Phenomenology

1. Phenomenology
Amelia Knuth, Alex Anderson

2. Phenomenology:
Definition: “a philosophical sociology that begins with the individual and his or
her own conscious experience as the focus of study and attempts to avoid prior
assumptions, prejudices, and other dogmatic forms of thinking while investigating
social behavior.”
❖Micro-oriente sociological theory
❖Phenomenology studies common sense, conscious experience, and routine
daily life, while seeking to understand the world from the point of view of the acting
subject and not from the perspective of the scientific observer.
❖Push towards qualitative methods

3. Phenomenology
The conscious experience of individuals.
Society shapes your consciousness and allows us to believe in social order and
structures.
Phenomenologist break down the small things of the world and ask:
About its structure
How to maintain society.

4. Edmund Husserl (Father of
Phenomenology)(1859-1938)
Background:
Father was a merchant of sufficient means
Sent to finest schools: studied mathematics, physics, &
philosophy at Leipzig University
Finished doctoral work at Vienna where he did his
dissertation on the theory of the calculus of variations

5. Husserl Continued

6. Husserl Continued
Influenced by German tradition
Major influences: Descartes, Hume, and Kant
After reading Descartes’s Mediations Husserl first “conceived of the possibility of
seeking a universally rational “science of being” by turning his theoretical
focus on an objective world to a reflective one.”
Significant publications: On the Concept of Numbers, Logical Investigations, and
Ideas

7. Husserl’s Ideas on Phenomenology
1. It’s a “doctrine of essence” and a doctrine concerned with what things are, not
with whether they are.
2. It’s not interested in the metaphysical world. Only through consciousness
could a researcher find the true meaning behind behavior.
3. “Phenomenology is what it is because it neither seeks nor accepts evidence
other than that offered by consciousness itself.”
4. “It is not a science of facts, but a science of essential being, an eidetic
science (meaning an insubstantial empirical science); it is a science that aims
at establishing the “knowledge” of essence.”
5. “Husserl viewed phenomenology as a type of science but, above all, as a

8. Scientific Method vs. Natural Thinking
“In order to claim empirical authenticity, a science must demonstrate that it
employs objective methods when collecting data. For the phenomenologist,
objectivity is found in the world of individual consciousness that can be
verified by others when objects attain temporal matter (example: sound).”
“Natural thinking in science and everyday life is untroubled by the difficulties
concerning the possibility of cognition.”
The scientific method is not nearly as important as understanding the meaning
of behavior based on one’s consciousness.

9. Perception and Time Consciousness
Perception: “What one “sees” is a product of past memories and immediate
reflection and interpretation of events... Perception of current events is tied to past
events through current intuitions”
Time Consciousness:
1.Events and content of the past do in fact influence one’s present consciousness;
they are simultaneously linked.
2.Although present behaviors are influenced by past memories and recollections,
all present acts are subject to modification on behalf of the actor

10. Time Consciousness Continued
Self-evident laws:
1.That the fixed temporal order is of an infinite, two-dimensional series
2.That two different times can never be conjoint
3.That their relation is a non-simultaneous one
4.That there is transitivity, that to everything time belongs an earlier and a later

11. Alfred Schutz (1899-1959)
Studied law and social science at the University of Vienna
Academic goal: establish a rigorous philosophical foundation grounded in
phenomenological methodology
Responsible for developing phenomenology as a sociological science
Major Influence: Max Weber
Main work: Der Sinnhafte Aufbau der Sozialen Welt: Eine Einleitung in die Verstehende
Soziologie (Translation: Meaningful Construction of the Social World)

12. Schutz Continued
Warm and delightful personality
Worked with Husserl briefly. Turned down assistant job due to personal reasons

13. Phenomenology of the Social World
“One’s stream of consciousness is in simultaneous relation to others’ streams of
consciousness. Individual’s acts are influences by other people’s acts.. However
the same experience is not necessarily shared.”
“It is a conscious awareness that the world is both united, through streams of
consciousness, and divided, based on individual experience and interpretation of
events.”
“Understanding others is possible because we share the same world and many of
the subjective meanings attached to experiences.”

