Lifeworld (or life-world ) ( German : Lebenswelt ) may be conceived as a universe of what is self-evident or given, a world that subjects may experience together. The concept was popularized by Edmund Husserl , who emphasized its role as the ground of all knowledge in lived experience. It has its origin in biology and cultural Protestantism .
122-458: The lifeworld concept is used in philosophy and in some social sciences , particularly sociology and anthropology . The concept emphasizes a state of affairs in which the world is experienced, the world is lived (German erlebt ). The lifeworld is a pre-epistemological stepping stone for phenomenological analysis in the Husserlian tradition. Edmund Husserl introduced the concept of
244-425: A linguistic therapy. According to Ludwig Wittgenstein , for instance, philosophy aims at dispelling misunderstandings to which humans are susceptible due to the confusing structure of ordinary language . Phenomenologists , such as Edmund Husserl , characterize philosophy as a "rigorous science" investigating essences . They practice a radical suspension of theoretical assumptions about reality to get back to
366-401: A community of time." In contrast, those who Schutz did not deem his fellow-men, he put them in three classes: The last two represent the past and the future, whereas one's contemporaries share a community of time, if not space, and are different from the predecessors and successors because it is possible for them to become fellow-men or consociates. Schutz was interested in documenting
488-545: A doctor diagnoses a disease based on the observed symptoms. Logic also investigates incorrect forms of reasoning. They are called fallacies and are divided into formal and informal fallacies based on whether the source of the error lies only in the form of the argument or also in its content and context. Metaphysics is the study of the most general features of reality , such as existence, objects and their properties , wholes and their parts , space and time , events , and causation . There are disagreements about
610-586: A face-to-face relationship with a friend I discuss a magazine article dealing with the attitude of the President and Congress toward China, I am in a relationship not only with the perhaps anonymous contemporary writer of the article but also with the contemporary individual or collective actors on the social scene designated by the terms, 'President', 'Congress', 'China' 1932 : Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt: eine Einleitung in die verstehende Soziologie . Wien: J. Springer. 1941 : "William James' Concept of
732-460: A feeling of reality and intersubjectivity. Most of Schutz's work concerned the methods used for the construction of reality through everyday experiences. The social construction of reality and ethnomethodology are disciplinary extensions beyond the social phenomenology of Alfred Schutz. As noted by Farganis (2011), phenomenological sociology is characterized as particularly subjective in nature because its emphasis of understanding reality through
854-444: A great variety of methods to arrive at philosophical knowledge. They include conceptual analysis , reliance on common sense and intuitions , use of thought experiments , analysis of ordinary language , description of experience , and critical questioning . Philosophy is related to many other fields, including the sciences, mathematics , business , law , and journalism . It provides an interdisciplinary perspective and studies
976-412: A lasting impact on the social sciences, both on phenomenological approaches to sociology and in ethnomethodology (through the writings of Harold Garfinkel ). Heavily influenced by Schutz's work as his student, Thomas Luckmann ultimately finished Schutz's work on the structures of the lifeworld by filling out his unfinished notes after Schutz died. As noted by Farganis (2011), Peter L. Berger , also
1098-702: A metaphysical foundation of ethics. The modern period in Chinese philosophy began in the early 20th century and was shaped by the influence of and reactions to Western philosophy. The emergence of Chinese Marxism —which focused on class struggle , socialism , and communism —resulted in a significant transformation of the political landscape. Another development was the emergence of New Confucianism , which aims to modernize and rethink Confucian teachings to explore their compatibility with democratic ideals and modern science. Traditional Japanese philosophy assimilated and synthesized ideas from different traditions, including
1220-468: A noticeable growth in the number of female philosophers , but they still remained underrepresented. Arabic–Persian philosophy arose in the early 9th century CE as a response to discussions in the Islamic theological tradition . Its classical period lasted until the 12th century CE and was strongly influenced by ancient Greek philosophers. It employed their ideas to elaborate and interpret the teachings of
1342-460: A part of intellectual history , but it also investigates questions not covered by intellectual history such as whether the theories of past philosophers are true and have remained philosophically relevant. The history of philosophy is primarily concerned with theories based on rational inquiry and argumentation; some historians understand it in a looser sense that includes myths , religious teachings , and proverbial lore. Influential traditions in
