The "life-world" in Alfred Schutz’s phenomenology

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Candidate in Comparative Religions & Mysticism, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.

2 Associate Professor of Comparative Religions & Mysticism Department, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor of Comparative Religions & Mysticism Department, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

4 Associate Professor of Comparative Religions & Mysticism Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Life-world, means the world as it is experienced and lived, is a concept that was first born in Husserl's phenomenology and later used in various fields. Alfred Schutz, the founder of phenomenological sociology, who sought to establish a theoretical basis for interpretive sociology, applied the concept to study of mental structures in everyday life and used it in sociology. The present article seeks to answer the question, what changes did life-world undergo in Schutz's thought. The result of this study shows that Schutz establishes a dialectical relationship between individual consciousness and life-world, in such a way that each constructs and influences the other. Unlike Husserl, who saw life-world as the only comprehensible reality, he referred to the multiple layers of reality and considered Husserl's term transcendence appropriate for rotation between these layers, while Husserl used “transcendence” only to awareness of another experience. In addition, Schutz does not consider transcendental phenomenology as a proper basis for the social sciences, and instead of the transcendental ego, he uses the mundane ego for his plan.

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