Philosophical Research and Narrative Inquiry

Abstract

This article endeavors to re-understand philosophical research through narrative inquiry. It proposes that inquiry in philosophical research leads to new relationships based on the articulation of the individual’s interaction in terms of temporality, spatiality, and sociality. Philosophical research may be considered as asking questions that emanate from the life situation of inquirers. Such investigation seeks to keep the questions alive and to tell better stories through doubt and movement. Research conceived as such is a way of living with others, especially those who cannot tell their own stories. Philosophical research, I argue, turns out to be crucial to democracy as philosophy now asks questions from the stories of sufferings and creates community bonds through narrative and inquiry. The first part of this study clarifies the meaning of narrative; the second part describes the method of narrative inquiry both as a social and art research method; the third, discusses philosophical research as asking questions that emanate from experience and life situation, or the interaction in time and space. The article culminates with the idea that philosophical research forms communities of inquirers whose questions arise from their own stories.

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Keywords

Philosophical research, narrative inquiry, qualitative method, social research