Habermas Commentary/Books/TCA1/p11

Distinction between Realist and Phenomenological Approaches (p. 11, 2nd paragraph, middle 11.2.mid.) In the realist perspective, objects are assumed to exist as givens, without explanation. Goal-oriented action, and associated kinds of knowledge, build upon these givens. The phenomenological perspective begins, rather, with communication, and treats the putatively objective world as something whose raw reality is not questioned but whose import is determined in communication.