Idea of Phenomenology

This text comprises a translation of five lectures delivered in 1907 at the University of Gottingen. In it the author lays out the philosophical problem of knowledge, indicates the requirements for its solution, and introduces the phenomenological method of reduction. For those interested in the genesis and development of Husserl's phenomenology, this text affords a glimpse into the epistemological motivation of his work, his concept of intentionality, and the formation of central phenomenological concepts that will later go by the names of "transcendental consciousness", the "noema", and the like. This is a teaching text and it is brief and unencumbered by the technical terminology of the author's later work. It bears a connection to the problem of knowledge as formulated in the Cartesian tradition, and it is accompanied by a translator's introduction that spells out the structure, argument, and movement of the text.