology. In particular, it is argued that Zahavi's criticism of the lack of alignment of van Manen's project with the sources of the phenomenological tradition should be nuanced. Thus, with regard to the texts of the Dutch researcher that are subjected to critical examination by Zahavi, a close relationship with the phenomenological-existential approach of Martin Heidegger may be established. For this, the central elements of the phenomenological character that is reflected in these texts are highlighted first. Secondly, a brief approach to the lessons taught by Heidegger in the semester of 1919/1920 is offered. In these, a sense of phenomenological research is expressed that corresponds to the existential character that can be identified in some of the texts of the Dutch researcher and that maintains a significant validity in the practice of phenomenology as a qualitative research approach. Finally, it is argued that Zahavi's criticism of van Manen can be understood not only as the result of a concern for the suitability of the phenomenological approach in the context of qualitative research, but, more basically, as the expression of a tension between different ways of appropriating the phenomenological exercise.