‘Phenomenology’ in its present-day sense is a broad philosophical movement addressing itself to the rigorous investigation of directly experienced ‘phenomena’ of any kind. Just like positivism and empiricism, it has a profound respect for the positive data of experience, but unlike those traditions it accepts data beyond the realm of sensory experience, such as intuitions of relations, values, etc. Direct intuition or original experience are absolute prerequisites for phenomena to constitute valid objects of investigation. In that sense, phenomenology contrasts sharply with the conceptual and a priori reasoning stressed by rationalism. Instead of departing from a single basic principle (such as Descartes’ cogito), it takes an entire field of basic acts of consciousness as its starting point.