ABSTRACT
The relations between essence, modality and generality loom large in the writings of Husserl and the early realist phenomenologists. This chapter sketches some of the ontological, logical and epistemological aspects of these relations. These relations provide the framework employed by the early phenomenologists in which their numerous descriptions of the phenomena studied by philosophers are formulated. The views of Husserl and those he influenced are briefly contrasted and compared with those of Meinong, and of a third Austrian philosopher, Wittgenstein.
