Abstract

This article aims to develop a comparison between Alfred Schutz’s and José Ortega y Gasset’s social theories. By examining the annotations found on the copy of Ortega’s Man and People, located in Schutz’s Hand‑Bibliothek at the Sozialwissenschaftliches Archiv Konstanz, the paper focuses on the way in which the two authors conceptualized themes such as empathy, lifeworld, and taken‑for‑granted, highlighting elements of continuity and divergence. This comparative analysis reveals the significant role that intersubjectivity plays for both thinkers, through which it is possible to read in filigree their comparison with other eminent voices of the phenomenological landscape, with whom Ortega and Schutz did not confront directly, and to redefine their complex relationship with Husserl’s perspective on the topic.