He died before cognitive science came together in the 1970s, but his positions on many issues - the self, the other, practical action in situations, the lived ...

Schutz not only adapted Max Weber’s “ideal types” but also Edmund Husserl’s prepredicative “types,” which must have been “empirical types,” in hiswork. With care, these terms can be kept distinct. The former term refers to concepts used in common-sense thinking as well as cultural science, while the latterrefers to vague material universals or eidē. This essay studies how “type” is used in these two different ways by Schutz after he had read Husserl’s Erfahrung undUrteil by 1940.

This collection focuses on the introduction of phenomenology to the United States by the community of scholars who taught and studied at the New School for Social Research from 1954 through 1973. During those years, Dorion Cairns, Alfred Schutz, and Aron Gurwitsch--all former students of Edmund Husserl--came together in the department of philosophy to establish the first locus of phenomenology scholarship in the country. This founding trio was soon joined by three other prominent scholars in the field: Werner Marx, Thomas (...) M. Seebohm, and J. N. Mohanty. The Husserlian phenomenology that they brought to the New School has subsequently spread through the Anglophone world as the tradition of Continental philosophy. The first part of this volume includes original works by each of these six influential teachers of phenomenology, introduced either by one of their students or, in the case of Seebohm and Mohanty, by the thinkers themselves. The second part comprises contributions from twelve leading scholars of phenomenology who trained at the New School during this period. The result is a powerful document tracing the lineage and development of phenomenology in the North American context, written by members of the first two generations of scholars who shaped the field. Contributors: Michael Barber, Lester Embree, Jorge García-Gómez, Fred Kersten, Thomas M. T. Luckmann, William McKenna, J. N. Mohanty, Giuseppina C. Moneta, Thomas Nenon, George Psathas, Osborne P. Wiggins, Matthew M. Seebohm, and Richard M. Zaner. (shrink)

There is a difference between the direct and the indirect encountering of things. The emphasis in the history of phenomenology, as in the rest of modern philosophy, has been on direct encountering. But at least in industrialized societies, there is acquaintance with vastly more things through indirect encountering. A clarification of what encountering is in general will first be attempted, some traditional doctrines will be objected to, and then the difference between direct and indirect encountering will be explored. The goal (...) is a modest phenomenological investigation that invites the reader to verify, correct, and extend it. Terminology, genre, and the secondary emphasis on thetic or positional components of believing, valuing, and willing are central to the reflective analysis. (shrink)

This volume is the first collection of original essays on the related issues of gender and feminism approached phenomenologically.

Timed for the centennial of Alfred Schutz (1899-1999), this set of original essays documents the continuing relevance of his thought in economics, geography, sociology, philosophy, and political science, and indicates the continuing interest in his thought in East Asia, Western Europe, and North America. The authors of these essays are leading authorities in their countries and disciplines. Schutz is the pre-eminent phenomenological philosopher of the social sciences. New materials from his Nachlaß concerning barriers to equality of opportunity, including a report (...) co-authored with the political scientist Harold Lasswell are also included. (shrink)

This work is devoted to developing as well as expounding the theory of the cultural sciences of the philosopher Alfred Schutz (1899-1959). Drawing on all of Schutz's seven volumes in English, the book shows how his philosophical theory consists of the reflective clarifications of the disciplinary definitions, basic concepts, and distinctive methods of particular cultural sciences as well as their species and genus. The book first expounds Schutz's own theories of economics, jurisprudence, political science, sociology, and psychology. It then extends (...) his approach to other disciplines, offering new theories of archaeology, ethnology, and psychotherapy in his spirit in order to stimulate the development of Schutzian theories in these and other disciplines. The second part of the book contains complementary philosophical chapters devoted to culture, groups, ideal types, interdisciplinarity, meaning, relevance, social tension, and verification. (shrink)

Alfred Schutz emphasizes the methods of interpretative social sciences. Thomas Seebohm emphasizes the interpretation of texts and traces essential to the historical sciences. There their accounts are, in the main, mutually complementary, and together they advance the constitutive phenomenological theory of the generically cultural sciences.

Les disciplines pratiques comme le nursing et la psychothérapie peuvent avoir leur fondation scientifique dans la psychologie sociale. Dans cet article, l’auteur s’efforce principalement d’expliquer ce qu’est, d’après Alfred Schutz, la sociologie en tant que psychologie sociale, avant d’examiner, en conclusion, comment elle peut contribuer à la fondation de telles disciplines.

Although Alfred Schutz' thought focused on the phenomenological founding of interpretive sociology, he also believed it relevant for other social and even historical sciences. His thought has been internationally appreciated in a wide range of human scientific disciplines.

An idea of the philosophy of archaeology can best be gained by showing what it is, what the issues are, who is working in the field, and how they proceed. Reading Lester Embree's Metaarchaeology provides the best possible introduction to the field, since in it several leading archaeologists show how accessible and interesting the current archeological literature is, and currently active philosophers of archaeology reveal something of the current state of discussion on the subject. Bibliographies have also been developed (...) of the philosophy of archaeology as well as of selected parts of the component that can be called metaarchaeology. Finally, an historical introduction has been included to show the variety of metascientific as well as orientational standpoints that philosophers of archaeology have had recourse to for over two decades, followed by speculation about the future of the discipline within the philosophy of science. (shrink)

How modern economics is a social rather than historical cultural science, how it can produce adequate accounts in scientific constructs about common-sense constructs, can relate objectivistic accounts to subjective interpretations, how it can be theoretical, and how it hypothesizes marginal utility is all expounded in relation to Schutz’s theory of science, especially what he calls “postulates.”.