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#17328014956241464-466: A person's lifeworld is built depending on their particular life conditions. More precisely, the life conditions include the material and immaterial living circumstances as for example employment situation, availability of material resources, housing conditions, social environment (friends, foes, acquaintances, relatives, etc.) as well as the persons physical condition (fat/thin, tall/small, female/male, healthy/sick, etc.). The lifeworld, in contrast, describes
1586-405: A person's material and immaterial circumstances of life. Lifeworld means a person's subjective construction of reality, which he or she forms under the condition of his or her life circumstances." This contrasting comparison provides a conceptual specification, enabling in the first step the distinction between a subjectively experienced world and its material and social conditions and allowing in
1708-413: A student of Schutz's, was arguably the best-known living sociologist influenced by Schutz, especially through his creation of the social construction theory, which explains how the processes of externalization , objectification , and internalization contribute to the social construction of reality. Berger and Luckmann went on to use Schutz's work to further understand human culture and reality, through
1830-534: A turning point in Husserl's phenomenology from the tradition of Descartes and Kant . Up until then, Husserl had been focused on finding, elucidating, and explaining an absolute foundation of philosophy in consciousness, without any presuppositions except what can be found through the reflective analysis of consciousness and what is immediately present to it. Originally, all judgments of the real were to be " bracketed " or suspended, and then analyzed to bring to light
1952-612: A variety of arguments. Deductive arguments are mainly studied by formal logic. An argument is deductively valid if the truth of its premises ensures the truth of its conclusion. Deductively valid arguments follow a rule of inference , like modus ponens , which has the following logical form : " p ; if p then q ; therefore q ". An example is the argument "today is Sunday; if today is Sunday then I don't have to go to work today; therefore I don't have to go to work today". The premises of non-deductive arguments also support their conclusion, although this support does not guarantee that
2074-710: A well-established and prominent career in international banking, He became the chief financial officer for Reitler and Company, the Vienna banking firm. His academic work was done in his spare time. He was once described by Edmund Husserl as “a banker by day and a philosopher by night.” In 1933, the threat of Adolf Hitler 's rise in Germany caused Schutz and other Viennese intellectuals to flee Austria and seek asylum in allied countries. Schutz and his family relocated to Paris in 1938 in political exile. He continued to work for Reitler and Company as an international lawyer. He moved to
2196-494: Is a combination of different parts and attempts to identify what those parts are. An influential theory in this area claims that knowledge has three components: it is a belief that is justified and true . This theory is controversial and the difficulties associated with it are known as the Gettier problem . Alternative views state that knowledge requires additional components, like the absence of luck; different components, like
2318-510: Is a common issue in relation to the sources of knowledge and the justification they offer. It is based on the idea that beliefs require some kind of reason or evidence to be justified. The problem is that the source of justification may itself be in need of another source of justification. This leads to an infinite regress or circular reasoning . Foundationalists avoid this conclusion by arguing that some sources can provide justification without requiring justification themselves. Another solution
2440-599: Is a grand theatre of objects variously arranged in space and time relative to perceiving subjects, is already-always there, and is the "ground" for all shared human experience. Husserl's formulation of the lifeworld was also influenced by Wilhelm Dilthey 's "life-nexus" (German Lebenszusammenhang ) and Martin Heidegger 's Being-in-the-world (German In-der-Welt-Sein ). The concept was further developed by students of Husserl such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty , Jan Patočka , and Alfred Schütz . The lifeworld can be thought of as
2562-561: Is a set of essential features shared by all parts of philosophy. Others see only weaker family resemblances or contend that it is merely an empty blanket term. Precise definitions are often only accepted by theorists belonging to a certain philosophical movement and are revisionistic according to Søren Overgaard et al. in that many presumed parts of philosophy would not deserve the title "philosophy" if they were true. Some definitions characterize philosophy in relation to its method, like pure reasoning. Others focus on its topic, for example, as
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#17328014956242684-414: Is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence , reason , knowledge , value , mind , and language . It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on its own methods and assumptions. Historically, many of the individual sciences , such as physics and psychology , formed part of philosophy. However, they are considered separate academic disciplines in
