Existential phenomenology is a philosophical current inspired by Martin Heidegger's work Sein und Zeit (1927).

In contrast with his former mentor Edmund Husserl, Heidegger put ontology before epistemology and thought that phenomenology would have to be based on an observation and analysis of Dasein ("being-there"), human being, investigating the fundamental ontology of the Lebenswelt Lifeworld (Husserl's term) underlying all so-called regional ontologies of the special sciences.

Development of Existential phenomenology

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Existential phenomenologists besides Heidegger, were Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas, Gabriel Marcel and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

Observation | Existentialism