Contemporary Philosophy

Phenomenology
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Phenomenology may be:

Phenomenology (philosophy) which focuses on the work and followers of Edmund Husserl (April 8, 1859 – April 26, 1938).
Existential phenomenology which focuses on the work and followers of Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976), himself a follower of Husserl.
Dialectical phenomenology which focuses on the earlier work of Georg Hegel (August 27, 1770 – November 14, 1831).
Phenomenology (science).
Phenomenology (particle physics).
Phenomenology (architecture).
Phenomenology (psychology).

Phenomenology is a philosophical method developed in the early years of the twentieth century by Edmund Husserl and a circle of followers at the universities of Göttingen and Munich in Germany. Subsequently, phenomenological themes were taken up by philosophers in France, the United States, and elsewhere, often in contexts far removed from Husserl's work.

"Phenomenology" comes from the Greek words phainómenon, meaning "that which appears," and lógos, meaning "study." In Husserl's conception, phenomenology is primarily concerned with making the structures of consciousness, and the phenomena which appear in acts of consciousness, objects of systematic reflection and analysis. Such reflection was to take place from a highly modified "first person" viewpoint, studying phenomena not as they appear to "my" consciousness, but to any consciousness whatsoever. Husserl believed that phenomenology could thus provide a firm basis for all human knowledge, including scientific knowledge, and could establish philosophy as a "rigorous science".

Husserl's conception of phenomenology has been criticised and developed not only by himself, but also by his student and assistant Martin Heidegger, by existentialists, such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, and by other philosophers, such as Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas, and Dietrich von Hildebrand.