An object, even a person, is only what one sees and experiences of that object. Husserl referred to this suspension of judgment as epoch . As an example, via this theory, a color seen by one individual is known only to and by that one person. Measuring it scientifically, comparing to other colors, et cetera, do not truly change that what the individual sees is the only thing consciousness comprehends. Only the phenomenological knowledge is certain, and then only to the individual.
Eidetic reduction is the abstraction of essences.
The essence abstracted via eidetic reduction is the intelligible structure of the phenomena found in consciousness. The goal is to find the basic components of a phenomena. For example, a chair might include the color, the materials used, and the shapes present in the structure. We apply basic, Platonic forms to all phenomena, according to Husserl. These basics allow us to communicate and describe a phenomena with some accuracy, though this lessens the original phenomena in some manner.