Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; ; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was a German
philosopher who established the school of
phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of
historicism and of
psychologism in
logic based on analyses of
intentionality. In his mature work, he sought to develop a systematic foundational science based on the so-called
phenomenological reduction. Arguing that transcendental consciousness sets the limits of all possible knowledge, Husserl re-defined phenomenology as a transcendental-idealist philosophy. Husserl's thought profoundly influenced the landscape of
twentieth-century philosophy and he remains a notable figure in contemporary philosophy and beyond. Husserl studied mathematics under
Karl Weierstrass and
Leo Königsberger, and philosophy under
Franz Brentano and
Carl Stumpf. He taught philosophy as a
Privatdozent at
Halle from 1887, then as professor, first at
Göttingen from 1901, then at
Freiburg from 1916 until he retired in 1928, after which he remained highly productive. Following an illness, he died at
Freiburg in 1938.