Edmund Husserl: What exactly is phenomenology?

Husserl’s position appears to be that what comes in from the outside is not sufficient to determine our consciousness of it

Born in 1859, Edmund Husserl invented a new philosophical approach, one which dominated much of the continental tradition in the 20th century (Public Domain)

Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) was the originator of the philosophy of phenomenology, which would come into its own during the 20th century.

Husserl’s liking for new words, and new uses for old words, makes him a difficult philosopher to read. In the eyes of Husserl scholars, this is almost certainly a good thing, for they like nothing better than to entertain each other with talk of “epoches”, “eidetic reduction”, “noemata”, “horizons” and “hyle”. Normally, there would be little excuse for this kind of thing, but, in the case of Husserl, we can perhaps forgive him the technical vocabulary, for he did invent a new philosophical approach, one which dominated much of philosophy in the continental tradition in the 20th century. 

He called this approach “phenomenology”, which, in its most general sense, consists of the analysis and explication of the structures of conscious experience. Husserl’s interest in consciousness can be traced to his formative years and the influence of his teachers.