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phenomenology

n. a movement in European philosophy initiated by German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859–1938). In his writings of the 1910s and 1920s, Husserl argued for a new approach to human knowledge in which both the traditional concerns of philosophy (such as metaphysics and epistemology) and the modern concern with scientific causation would be set aside in favor of a careful attention to the nature of immediate conscious experience. Mental events should be studied and described in their own terms, rather than in terms of their relationship to events in the body or in the external world. However, phenomenology should be distinguished from introspection as it is concerned with the relationship between acts of consciousness and the objects of such acts (see intentionality). Husserl’s approach proved widely influential in psychology (especially Gestalt psychology) and the social sciences; it also inspired the work of German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), whose existential phenomenology provided the basis for existentialism and existential psychology. —phenomenological adj. —phenomenologist n.

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Psychology term of the day

December 18th 2024

Unified Tri-Service Cognitive Performance Assessment Battery (UTCPAB)

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