2806-467: Is also concerned with the moral evaluation of character traits and institutions. It explores what the standards of morality are and how to live a good life. Philosophical ethics addresses such basic questions as "Are moral obligations relative?"; "Which has priority: well-being or obligation?"; and "What gives life meaning?" The main branches of ethics are meta-ethics , normative ethics , and applied ethics . Meta-ethics asks abstract questions about
2928-483: Is an expression of the philosopher's love of wisdom and has the aim of improving one's well-being by leading a reflective life. For example, the Stoics saw philosophy as an exercise to train the mind and thereby achieve eudaimonia and flourish in life. As a discipline, the history of philosophy aims to provide a systematic and chronological exposition of philosophical concepts and doctrines. Some theorists see it as
3050-451: Is closely related to the disciplines of logic and linguistics. The philosophy of language rose to particular prominence in the early 20th century in analytic philosophy due to the works of Frege and Russell. One of its central topics is to understand how sentences get their meaning. There are two broad theoretical camps: those emphasizing the formal truth conditions of sentences and those investigating circumstances that determine when it
3172-408: Is concerned with meaning , understanding , or the clarification of language. According to one view, philosophy is conceptual analysis , which involves finding the necessary and sufficient conditions for the application of concepts. Another definition characterizes philosophy as thinking about thinking to emphasize its self-critical, reflective nature. A further approach presents philosophy as
3294-461: Is demanded by Invernizzi and Butterwege: This integration is not only necessary in order to relate the subjective perspectives and the objective frame conditions to each other but also because the objective frame conditions obtain their relevance for the subjective lifeworlds not before they are perceived and assessed." Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek )
3416-460: Is itself a borrowing from the Latin philosophia . The term philosophy acquired the meanings of "advanced study of the speculative subjects ( logic , ethics , physics , and metaphysics )", "deep wisdom consisting of love of truth and virtuous living", "profound learning as transmitted by the ancient writers", and "the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge , reality , and existence , and
3538-405: Is perhaps his most influential theoretical contribution. The theory of the lifeworld is that social experience creates a world that is separated between: The former consists of the umwelt ('environment'), the environment defined through the perception and action of agents. The latter refers to an environment of consociates, or fellow-men; of the man who "shares with me a community of space and
3660-459: Is possible only when the lifeworld has been 'colonized' by instrumental rationality, so some social norm comes into existence and enjoys legitimate power even though it is not justifiable. This occurs when means of mediating instrumental ideas gains communicative power —as when someone pays a group of people to stay quiet during a public debate , or if financial or administrative resources are used to advertise some social viewpoint. When people take
3782-475: Is presented by coherentists , who state that a belief is justified if it coheres with other beliefs of the person. Many discussions in epistemology touch on the topic of philosophical skepticism , which raises doubts about some or all claims to knowledge. These doubts are often based on the idea that knowledge requires absolute certainty and that humans are unable to acquire it. Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, studies what constitutes right conduct . It
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3904-403: Is related to further concepts such as Pierre Bourdieu 's notion of habitus and to the sociological notion of everyday life . In the course of recent constructivist discourses a discussion about the term lifeworld took place as well. Björn Kraus' relational-constructivist version of the term lifeworld considers its phenomenological roots ( Husserl and Schütz ), but expands it within
4026-418: Is sometimes understood as a proper science in its own right. According to some naturalistic philosophers , such as W. V. O. Quine , philosophy is an empirical yet abstract science that is concerned with wide-ranging empirical patterns instead of particular observations. Science-based definitions usually face the problem of explaining why philosophy in its long history has not progressed to the same extent or in
4148-399: Is suitable to use a sentence, the latter of which is associated with speech act theory . Alfred Sch%C3%BCtz Alfred Schutz ( / ʃ ʊ t s / ; born Alfred Schütz , German: [ʃʏts] ; 1899–1959) was an Austrian philosopher and social phenomenologist whose work bridged sociological and phenomenological traditions. Schutz is gradually being recognized as one of
