Phenomenology as Descriptive Psychology

Abstract

Is phenomenology nothing else than descriptive psychology? In the irst edition of his Logical Investigations (LI), Husserl conceived of phenomenology as a description and analysis of the experiences of knowledge, unequivocally stating that “phenomenology is descriptive psychology.” Most interestingly, although the irst edition of the LI was the reference par excellence in phenomenology for the Munich phenomenologists, they remained suspicious of this characterisation of phenomenology. The aim of this paper is to shed new light on the reception of descriptive psychology among Munich phenomenologists and, at the same time, to offer a re‐evaluation of their understanding of realist phenomenology.