the word phenomenology is formed like the terms theology, biology, sociology, translated as the science of God, of life, of the community. Accordingly, phenomenology would be the science of phenomena. The preliminary concept of phenomenology is to be exhibited by characterizing what is meant by the two components, "phenomenon" and "logos," and by establishing the meaning of the word which is the result of their combination. The history of the word itself, which originated presumably with the Wolffian school, is not important here.
A. The Concept of Phenomenon
The Greek expression φαινόμενον, from which the term "phenomenon" derives, comes from the verb φαίνεσθαι, meaning "to show itself." Thus φαινόμενονevov means: what shows itself, the self-showing, the manifest. φαίνεσθαι itself is a middle voice construction of φαίνω, to bring into daylight, to place in brightness. φαίνω belongs to the root φα-, like φῶς, light or brightness, that is, that within which something can become manifest, visible in itself. Thus the meaning of the expression phenomenon is established as what shows itself in itself, what is manifest. The φαινόμενα, "phenomena," are thus the totality of what lies in the light of day or can be brought to light. Sometimes the Greeks simply identified this with τὰ ὄντα (beings). Beings can show themselves from themselves in various ways, depending on the mode of access to them. The possibility even exists that they can show themselves as they are not in themselves. In this self-showing beings "look like ...". Such self-showing [Sichzeigen] we [29] call seeming [Scheinen]. And so the expression φαινόμενον, phenomenon, means in Greek: what looks like something, what "seems" [Scheinbar], "semblance" ["Schein"]. φαινόμενον ἀγαθόν means a good that looks like—but "in reality" is not what it gives itself out to be. It is extremely important for a further understanding of the concept of phenomenon to see how what is named in both meanings of φαινόμενον ("phenomenon" as self-showing and "phenomenon" as semblance) are structurally connected. Only because something claims to show itself in accordance with its meaning at all, that is, claims to be a phenomenon, can it show itself as something it is not, or can it "only look like ..." . The original meaning (phenomenon: what is manifest [das Offenbare]) already contains and is the basis of φαινόμενον ("semblance"). We attribute to the term "phenomenon" the positive and original meaning of φαινόμενον terminologically, and separate the phenomenon of semblance [Schein] from it as a privative modification. But what both terms express has at first nothing at all to do with what is called "appearance" ["Erscheinung"] or even "mere appearance" [bloße Erscheinung].
Thus, one speaks of "appearances of symptoms of illness." W hat is meant by this are occurrences in the body that show themselves and in