4270-439: Is that actions are in tune with those duties and not what consequences they have. Virtue theorists judge actions based on how the moral character of the agent is expressed. According to this view, actions should conform to what an ideally virtuous agent would do by manifesting virtues like generosity and honesty . Logic is the study of correct reasoning . It aims to understand how to distinguish good from bad arguments . It
4392-468: Is the 1687 book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton . This book referred to natural philosophy in its title, but it is today considered a book of physics. The meaning of philosophy changed toward the end of the modern period when it acquired the more narrow meaning common today. In this new sense, the term is mainly associated with philosophical disciplines like metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Among other topics, it covers
4514-420: Is the lived realm of informal, culturally-grounded understandings and mutual accommodations. Rationalization and colonization of the lifeworld by the instrumental rationality of bureaucracies and market-forces is a primary concern of Habermas's two-volume Theory of Communicative Action . For Habermas, communicative action is governed by practical rationality —ideas of social importance are mediated through
4636-561: Is the study of correct reasoning and explores how good arguments can be distinguished from bad ones. Metaphysics examines the most general features of reality , existence, objects , and properties . Other subfields are aesthetics , philosophy of language , philosophy of mind , philosophy of religion , philosophy of science , philosophy of mathematics , philosophy of history , and political philosophy . Within each branch, there are competing schools of philosophy that promote different principles, theories, or methods. Philosophers use
4758-423: Is this existence of meaning that comes into play, yet most people simply accept the world how it is and never second guess the concept or problem of meaning. Schutz delves even more into specific relationships such as the difference between intimate face-to-face relationships and distant and impersonal relationships. Schutz's division of Husserl's lebenswelt (the mundane ' lifeworld ') into four distinct sub-worlds
4880-462: Is truth established?"; and "Can we prove causal relations?" Epistemology is primarily interested in declarative knowledge or knowledge of facts, like knowing that Princess Diana died in 1997. But it also investigates practical knowledge , such as knowing how to ride a bicycle, and knowledge by acquaintance , for example, knowing a celebrity personally. One area in epistemology is the analysis of knowledge . It assumes that declarative knowledge
5002-456: Is usually divided into formal and informal logic . Formal logic uses artificial languages with a precise symbolic representation to investigate arguments. In its search for exact criteria, it examines the structure of arguments to determine whether they are correct or incorrect. Informal logic uses non-formal criteria and standards to assess the correctness of arguments. It relies on additional factors such as content and context. Logic examines
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5124-556: Is whether beauty is an objective feature of entities or a subjective aspect of experience. Aesthetic philosophers also investigate the nature of aesthetic experiences and judgments . Further topics include the essence of works of art and the processes involved in creating them. The philosophy of language studies the nature and function of language . It examines the concepts of meaning , reference , and truth. It aims to answer questions such as how words are related to things and how language affects human thought and understanding. It
5246-527: The Quran . Al-Kindi (801–873 CE) is usually regarded as the first philosopher of this tradition. He translated and interpreted many works of Aristotle and Neoplatonists in his attempt to show that there is a harmony between reason and faith . Avicenna (980–1037 CE) also followed this goal and developed a comprehensive philosophical system to provide a rational understanding of reality encompassing science, religion, and mysticism. Al-Ghazali (1058–1111 CE)
5368-420: The "things themselves", that is, as originally given in experience. They contend that this base-level of experience provides the foundation for higher-order theoretical knowledge, and that one needs to understand the former to understand the latter. An early approach found in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy is that philosophy is the spiritual practice of developing one's rational capacities. This practice
5490-527: The 20th century's leading philosophers of social science . He related Edmund Husserl 's work to the social sciences, using it to develop the philosophical foundations of Max Weber 's sociology, in his major work Phenomenology of the Social World . However, much of his influence arose from the publication of his Collected Papers in the 1960s. Schutz was born on 13 April 1899 in Vienna , Austria, as
5612-412: The 5th century CE. Its focus was on religious topics and many thinkers used ancient philosophy to explain and further elaborate Christian doctrines . The Renaissance period started in the 14th century and saw a renewed interest in schools of ancient philosophy, in particular Platonism . Humanism also emerged in this period. The modern period started in the 17th century. One of its central concerns
