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Hello, quote, back to the things themselves, unquote. This might not sound like much of a battle

cry, but it's a rallying call of a movement that challenged a long philosophical tradition

and changed forever the way some people think about what is meant,

what it means to be human.

We'll be talking about phenomenology developed by the German philosopher Edmund Husserl at the start of the 20th century,

phenomenology began as a response to a feeling of crisis in the natural sciences,

but it soon developed into a powerful method in its own right

used to expose and challenge the presumptions of Western

intellectual life since Descartes, 1596 to 1650.

Also its proponents thought.

Phenomenologists had a profound influence on the course of

European philosophy. It shaped the works of writers like Martin Hedega, Jean-Paul Sartre

and Simon de Beauvoir, and it's been extremely versatile. Phenomenologists have written on many subjects

from the foundations of mathematics

to the difference between fear and anxiety.

With me to discuss phenomenology

are Simon Glendinning, professor of European Philosophy in the European Institute at the London School of Economics,

Joanna Hodge, Professor of Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University,

and Stephen Mulhall, Professor of Philosophy and Tutor at the University of Oxford.

Stephen Mulhall, can you give us a brief sketch of the territory?

...