A term used by Charles S. Peirce to denote a discipline of philosophy.
The term is also used to denote an important movement in modern philosophy, identified with such thinkers as Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Roman Ingarden.
It could be said that this movement began when Husserl, unlike the neo-Kantians, suggested that the reform of philosophy could be completed by going back to Kant and things in themselves, or more precisely to things as they present themselves in our minds.
In other words, the reform of philosophy requires a return to phenomena, a return that in turn requires liberation from our prejudices and presuppositions.
Husserl and Merleau-Ponty undertook the study of signs, and their general approach and specific inquiries in other fields had a wide and profound influence.
