The aim of this paper is to describe the characteristics of the French Phenomenology, which have been shaped in the course of historical development. The author examines the hermeneutic situation of the French Philosophy since the 1930s when, as E. Levinas maintains, first phenomenological works were introduced. As a result, since the 1950s a variety of approaches under the influence of phenomenology has appeared in France. Until the 1960s phenomenological thought was adopted by many French philosophical centers, where – due to numerous thinkers – it was developed in a wide range.
A few periods within the history of phenomenological thought in France have been distinguished by the author. The first is called The Period of First Successors: early Lévinas, J. P. Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and early Ricoeur. Then there was The Time of New Foundation: Michel Henry, late Lévinas, late Ricoeur, Jean-Luc Marion, Marc Richir, Jean Greisch. Later The Time of Recomposition took place, when new issues emerged (i.e. “the call”, “the revelation”, “the promise”, “the gift”, “the mystery”, “the word”, “the silence”, “happening the event”, “the liturgy”, “Christ”) and when new interdisciplinary fields involving psychiatry, semantics of activity and cognitive science were set up. Phenomenology was then considered to be the most significant philosophical trend of the 20th Century. In the 1980s “the theological turn” in the French Phenomenology was observed. It was the expression of the radicalisation of phenomenology done mainly by E. Lévinas, M. Henry and J. L. Marion.