Hermeneutical explorations

pp. 19-34

in: Shaun Gallagher, Lauren Reinerman-Jones, Bruce Janz, Patricia Bockelman, A neurophenomenology of awe and wonder, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstrakt

This chapter looks at the original expressions and descriptions of the experiences of awe and wonder, as well as related experiences, including curiosity and feelings of humility, given by astronauts in their in-flight journals and in interviews after their return to Earth. Our aim in analyzing the astronauts' descriptions of their experiences was to identify and classify experiences that are related to, or that actually instantiate, awe and wonder. As mentioned in the previous chapter, we used two methods for textual analysis: hermeneutical analysis and computer-based syntactical analysis. We"ll provide details of these methods and then discuss the results.