Assignment 3
Detailed Answers
Due 7 July 2025
, PDU3701
Assignment 03: Detailed Answers
Due Date: 7 July 2025
Question 1: Two Philosophers Associated with Phenomenology
Two major philosophers who are central to the development of phenomenology are
Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger.
Edmund Husserl: The Founder of Phenomenology
Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) is widely recognized as the founder of phenomenology, a
philosophical method. This method deeply explores conscious experience from a first-
person point of view. Husserl's phenomenology stresses intentionality, which means
that consciousness always looks toward an object or a thing. His method of epoché or
bracketing involves putting aside pre-set ideas about the outside world. This helps to
purely focus on how things appear to consciousness (Husserl, 1970). This process tries
to find the basic ways experience is built, free from old ideas or unfair views. Husserl's
way of thinking is key because it makes phenomenology a serious study of
consciousness, putting personal experience first as the base for understanding reality.
His work, especially Ideas I (1913), made the path for later growth in phenomenology
across many areas. It shows his belief that true knowledge starts by looking inward at
how things appear to us, rather than assuming an outside world.
Martin Heidegger: Extending Phenomenology to Existential Concerns
Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), who was a student of Husserl, greatly added to
phenomenology. He moved its focus from just consciousness to the deeper question of
Being. In his important work Being and Time (1927), Heidegger brought in the idea of
Dasein (being-there). This describes human life as naturally set within a world full of
meaning, connections, and past events (Heidegger, 1962). Unlike Husserl, who looked
at how consciousness is built, Heidegger's phenomenology explores "being-in-the-
world." This highlights how life is shaped by doing things in our surroundings. His