5734-604: The Social Sciences." Journal of Philosophy . 51:257–72. 1957 : "Max Scheler's Epistemology and Ethics: I." Review of Metaphysics 11:304–14. 1958 : "Max Scheler's Epistemology and Ethics: II." Review of Metaphysics . 11:486–501. 1959 : "Type and Eidos in Husserl's Late Philosophy." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 20:147–65. 1962–66 : Collected Papers I: The Problem of Social Reality , edited by M. A. Natanson and H. L. van Breda. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers . 1967 : The Phenomenology of
5856-1004: The Social World . Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. 1970 : Reflections on the Problem of Relevance , edited by R. Zaner. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 1970 : On Phenomenology and Social Relations: Selected Writings , edited by Helmut R. Wagner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1971 : Das Problem der Relevanz . Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp . 1972 : Gesammelte Aufsätze: Band I. Das Problem der Sozialen Wirklichkeit Translated by B. Luckmann and R.H. Grathoff. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. 1972 : Gesammelte Aufsätze: Band II . Studien zur Soziologischen Theorie , translated by A. von Baeyer and edited by A. Brodersen. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. 1972 : Gesammelte Aufsätze: Band III . Studien zur Phänomenologischen Philosophie , translated by A. von Baeyer and edited by I. Schutz. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. 1973 : The Structures of
5978-560: The Social World') which was published in English as The Phenomenology of the Social World . Schutz argues that social science must be grounded in analysis of what Husserl referred to as 'the natural attitude', the assumptions that structure everyday perceptions and actions in the social world. Schutz retains Weber's conception of social science as properly committed to the principle of value neutrality, but also to value relevance, and that its investigations must rely on “ ideal types ”. He viewed
6100-1232: The Stream of Consciousness Phenomenologically Interpreted." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 1:442–51. 1942 : "Scheler's Theory of Intersubjectivity & the General Thesis of the Alter Ego." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 2: 323–47. 1944 : "The Stranger." American Journal of Sociology 49(6):499–507. 1945 : "On Multiple Realities." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 5:533–576. 1948 : "Sartre's Theory of Alter Ego." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 9:181–199. 1951 : "Choosing Among Projects of Action." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 12:161–84. 1953 : "Edmund Husserl's Ideas, Volume II." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 13: 394–413. 1953 : "Die Phänomenologie und die fundamente der Wissenschaften. (Ideas III by Edmund Husserl: A Review.)" Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 13:506–14. 1953 : "Common-sense and Scientific Interpretation of Human Action." Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 14:1–38. 1954 : "Concept and Theory Formation in
6222-661: The United States in 1939, where he became a part-time faculty member of The New School . There, he taught sociology and philosophy, as well as serving as chair of the Philosophy department. Schutz received a substantial amount of assistance from his wife, Ilse, who transcribed his working notes and letters from his taped dictations. Schutz died on 20 May 1959 in New York City at the age of 60. Four volumes of Collected Papers were published posthumously, along with
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#17328014956246344-693: The Viennese Academy of International Trade from 1919 to 1920, specialising in international law. During his time at the University of Vienna, attending lectures given by Max Weber , Schutz came to the conclusion that Weber had left the problem of meaning unexplicated. As noted by Helmut Wagner (1983), Schutz's fascination with this problem was a result of his experience in combat, combined with returning to starving and economically decimated Vienna. Schutz married Ilse Heim in 1926. Partly because there were few academic posts available, he developed
6466-460: The alien can only be appropriated or assimilated into the lifeworld, and only understood on the background of the lifeworld. The Husserlian elucidation of lifeworld provided a starting point for the phenomenological sociology of Alfred Schütz , who tried to synthesize Husserl's phenomenology of consciousness, meaning, and the life-world with Max Weber 's sociology and its focus on subjectively meaningful action. Jürgen Habermas has further developed
6588-442: The basic limits of human understanding". Before the modern age, the term philosophy was used in a wide sense. It included most forms of rational inquiry, such as the individual sciences , as its subdisciplines. For instance, natural philosophy was a major branch of philosophy. This branch of philosophy encompassed a wide range of fields, including disciplines like physics, chemistry , and biology . An example of this usage
