In what may be his most concise explanation of the nature of phenomenology, Heidegger explains that it consists in grasping “its objects in such a way that everything about them which is up for discussion must be treated by exhibiting them directly and demonstrating them directly” (GA 2: H. 35). That means that phenomenology always proceeds from out of a direct experience of the objects in question, and it attempts to address and resolve problems in philosophy by producing a direct apprehension of the relevant phenomena.

A phenomenology will be in order, then, whenever a problem is affected by the fact that the object under discussion is something that “proximally and for the most part does not show itself” (GA 2: H. 35), or when its appearance is distorted by theories or concepts inappropriate to the object in question.