Philosophy is the work of critical reflection that is bought to bear on unreflective everyday life. This kind of philosophy seeks to pick out and analyze the common shared features that underlie our everyday expereince to make explicit what is implicit in our ordinary social know-how.

The philosopher, unlike the natural scientist, does not claim to be providing us with new knowledge or fresh discoveries, but rather with reminders of what we already know but continually pass over in our day-to-day life. A phenomenologically-informed philosophy reminds us of what is passed over in the naivety of what passes for common sense.

Thus philosophy seeks to consider life as it is lived by human beings fully engaged in the world.