phenomenology

noun4

1. •
   The study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view.

   • Writing, individuation, and civilization are all parts of one larger cultural phenomenology. — 1981
2. •
   A movement based on this, originated about 1905 by Edmund Husserl.
3. •
   The translation of theory into measurable or observable predictions that can be used to experimentally test it.

   • He hopes [students] will "do the necessary phenomenology experiments and produce the necessary theory extensions" that will "turn over the present physics." — 2000
4. •
   An approach to clinical practice which places undue reliance upon subjective criteria such as signs and symptoms, while ignoring objective etiologies in the formulation of diagnoses and in the compilation of a formal nosologies.