14. Phenomenology of the Social World
Assessing someone’s stream of consciousness is affected by: degrees of
interpretability
We may misinterpret the interactions among other people

15. Stock of Knowledge
“Schutz views individuals as constructing a world by using typifications (or ideal
types) passed onto them by their social group.”
When researchers draw upon their own experiences in order to evaluate a social
situation, they are drawing upon their stock of knowledge.
We draw upon our stock of knowledge when interacting in society because it gives
us order to a social situation.
Stock of knowledge comes from our life experiences and education.

16. Common Sense
Do not confuse stock of knowledge with common sense.
Schutz: “even the thing perceived in everyday life is more than a simple sense
presentation. It is a thought object, a construct of a highly complicated nature… In
other words, the so-called concrete facts of common-sense perception are not as
concrete as it seems. They already involve abstractions of a highly complicated
nature, and we have to take account of this situation lest we commit the fallacy of
misplaced concreteness.”
Stock of knowledge may include items found within realm of common sense.

17. Peter Berger

18. Peter Berger
(1929 - Present)
Background
Was born in Vienna, Austria. He moved to the United Stated when he
was a teenager.
Accomplishments
1949: At Wagner College he received his BA.
1950 and 1954: At the New School for social Research he earned his M.A. and
Ph.D. in New York City.
Understudy for Alfred Schultz
Went on to teach at many a couple of universities and
most recently taught at Boston University.
He is a past president of the Society for
Scientific Study of Religion.

19. Berger cont.
He wrote many books on the Sociology of Religion.
He ties many the aspects of modern society back to religion.
Controversial Contemporary Issues
Major Influences
Lutheran Theological Divinity School
Yale Divinity School
Max Weber

20. The Social Construction of Reality
“Berger and Luckmann argued that reality is socially constructed and
that the sociology of knowledge must analyze the processes in which
this occurs.”
Social reality: the process of looking at society and its
representation by our current information about it.
Culture influences the social reality.

21. The Social Construction of Reality cont.
3 Processes
1)Externalization
2)Objectivation
3)Internalization

22. Marriage and The Construction of Reality
“The process that interests us here is the one that constructs, maintains
and modifies a consistent reality that can be meaningfully experienced by
individuals.”
One is willing to make changes in their lives voluntarily
and internally, in which individuals have little control of what
goes on around them.

23. Reification
Internalization
The process of treating outside objects as if they are something other than
human products. Humans forget their position of authority in the world.
Leads to alienation.
The process of forgetting that the products around humans were created by
themselves.
“This consciousness is reifying consciousness
and its objects are reifications”

24. Consciousness
“First, there is direct and pre-reflective presence to the world. Secondly,
founded on the latter, there is reflective awareness of the world and
one’s presence to it. Thirdly, out of this second level of consciousness
there may in turn arise various theoretical formulations of the
situation.”

25. Social Control and Political Authority
“The reality of the social world does not present itself all at once. It
must be constructed and reconstructed over and over again.”
Berger thinks we are prisoners of society.

26. The Role of Religion in Society
Alteration
The attempt for a person to balance religion and their relation world.
Is God Dead?
Berger says, God’s not dead and that religion is still very well alive and important
in today’s society.
“Only through the belief in the existence of the supernatural- that is, a reality that
transcends the reality of the natural world of everyday life- can humans grasp the
true proportions of their experience.”
Viewed religious experiences as important.

27. Relevancy - Societal Gain
Insight to daily unacknowledged processes, in which humans
view society.
Insight on:
Perception
Social Structure
Human Behavior

28. Key Perspectives
Time Consciousness
Stock of Knowledge
Reification and Consciousness

29. Limitations
Many sociologist distrust phenomenology, especially the
ones who favor quantitative and scientific research.
Critics say that their ideas are “vague and subject to interpretation.”
Lack of concrete evidence.

30. Questions Related to Phenomenology
Define these terms as they are used by phenomenology: time
consciousness, stock of knowledge, reification and consciousness.
Describe how Edmund Husserl defines the relationship between
natural thinking and the scientific method.
Describe the key perspective by which phenomenology views society.
What do sociologists gain by viewing society from the perspective of
phenomenology?
Describe one key limitation to the way that
phenomenologists view society.

31. References