phenomenology

[fi-nom-uh-nol-uh-jee]

noun

Philosophy.

1. the study of phenomena.

2. the system of Husserl and his followers stressing the description of phenomena.

phenomenology

/ fɪˌnɒmɪˈnɒlədʒɪ, fɪˌnɒmɪnəˈlɒdʒɪkəl /

noun

1. the movement founded by Husserl that concentrates on the detailed description of conscious experience, without recourse to explanation, metaphysical assumptions, and traditional philosophical questions

2. the science of phenomena as opposed to the science of being

Other Word Forms

• phenomenologically adverb
• phenomenologist noun
• phenomenological adjective
• phenomenologic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of phenomenology¹

First recorded in 1790–1800; phenomen(on) + -o- + -logy

Example Sentences

“Spiritually, if you look at this kind of thing, the reality is that it was never about the phenomenology of a hole,” Mr. Dumaine said in an interview.

From New York Times

"Stellar phenomenology is extremely rich, and no two stars are the same if looked at closely enough."

From Reuters

“I am interested in exploring the potential of our devices to investigate fundamental physics, including low-energy quantum gravity phenomenology,” he says.

From Scientific American

I found that when I looked in bibliographies, I was running across words like "phenomenology" and "hermeneutics" and things I didn't quite understand why they were there.

From Salon

Martin starts rambling off a list of words: thaumatology, ontology, eschatology, epistemology, phenomenology, teleology, etiology, ontogeny.

From Washington Post