EDITORIAL

Editorial

Tommy Akira Goto

(Associated Editor)

In the third issue of Phenomenological Studies we present to the reader a Dossier with an unprecedented theme. The dossier brings several studies on the "Phenomenology of the Ages of Life" highlighting, in particular, the stage of childhood, adolescence and youth.

"Life" is a surprising, mysterious phenomenon that until today has been the theme of poets, philosophers and also scientists. As such it arouses our attention, especially since it is not something that we can approach as an object, but which we feel intrinsically, directly in us, after all, we are living. And because we are living, at the same time that we realize it, we also want to find the meaning of our own life. Well, here is the reason for the original questions, the so-called existential questions; Questions that gave rise to the religious, artistic, philosophical and scientific attitude. These questions arise as a human need to find an explanation, a support, or even a meaning for Life.

However, after so many religious, philosophical and even scientific attempts, we have not yet reached a final answer, an explanation that exhausts the meaning of Life. Perhaps the poets are those who have remained closer to her. Fernando Pessoa said: "We all have to live a life that is lived and another life that is thought". This is evidence! And this Life that we all have, also happens and is felt differently, not only in each singularity, that is, in each of us, but also in different ways, according to the moment of each one. It is the moments of our Life, when it unfolds in time, when it passes through us, making us feel it as cycles, phases, ages.

In the face of various failed attempts to frame Life from its products (Art, Theology, Philosophy and Science) some scholars and researchers have realized that the best way to find the meaning of Life is to allow their own meanings to be revealed, To show for themselves. Make a "Phenomenology of Life", that is, an analysis of the meaning of Life and its ages, but considering as its starting point Life itself and its unfolding. Edith Stein, speaking of the phenomenological method, teaches us that if we want to know something of the human and here we have the Life phenomenon, "we have to put ourselves in the most alive way possible in the situation in which we experience human existence, We experience ourselves and our encounter with others. "

This is the way, the methodological path that our authors will follow, describing and analyzing each moment (age) and situation of human life, indicating each one of them and their meanings. Meanings ranging from our birth, our encounter with the world and with others, from our childhood to the awakening of our consciousness to our "position in the Cosmos". And to enrich the dossier, we also present, in an unprecedented way, the translation of a small but important text by Edmund Husserl, written in 1935, entitled "The Child. The First Empathy".

That, dear readers, is what we are going to address in this volume.

Good Reading.

(This issue was finished at September 04,2017)