The Life-course of Phenomenological Sociology

Phenomenology is a philosophical thought originated in Europe. The common problems of the day brought by Weber's so-called "the disenchantment of the world" made phenomenology a widely influential force on various empirical sciences. Though the blend of phenomenology and sociology initially brought about a variety of potential approaches, for a long-time phenomenological sociology is simply regarded as a synonym for Alfred Shutz's works. This narrow interpretation not only generated a misunderstanding of phenomenological sociology, but also obscured the historical facts of its development, and possibly hindered the exploration of other potential approaches of phenomenological sociology. In this paper, the birth of phenomenological sociology will be placed in the context of the Phenomenological Movement, and the various possible approaches implied at the beginning of phenomenological sociology will be explained. By focusing on the Husserl-Schutzian approach, the apparent paradigm of phenomenological sociology,