The word “Phenomenology” was coined by the 20th Century German Philosopher Edmund Husserl, which he defined as “Philosophy as a strict science, with an open frame of reference.” Like most Philosophers from the early 19th Century onward, Husserl was heavily influenced by the 18th Century German Philosopher Immanuel Kant.
The book I am working on now, Meta-Scientific Phenomenology, shall pick up Epistemology where Kant left it, informed by the empirical data of Relativity Theory and Quantum Mechanics. It is important to understand that the ideas of Kant did not come out of a vacuum, but were dependent upon the contemporary thought at that time.
The Classical Physics of Isaac Newton was achieving astounding success both in describing astronomical events as well as helping to foment the Industrial Revolution. Meanwhile, Philosophy was deducing a null result.
Bishop George Berkeley and David Hume, two British 18th Century Philosophers, were denying any type of absolute knowledge whatsoever. Berkeley held that material objects are illusory, and that all reality exists as ideas within the mind of God. Hume was casting doubt upon the Law of Causality, and asserted that consciousness is merely meaningless thought associations. A humorous commentator remarked on this series of events by saying “Never mind, no matter.”
That is how Kant discovered the a priori (Latin for “before the fact”). He marveled at how statements such as “7 + 5 = 12” or “The sum of the interior angles of all Triangles on a flat surface equals 180 degrees.” These kinds of Propositions Kant called “Synthetic a priori cognitions.”
The principles of Logic, Geometry, and Mathematics are purely Objective, and exist independently of any individual Observer. In the terminology of the Theory of Relativity these relations are what is called “Invariant.” They seem to exist independently of human thought. The Argument Forms presented in Handbook of Logical Validity are examples of this type of concept. To call them a priori is perhaps obsolete. It would be better to call them Principles of the Theoretical Sciences.
The Theoretical Sciences are defined as Logic, Geometry, and Mathematics. In contrast, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology can be called Empirical Sciences. More details on this scientific compartmentalization can be found within the book HYPERMETROPHIA, which is described on the Website (www.phenomenologybooks.com).
Perhaps Hume was correct, in the sense that the Newtonian Physics of his day did not constitute some kind of inviolable Law of Nature, but was essentially a Principle of Human Understanding. The extent to which Classical Mechanics corresponds with Reality is an issue which cannot be fully resolved here.
The fact that Quantum Mechanics and Relativity Theory have evolved over and above the older Classical Physics constitutes a kind of Confirmation of Hypothesis for the assertions made by thinkers such as Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.
Relativity had “removed all trace of physical objectivity from time and space.” The Uncertainty Relation of Quantum Mechanics states that it is in principle impossible to perform an Empirical Experiment without fundamentally altering the Phenomena observed. The Uncertainty Relation also holds that anything at the Atomic level (around 10-10 meters) is by definition not an Empirical concept.
Simply put, Physics begins with Inter-subjective Empirical Reality and ends with the Conscious Observer. Philosophy begins with the Conscious Observer and ends with Inter-subjective Empirical Reality. Clearly these two branches of knowledge ought to be brought together within the Science of Phenomenology.