Edmund Husserl's Phenomenology

Edmund Husserl: The Birth of Phenomenology in Modern Era of Philosophy
Introduction:
How phenomenology is very essential to us in human? How this Husserl’s

phenomenology works in the approach in our society? Does this studies brings impact
to the needs of knowledge in other branches of philosophy?
What is phenomenology?
“Phenomenology is a philosophy of lived experience or to see things as they really are.

For phenomenology, the ultimate source of all meaning and value is the lived
experience of human beings. All philosophical systems, scientific theories, or aesthetic
judgments have the status of abstractions from the ebb and flow of the lived world. The
task of the philosopher, according to phenomenology, is to describe the structures of
experience, in particular consciousness, the imagination, relations with other persons,
and the situatedness of the human subject in society and history.” 1
Phenomenology suggests that the two descriptive and interpretative are the
actual facts combined. It allows us to interpret whatever the world provides to our
experiences. Our interpretation of the world around us is part of what the world
provided us that means gives us idea of it. The other elements include is our own
emotions going in, is actually part of the meaning of that matter because the meaning of
that matter may only be existed through by the experienced of every human person. It
also gets even more complex, because the idea of the meaning is based from the
existence of the relationship between the outside world and our own senses. the
feelings are only the reason of having basic understanding of phenomenology. It means
that the philosophers understood the nature of being and existence.” As it also said by
Husserl, it purported that reality could be grasped by through structures of
consciousness by applying of what he called intentionality of the object of study or
intentionality directing one’s focus to describe the realities for. To achieved better
1
Armstrong, Paul B. “What Is Phenomenology?” "Phenomenology". Brown University, 2005. Last
modified 2005. Accessed December 16, 2021.
https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/architecturebodyperformance/106
5.html.
understanding of an object the philosopher should isolated their personal judgement.
So, that preconceived notions do not interfere with the phenomenological inquiry.”
This field of philosophy differs from other main fields of philosophy: Metaphysics
(It concerns existence and the nature of things that exist), ontology as part of
metaphysics (study of being or what is), logic (the science of art and thinking),
epistemology (study of knowledge), ethics (the study of right and wrong action), etc.
This concerns to the human experience alone of the way we perceive and understand
phenomena, and of the meaning phenomena have in our subjective experience .
Phenomenology is commonly understood in either of two ways: as a disciplinary

field in philosophy, or as a movement in the history of philosophy.
The discipline of phenomenology may be defined initially as the study of

structures of experience, or consciousness. Literally, phenomenology is the study of
“phenomena”: appearances of things, or things as they appear in our experience, or the
ways we experience things, thus the meanings things have in our experience.
Phenomenology studies conscious experience as experienced from the subjective or
first-person point of view. The discipline of phenomenology is defined by its domain of
study, its methods, and its main results.2
The historical movement of phenomenology is the philosophical tradition

launched in the first half of the 20 th century by Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger,
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, et al. In that movement, the discipline of
phenomenology was prized as the proper foundation of all philosophy—as opposed,
say, to ethics or metaphysics or epistemology. The methods and characterization of the
discipline were widely debated by Husserl and his successors, and these debates
continue to the present day.3
We all experience various types of experience including perception, imagination,

thought, emotion, desire, volition, and action. Thus, the domain of phenomenology is
2
Smith, David Woodruff. “Phenomenology.” Edited by Edward N. Zalta. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Stanford University, December 16, 2013. Last modified December 16, 2013. Accessed December 16, 2021.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/
3
Ibid., Smith
the range of experiences including these types (among others). Experience includes not
only relatively passive experience as in vision or hearing, but also active experience as
in walking or hammering a nail or kicking a ball. (The range will be specific to each
species of being that enjoys consciousness; our focus is on our own, human,
experience. Not all conscious beings will, or will be able to, practice phenomenology, as
we do.) 4
Conscious experiences have a unique feature: we experience them, we live

through them or perform them. Other things in the world we may observe and engage.
But we do not experience them, in the sense of living through or performing them. This
feature is both a phenomenological and an ontological feature of each experience: it is
part of what it is for the experience to be experienced (phenomenological) and part of
what it is for the experience to be (ontological). 5 It explains that not all we perceived or
engage into are not belong to the category of conscious experiences.
We reflect on various types of experiences just as we experience them. That is to

say, we proceed from the first-person point of view. However, we do not normally
characterize an experience at the time we are performing it. In many cases we do not
have that capability: a state of intense anger or fear, for example, consumes all of one’s
psychic focus at the time. Rather, we acquire a background of having lived through a
given type of experience, and we look to our familiarity with that type of experience:
hearing a song, seeing a sunset, thinking about love, intending to jump a hurdle. The
practice of phenomenology assumes such familiarity with the type of experiences to be
characterized. Importantly, also, it is types of experience that phenomenology pursues,
rather than a particular fleeting experience—unless its type is what interests us. 6 With
4
Merleau-Ponty, M., 2012, Phenomenology of Perception, Trans. Donald A. Landes. London and New York:
Routledge. Prior translation, 1996, Phenomenology of Perception, Trans. Colin Smith. London and New York:
Routledge. From the French original of 1945.
Merleau-Ponty’s conception of phenomenology, rich in impressionistic description of perception and

