Alfred Schutz’s Foundation for the Social Sciences and the Motivation and Significance of His Introduction of the Concept of the Life-World

TAKAKUSA Ken

doi:10.4057/jsr.69.468

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アルフレート・シュッツの社会科学の基礎づけにおける生世界概念の導入の契機と意義
アルフレート・シュッツの社会科学の基礎づけにおける生世界概念の導入の契機と意義 : 生成から世界への内属へ
アルフレート・シュッツノシャカイカガクノキソズケニオケルナマセカイガイネンノドウニュウノケイキトイギ : セイセイカラセカイエノナイゾクエ
From Becoming to Inherence in the World
生成から世界への内属へ

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Abstract

Known as a phenomenologist of the life-world, Alfred Schutz offered a clue to reflecting on the meaning of the social sciences in addition to his discovery of the “life-world” as a research field of sociology. It was only during the development of his thought that he introduced the concept of the life-world. This paper examines the motivation for Schutz’s introduction of the concept of the life-world and how his theory changed as a result.<br>Schutz’s works, written in the 1920s and at the beginning of the 1930s, inherited basic concepts such as “life and becoming” from the philosophy of life (Lebensphilosophie). His works also adopted a polar opposition model that placed life and becoming on one side and science as a logical or conceptual activity on the other. However, in doing so, science was characterized as being disconnected from life itself. This viewpoint resulted in some difficulty. This is because although science is a part of human life, the polar opposition model precludes a scientific life. In reexamining the concept of life, Schutz introduced the concept of the life-world, and in this way advocated the inherence of life in the world, regardless of whether it referred to ordinary people or those engaged in scientific activity. He argued that the world transcends the ego and forms the universal foundation of all activities. Consequently, Schutz ascribed three attributes to the concept of life: intersubjectivity, historicity, and perspectivity. Based on these attributes, Schutz characterized scientific life in the world as the (1) intersubjective structure of science, (2) historical formation of scientific situations and symbols as a medium of science, and (3) the perspective of scientific activity governed by “relevance structures”.

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Japanese Sociological Review

Japanese Sociological Review 69 (4), 468-484, 2019

The Japan Sociological Society

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