The first explicit account of the phenomenological method has a crucial historical significance not just for the development of the method itself, but also for the history of phenomenology in general. In his lecture General Theory of Knowledge (Allgemeine Erkenntnistheorie) of 1902/03, the early Husserl develops the two major operational concepts of the phenomenological method, namely the Epoché and the phänomenologische Reduktion, in a systematic relation in order to achieve an adequate investigation of the transcendental consciousness. This paper discusses in detail the theoretical and historical content of this underexplored early lecture in a developmental perspective for the history of philosophy