This encyclopedia presents phenomenological thought and the phenomenological movement within philosophy and within more than a score of other disciplines on a level accessible to professional colleagues of other orientations as well as to advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Entries average 3,000 words. In practically all cases, they include lists of works "For Further Study." The Introduction briefly chronicles the changing phenomenological agenda and compares phenomenology with other 20th Century movements. The 166 entries are a baut matters of seven sorts: (...) the faur broad tendencies and periods within the phenomenological movement; twenty-three national traditions ofphenomenology; twenty-two philosophical sub-disciplines, including those referred to with the formula "the philosophy of x"; phenomenological tendencies within twenty-one non-philosophical dis ciplines; forty major phenomenological topics; twenty-eight leading phenomenological figures; and twenty-seven non-phenomenological figures and movements ofinteresting sim ilarities and differences with phenomenology. Conventions Concern ing persons, years ofbirth and death are given upon first mention in an entry ofthe names of deceased non-phenomenologists. The names of persons believed tobe phenomenologists and also, for cross-referencing purposes, the titles of other entries are printed entirely in SMALL CAPITAL letters, also upon first mention. In addition, all words thus occurring in all small capital letters are listed in the index with the numbers of all pages on which they occur. To facilitate indexing, Chinese, Hungarian, and Japanese names have been re-arranged so that the personal name precedes the family name. (shrink)

Although Alfred Schutz' thought focused on the phenomenological founding of interpretive sociology, he also believed it relevant for other social and even historical sciences. His thought has been internationally appreciated in a wide range of human scientific disciplines. This collection of essays assesses Schutz' impact and potential beyond sociology and philosophy. It includes essays from a geographer and an economist and addresses topics such as communicology, computerization, politics, and literature, as well as psychology and sociology. The sixteen contributors to this (...) volume were asked to prepare essays that reviewed the impact of Schutz in their discipline, discussed the potential, and attempted novelly to actualize some of that potential. (shrink)

In the first part of this essay it is contended that Schutz''s project is best called the philosophical theory of the cultural sciences; in the last parts it is shown that he offers satisfactory rudiments of a theory of the historical sciences except where the differentia specifica of those sciences is concerned. The central part is devoted to women''s liberation as a case of contemporary history in relation to which Schutz''s thought about the historical sciences needs correction.

Recognition of phenomenological tendencies in several dozen disciplines beyond philosophy raises the question of how phenomenology in general might be defined prior to specification in terms of the agendas of the particular disciplines. After an attempt at an answer to this question, some observations concerning the possible benefits of interdisciplinary encounters, especially for philosophical phenomenology, are offered. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology , May 2010, Volume 10, Edition 1.

Phenomenology as a tradition owes its name to Edmund Husserl, in his Logical Investigations (1900-1). It began as a bold new way of doing philosophy, an attempt to bring it back from abstract metaphysical speculation and empty logical calculation in order to come into contact with concrete living experience. As formulated by Husserl, Phenomenology is the investigation of the structures of consciousness that enable consciousness to refer to objects outside itself. It soon broadened into a world-wide and now century-old tradition. (...) Phenomenological versions of theology, sociology, psychology, psychiatry and literary criticism, have all been engendered, so that phenomenology remains one of the most important traditions of contemporary philosophy. Phenomenology is currently extending into new areas such as gender, ethnicity, multiculturalism, and ecology. An effort has been made in these four volumes to include representatives of all the major tendencies within phenomenology and to provide documentation of the critical discussion of its central topics. Forthcoming titles in this series include Pragmatism (2005, c.4 Volumes, c.£495), Free Will (2005, c.4 Volumes, c.£495) and Aesthetics (2005, c.4 Volumes, c.£495). (shrink)

This volume presents political phenomenology as a new specialty in western philosophical and political thought that is post-classical, post-Machiavellian, and post-behavioral. It draws on history and sets the agenda for future explorations of political issues. It discloses crossroads between ethics and politics and explores border-crossing issues. All the essays in this volume challenge existing ideas of politics significantly. As such they open new ways for further explorations BY future generations of phenomenologists and non-phenomenologists alike. Moreover, the comprehensive chronological bibliography is (...) unprecedented and provides not only an excellent picture of what phenomenologists have already done but also a guide for the future. (shrink)

This essay starts by outlining what the author considers to be the three general properties of the phenomenological approach. This approach is then taken to the question of what an academic discipline is and how one becomes a member of a discipline, with some positive and negative aspects that can develop considered. Demonstrating how phenomenological questions can be asked and answered, this approach invites attempts to confirm, correct and extend the account through more reflective analysis. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, Volume (...) 10, Edition 2, October 2010: 5-9. (shrink)

This essay explores the roots of social constructionism in the work of Alfred Schutz, the teacher of Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann and, beyond Schutz, Edmund Husserl. It is described how pregiven things are logically formed and then ideal types or constructs with content are also constituted about them. Schutz begins in the egological perspective but goes beyond that to the intersubjective perspective to show how the world of everyday life has constructs received from predecessors as well as contemporaries and (...) shared by in-groups. Common-sense constructs are constituted like cultural-scientific ones. Motivation in everyday life and the role of the ordinary vernacular in their transmission is shown. An analysis then focuses on how constructs have recently been received and/or reinforced by political election polling in the latest USA presidential election. These constructs involve results in percentages that can be understood qualitatively for Democrats and Republicans divided into gender groups, generations, races, regions, and by education, income or social class, religion. This account can be considered reflective, descriptive, and culture-appreciative and thus phenomenological. Similar constructing no doubt occurs in other industrialized countries and affects so-called common sense. Deeper understanding than this analysis reaches is called for at the end of this essay. (shrink)

After addressing the question of whether Aron Gurwitsch (1901–1973) even had a theory of psychology, which is not obvious unless one collates the many dispersed remarks, a well-documented exposition of that theory is offered that clarifies the data, categories, field, methods, and topics of the versions of psychology he advocated.