The Phenomenology of the Social World

Introduction

Alfred Schutz, a Viennese lawyer who worked for a bank and did philosophy alongside, published Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt in 1932. Weber had defined sociology as the interpretive understanding of social action but left unclear what “meaning” and “understanding” are; Schutz answers with Husserl’s analysis of consciousness and inner time and with Bergson’s notion of duration. He distinguishes the meaning an action has for the actor from its interpretation by others, “in-order-to” motives from “because” motives, and the world of consociates we meet face to face from the world of contemporaries we know only through types. After emigrating to New York in 1939 he taught at the New School, where his work influenced Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann.

Connections

Builds on

• Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology1913 · Edmund Husserl
• Economy and Society1922 · Max Weber