Phenomenology, a major tradition in twentieth-century philosophy, originated in the work of Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) and grew rapidly in importance. Early phenomenological circles were located at the universities of Göttingen, Munich and Freiburg. The work of Martin Heidegger, Max Scheler, Karl Jaspers, Eugen Fink, and Ludwig Landgrebe all expressed important agreement with many, if not all, of the central themes of Husserl’s thought. In France, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Emmanuel Levinas extended the reach of the phenomenological movement to an increasingly international scale. After Husserl’s death in 1938, Martin Farber, Dorion Cairns and Herbert Spiegelberg, Husserl’s North American students, represented Husserl’s legacy in the United States. Later, the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer in Germany and Jacques Derrida and Paul Ricoeur in France also showed clear indebtedness to Husserlian roots.
Central to phenomenological philosophy is...
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Citation: Elveton, Roy. "Phenomenology". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 January 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=860, accessed 09 June 2026.]
