Phenomenology as Critical Method

As developed in this chapter, phenomenology has its origin in the context of modern philosophy and thus bears a certain relation to other philosophical disciplines, notably metaphysics and epistemology. But it is distinct from both of these, and its place in philosophy is best understood apart from them. While metaphysics asks what exists, how it exists, and sometimes whether it exists, and while epistemology asks how we can know what exists, phenomenology asks, of anything that exists or may exist: how is it given, how is it experienced, and what is the nature of our experience of it? Phenomenology is a method designed to answer these questions. The primary source for this conception of phenomenology is Husserl, who also develops the idea of phenomenological method as a critical method, and the idea of phenomenology as a critique of experience . This reveals the Kantian inspiration of this approach. Significant portions of this chapter concern the relation between Kant and Husserl. In parallel with the Kantian inspiration, it argues that phenomenology can be seen not only as a critique of experience but also as a critique of practice .