Why did Edmund Husserl want philosophy to become a rigorous science?

Edmund Husserl sought to establish philosophy as a "rigorous science" to provide a secure, foundational basis for all knowledge, free from the unexamined presuppositions that he believed plagued traditional epistemology.12

His motivation was driven by several key factors:

• Rejection of Naturalism and Historicism: Husserl argued that naturalism incorrectly attempted to apply natural science methods to consciousness, while historicism led to a relativism that undermined the possibility of objective truth. He believed philosophy required a level of rigor that neither approach could achieve.1
• Search for Absolute Certainty: He aimed to develop a perfect methodology—phenomenology—that would ensure absolute, apodictic certainty by returning to the "things themselves". By using techniques like bracketing (epochē), he intended to strip away common-sense beliefs and traditional theories to focus on the essential structures of consciousness.123
• Foundational Clarity: Husserl believed that philosophy should be the most fundamental science, free of the dualistic gaps between the knower and the known found in the works of Descartes and Kant. He wanted to uncover the "foundations of meaning" by analyzing how objects are constituted within consciousness.213

Ultimately, Husserl viewed this scientific approach as a way to resolve the opposition between empiricism and rationalism, grounding all theoretical systems in the structures of experiential life.4