other forms of experience, emphasizing the role of the experienced body in many forms of
consciousness. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/#DiscPhen Accessed 30th of November
2021.
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
the example laid down that the experience is somehow focus on the past things we
have into that comes into familiarity of the given type of experience.
The basic method of all phenomenological investigation, as Husserl developed it

himself;
The phenomenological reduction consists in the phenomenological reduction,
through which all that is given is changed into a phenomenon in the sense of that which
is known in and by consciousness. The eidetic reduction to get hold of consciousness is
not sufficient; on the contrary, the various acts of consciousness must be made
accessible in such a way that their essences their universal and unchangeable
structures can be grasped, and last is the Transcendental reduction It consists in a
reversion to the achievements of that consciousness that Husserl, following Kant, called
transcendental consciousness, though he conceived of it in his own way. 7
These methods engaged to describe and interpret these meanings as they

present themselves and are shaped by consciousness, language, our cognitive, and our
personal, social, and cultural preunderstandings. Phenomenological inquiry may be
adopted to explore the unique meaning structures of any educational experience or
lived phenomenon. Thus, implies that in phenomenological reduction to entirely set
aside observational questions and shift from pragmatic affirmation or negation to
description, on the eidetic reduction, a process or state by which an individual moves
from consciousness of each of us and to the existing objects to beyond experience of
pure essence. and in the approach of transcendental reduction made it vivid that
language requires an intersubjective context if its use is to have any criterion of
consistency and if, in consequence, the outcome of the reduction is to have any claim to
universal validity.
The most fundamental event occurring in this consciousness is the creation

of time awareness through the acts of pretention (future) and retention (past), which is
something like a self-constitution.
Conscious experience is the starting point of phenomenology, but experience

shades off into less overtly conscious phenomena. Consciousness is a product or
7
Ibid.
construction of historical context from which arises and in turn one can never approach
an objective study in a presuppositionless form that is the object of study cannot be neat
separated from their context nor should be reality and consciousness are co-creation.
Because of this human understanding always arises from the relationship between the
two acting, upon each other.
In such interpretive-descriptive analyses of experience, we immediately observe that

we are analyzing familiar forms of consciousness, conscious experience of or about this
or that. Intentionality is thus the salient structure of our experience, and much of
phenomenology proceeds as the study of different aspects of intentionality. Thus, we
explore structures of the stream of consciousness, the enduring self, the embodied self,
and bodily action. Furthermore, as we reflect on how these phenomena work, we turn to
the analysis of relevant conditions that enable our experiences to occur as they do, and
to represent or intend as they do. Phenomenology then leads into analyses of
conditions of the possibility of intentionality, conditions involving motor skills and habits,
background social practices, and often language, with its special place in human
affairs.8
In conclusion, from Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology he hoped to eliminate

unjustifiable presuppositions and uncover the basis for every possible science and
metaphysics. His study succeeded in eliminating some unjustifiable presuppositions, he
himself was guilty of incorporating others into his theory or concepts. In addition, his
attempt to provide apodictically certain foundations for knowledge on epistemological
grounds alone has been shown to fail because language itself incorporates an ontology.
Finally, because language is operant within the reductions and is formative of one's
experience, some of his method and studies has not been able to provide the basis for
every possible science or metaphysics. A brief re-examination of the three aspects of
the complete phenomenological epoch that will justify these conclusions.
8
Ibid.

Edmund Husserl's Phenomenology

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Edmund Husserl's Phenomenology

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Edmund Husserl's Phenomenology

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Edmund Husserl: The Birth of Phenomenology in Modern Era of Philosophy

How phenomenology is very essential to us in human? How this Husserl’s

“Phenomenology is a philosophy of lived experience or to see things as they really are.

Phenomenology is commonly understood in either of two ways: as a disciplinary

The discipline of phenomenology may be defined initially as the study of

The historical movement of phenomenology is the philosophical tradition

We all experience various types of experience including perception, imagination,

Conscious experiences have a unique feature: we experience them, we live

We reflect on various types of experiences just as we experience them. That is to

Merleau-Ponty’s conception of phenomenology, rich in impressionistic description of perception and

The basic method of all phenomenological investigation, as Husserl developed it

These methods engaged to describe and interpret these meanings as they

The most fundamental event occurring in this consciousness is the creation

Conscious experience is the starting point of phenomenology, but experience

In such interpretive-descriptive analyses of experience, we immediately observe that

In conclusion, from Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology he hoped to eliminate

You might also like