Phenomenology And Social Reality Essays In Memory Of Alfred Schutz Ed By Maurice Natanson Mit Portr

Alfred Schutz was born in Vienna on April 13, 1899, and died in New York City on May 20, 1959. The year 1969, then, marks the seventieth anniversary of his birth and the tenth year of his death. The essays which follow are offered not only as a tribute to an irreplaceable friend, colleague, and teacher, but as evidence of the contributors' conviction of the eminence of his work. No special pleading is needed here to support that claim, for it is widely acknowledged that his ideas have had a significant impact on present-day philosophy and phenomenology of the social sciences. In place of either argument or evaluation, I choose to restrict myself to some bi~ graphical information and a fragmentary memoir. * The only child of Johanna and Otto Schutz (an executive in a private bank in Vienna), Alfred attended the Esterhazy Gymnasium in Vienna, an academic high school whose curriculum included eight years of Latin and Greek. He graduated at seventeen - in time to spend one year of service in the Austrian army in the First World War. For bravery at the front on the battlefield in Italy, he was decorated by his country. After the war ended, he entered the University of Vienna, completing a four year curriculum in only two and one half years and receiving his doctorate in Law.

A series of studies by Alred Schutz centering aroudn the problem of sociality.

This book is intended as a celebration of the legacy of Alfred Schutz in honor of the 100th anniversary of the year of his birth in 1999. It represents the contributions of a number of Schutzian scholars from the United States, Europe and Asia who have reflected on the significance of Schutz's work for philosophy and the human sciences for many years. Their work was first presented at international conferences held at Waseda University, Japan, March, 1999, the University of Konstanz, Germany, May 1999, and at the meetings of the Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences at the University of Oregon, USA, October, 1999. The editors were organizers of these conferences. These contributions trace connections and continuities with other major theorists and scholars ranging from Max Weber to Talcott Parsons and Pierre Bourdieu; to assessments of his contributions to methodology and social theory; to ethics and the political sphere; to his appeal in fields beyond philosophy, as well as to his wide-ranging explorations of the life-world. Schutz's legacy continues to be found in various places in the human sciences and philosophy and in the intersections of these disciplines. These papers contribute to the on-going dialogue and assessment of Schutz's corpus of work and to fresh appraisals of the continuing relevance of his work.

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.

Following the thematic divisions of the first three volumes of Alfred Schutz's Collected Papers into The Problem of Social Reality, Studies in Social Theory and Phenomenological Philosophy, this fourth volume contains drafts of unfinished writings, drafts of published writings, translations of essays previously published in German, and some largely unpublished correspondence. The drafts of published writings contain important material omitted from the published versions, and the unfinished writings offer important insights into Schutz's otherwise unpublished ideas about economic and political theory as well as the theory of law and the state. In addition, a large group contains Schutz's reflections on problems in phenomenological philosophy, including music, which both supplement and add new dimensions to his published thought. All together, the writings in this volume cover Schutz's last 15 years in Europe as well as manuscripts written after his arrival in the USA in 1939. Audience: Students and scholars of phenomenology, social theory and the human sciences in general.

Le present volume rassemble plusieurs etudes qu' Alfred Schutz avait consacrees a diverses questions qui gravitent autour d'un probleme philosophique majeur: celui de la socialite. La plupart de ces etudes ont Me publiees ailleurs, mais elles etaient dispersees et d'un acces parfois difficile. Tel quel, l'ouvrage que nous presentons n' est que la premiere partie d'un ensemble dans lequell'auteur se proposait de faire reunir par son disciple et ami Maurice Natanson les nombreux essais qu'il avait ecrits depuis son arrivee aux Etats-Unis au debut de la demiere guerre. La mort l'empecha de voir realiser ce projet. 11 nous a semble que la pUblication successive de cet ensemble, dans la fidelite aux indications laissees par l'auteur, etait Ie plus bel hommage que nous pussions rendre a ce penseur qui fut notre ami et meritait sans nul doute de tenir dans Ie courant phenomenologique une place de premier plan que faillirent lui refuser les circonstances dramatiques de sa vie, jointes a sa trop grande modestie per­ sonnelle. II me faudrait ici parler de l'homme, evoquer sa finesse d'esprit, son ironie penetrante, sa serenite et son courage dans l' exil, l' event ail tres vaste de ses preoccupations, Ie don de jeu­ nesse et de sympathie grftce auquel il entreprit a quarante ans d'assimiler avec bonheur une culture nouvelle, pour y exceller bientOt.