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In its broadest meaning 'phenomenology' signifies a descriptive philosophy of experience. The name of Husserl is most closely associated with this term in twentieth-century thought.
Husserl hoped to extend the entire scope of the a priori to the entire field of experience, so as to construct a science of 'pure' phenomenology. From the beginning, phenomenology was committed to the ideal of the greatest possible freedom from presuppositions. Accordingly, speculative constructions were ruled out, and there could be no talk of a 'transcendent' realm, beyond possible experience. Husserl's slogan "Back to the things themselves!" expresses this principle well.
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