Editing Reality (section)

=== Phenomenology ===
On a much broader and more subjective level,{{Specify|date=August 2011}} private experiences, curiosity, inquiry, and the selectivity involved in personal interpretation of events shapes reality as seen by one and only one person<ref>"Present-time consciousness",
Francisco J. Varela,
''Journal of Consciousness Studies'' 6 (2-3):111-140 (1999)</ref> and hence is called [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]]. While this
form of reality might be common to others as well, it could at times also be so unique to oneself as to never be experienced or agreed upon by anyone else. Much of the kind of experience deemed [[Spirituality|spiritual]] occurs on this level of reality.<ref>
For the concept of "levels of reality", compare: {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TD90EAAAQBAJ |title=Levels of Reality in Science and Philosophy: Re-examining the Multi-level Structure of Reality |date=8 June 2022 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=9783030994259 |editor-last1=Ioannidis |editor-first1=Stavros |series=Jerusalem Studies in Philosophy and History of Science |publication-place=Cham, Zug |access-date=31 May 2024 |editor-last2=Vishne |editor-first2=Gal |editor-last3=Hemmo |editor-first3=Meir |editor-last4=Shenker |editor-first4=Orly |editor-link4=Orly Shenker}} 
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Phenomenology is a [[philosophical method]] developed in the early years of the twentieth century by [[Edmund Husserl]] (1859–1938) and a circle of followers at the universities of [[Göttingen]] and [[Munich]] in Germany. Subsequently, phenomenological themes were taken up by philosophers in France, the United States, and elsewhere, often in contexts far removed from Husserl's work.

The word ''phenomenology'' comes from the [[Greek language|Greek]] ''phainómenon'', meaning "that which appears", and ''lógos'', meaning "study". In Husserl's conception, phenomenology is primarily concerned with making the structures of consciousness, and the [[phenomena]] which appear in acts of consciousness, objects of systematic reflection and analysis. Such reflection was to take place from a highly modified "[[First-person narrative|first person]]" viewpoint, studying phenomena not as they appear to "my" consciousness, but to any consciousness whatsoever. Husserl believed that phenomenology could thus provide a firm basis for all human [[knowledge]], including [[scientific knowledge]], and could establish philosophy as a "rigorous science".<ref>{{cite book |author=Kockelmans |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Kockelmans |title=Edmund Husserl's phenomenology |publisher=[[Purdue University]] Press |year=2001 |isbn=1-55753-050-5 |edition=2 |pages=311–314}}</ref>

Husserl's conception of phenomenology has been criticised and developed by his student and assistant [[Martin Heidegger]] (1889–1976), by [[existentialists]] like [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]] (1908–1961) and [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] (1905–1980), and by other philosophers, such as [[Paul Ricoeur]] (1913–2005), [[Emmanuel Levinas]] (1906–1995), and [[Dietrich von Hildebrand]] (1889–1977).<ref>{{cite book |author=Crowell |first=Steven Galt |title=Husserl, Heidegger, and the space of meaning: paths toward transcendental phenomenology |publisher=[[Northwestern University]] Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-8101-1805-X |page=160}}
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