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This chapter will clarify the precise sense of what I mean by "phenomenology". Only once we are clear on what phenomenology is, can we begin to get toward the crisis of social science. The necessity of this comes from my use of Religious Studies to explicate the crisis itself, as, within Religious Studies, there is a healthy degree of inclarity regarding what "phenomenology" is. The "phenomenology" (really "phenomenologies") most familiar to those in Religious Studies are not adequate to the task of analysing the crisis of social science. Part of the reason for this lies in why we should call them "phenomenologies" at all. In this chapter I will develop an understanding of the simpliciter sense of phenomenology through an exploration of the early history of the Phenomenological Movement in terms of what Husserl, Heidegger, Scheler, and Sartre were all trying to achieve with their phenomenologies. Despite the divergences and polemics against one another, what is common to all is that their phenomenologies found a focus in philosophical anthropology. In its simpliciter sense, phenomenology is an approach to the question "What is man?"

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-92120-4_2

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