Phenomenology is a philosophical approach that aims to understand and describe human experience exactly as it is lived and perceived, without relying on scientific explanations or abstract theories.

The Core Idea: Back to Things Themselves

Phenomenology is essentially a technique for carefully studying the contents of consciousness—how things appear to us. It tries to get at the pure experience before our brains label or explain it.

“To the things themselves!”

Edmund Husserl

• This means we should stop theorising about reality (e.g., whether a table is made of atoms or is an idea in our mind) and instead focus on the experience of the table as it appears to us right now—its shape, its surface, and the way it shows up in our consciousness. It insists that the experience is the primary source of knowledge.

Consciousness is Always “About” Something

A key discovery of phenomenology is the idea of intentionality. This is the recognition that consciousness is never just an empty container; it is always directed towards something. Every thought is a thought of something; every perception is a perception of something.

“Consciousness is always consciousness of something.”

J, P. Sartre

• We can’t just “feel”; we have to feel joy, or fear, or heat. We can’t just “see”; we have to see a tree, or a colour, or a face. Intentionality means that the world and the mind are fundamentally linked because the mind only exists as a relation to the world.

The Lived Body and Perception

Later phenomenologists, like Maurice Merleau-Ponty, focused on the body as the source of our experience. They argued that our perception of the world is not a purely mental act, but is rooted in our body’s skills and movements.

“We are in the world through our body.”

M. Merleau-Ponty

• This rejects the old idea that the mind is a detached observer. Our body is our way of being in the world. For example, when we learn to ride a bicycle, the skill isn’t just a mental formula; it’s a way our body knows and relates to the world. Phenomenology studies how the body’s movements and senses structure what we experience as “reality.”

In action

Performing a phenomenology, or a phenomenological analysis, isn’t about doing a scientific experiment; it’s a structured method of intense self-reflection and detailed description used to understand a human experience exactly as it is lived.

Choose our Phenomenon

• Select an experience: Start by picking a specific, everyday experience that we want to examine. It should be an experience of something, not just an abstract idea.
  • Examples: The feeling of walking through a park, the act of listening to music, the experience of using a mobile phone, or the process of recognising a friend’s face.

Execute the Phenomenological Reduction (The Epoché)

This is the most crucial step and the hardest to master. we must temporarily “bracket” (set aside) all our assumptions about the experience.

• Suspend Belief: Deliberately ignore the “natural attitude”—that is, the common-sense, scientific, and cultural beliefs we hold about the phenomenon.
  • If we are analysing walking: Stop believing in the laws of physics, anatomical diagrams, or the urban planner’s definition of a path.
  • Focus Shift: Instead of asking, “Does the ground exist?” we only observe the act of perceiving and experiencing the ground.

Describe the Experience

Once the external world has been bracketed, we focus only on the consciousness of the experience and describe its essential qualities. Be meticulous and avoid interpretive jargon.

• Identify Intentionality: Describe how our consciousness is directed towards the object. we don’t just “see”; we see the colour of the grass; we don’t just “hear”; we hear the rustle of the leaves.
• Focus on the Lived Body: Describe the experience from the perspective of our body. How does our body move, feel, and position itself?
  • Example: Describe the balance required for walking, the way our legs “know” the path’s incline without conscious thought, or the way our hand reaches out to steady ourself. our body is the medium through which the world appears.
• Describe Time and Space (as Lived): Detail how the experience shapes our sense of time and space.
  • Example: Does time seem to drag or fly by? Does the physical space feel familiar and welcoming or alien and compressed?

Search for the Essential Structure (The Eidetic Reduction)

After a rich description, we try to find the necessary structure that makes the experience what it is.

• Vary the Experience: Mentally or practically vary elements of the experience to see what features are essential and what are accidental.
  • Example: Can we still have the experience of “walking through a park” if we are floating? No. Therefore, contact with the ground is an essential structure of the walking experience.
• Identify the Essence: State the necessary, unchanging qualities that make the phenomenon recognisable. This reveals the “essence” (Eidos) of the experience as it shows up in consciousness.

To perform a phenomenology, we stop explaining and start intensely describing. we temporarily ignore what we know about an object (science, theories, common sense) and focus only on the incredibly detailed and complex way that the object shows up in our lived experience. This detailed description, free from assumptions, reveals the fundamental structure of being human.