6710-543: The basis of our passive having of the world... Obviously this is true not only for me, the individual ego; rather we, in living together, have the world pre-given in this together, belong, the world as world for all, pre-given with this ontic meaning... The we-subjectivity... [is] constantly functioning. This collective inter-subjective pool of perceiving, Husserl explains, is both universally present and, for humanity's purposes, capable of arriving at 'objective truth,' or at least as close to objectivity as possible. The 'lifeworld'
6832-412: The beginning of the 20th century. It discusses topics such as ethnophilosophy , négritude , pan-Africanism , Marxism, postcolonialism , the role of cultural identity, relativism , and the critique of Eurocentrism . Philosophical questions can be grouped into several branches. These groupings allow philosophers to focus on a set of similar topics and interact with other thinkers who are interested in
6954-560: The color red, can exist at different locations at the same time. This is not the case for particulars including individual persons or specific objects. Other metaphysical questions are whether the past fully determines the present and what implications this would have for the existence of free will . There are many other subfields of philosophy besides its core branches. Some of the most prominent are aesthetics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and political philosophy. Aesthetics in
7076-446: The concept of objective research: phenomenologists would rather group presumptions through a process called phenomenological epoche . Second, phenomenology believes that analyzing the daily human behavior will provide one with a comprehensive understanding of nature. The third assumption is that persons, not individuals, should be explored and questioned. Sociologically speaking, this is in part because persons can be better understood by
7198-438: The concept of the lifeworld in his social theory. For Habermas, the lifeworld is more or less the "background" environment of competences, practices, and attitudes representable in terms of one's cognitive horizon. Compared to Husserl with his focus on consciousness, however, Habermas, whose social theory is grounded in communication, focuses on the lifeworld as consisting of socially and culturally sedimented linguistic meanings. It
7320-461: The conclusion is true. One form is inductive reasoning . It starts from a set of individual cases and uses generalization to arrive at a universal law governing all cases. An example is the inference that "all ravens are black" based on observations of many individual black ravens. Another form is abductive reasoning . It starts from an observation and concludes that the best explanation of this observation must be true. This happens, for example, when
7442-614: The consequences of the general theories developed by normative ethics in specific situations, for example, in the workplace or for medical treatments. Within contemporary normative ethics, consequentialism, deontology , and virtue ethics are influential schools of thought. Consequentialists judge actions based on their consequences. One such view is utilitarianism , which argues that actions should increase overall happiness while minimizing suffering. Deontologists judge actions based on whether they follow moral duties, such as abstaining from lying or killing. According to them, what matters
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#17328014956247564-497: The development of a new form of the sociology of knowledge . Phenomenology is the study of things as they appear (i.e., phenomena ). It is also often said to be descriptive rather than explanatory: a central task of phenomenology is to provide a "clear, undistorted description of the ways things appear." Phenomenology originated with Edmund Husserl , who Schutz studied and even met. There are many assumptions behind phenomenology that help explain its creation. First, it rejects
7686-443: The draft of a second book he had been working on prior to his death. Schutz was strongly influenced by Ludwig von Mises , Henri Bergson , William James , and Edmund Husserl , as well as Max Weber . Drawing on phenomenology , Schutz's principal aim was to create a philosophical foundation for the social sciences . While Schutz's work paralleled George Herbert Mead ’s analysis of the meanings within social interactions, Schutz
7808-400: The emergence and application of formal logic , the focus on the role of language as well as pragmatism , and movements in continental philosophy like phenomenology, existentialism , and post-structuralism . The 20th century saw a rapid expansion of academic philosophy in terms of the number of philosophical publications and philosophers working at academic institutions . There was also
7930-482: The emergence of non-Vedic teachings, like Buddhism and Jainism . Buddhism was founded by Gautama Siddhartha (563–483 BCE), who challenged the Vedic idea of a permanent self and proposed a path to liberate oneself from suffering . Jainism was founded by Mahavira (599–527 BCE), who emphasized non-violence as well as respect toward all forms of life. The subsequent classical period started roughly 200 BCE and
8052-441: The exploration of the nature of reality and the ways of arriving at knowledge. Chinese philosophy focuses principally on practical issues in relation to right social conduct, government, and self-cultivation . Major branches of philosophy are epistemology , ethics , logic , and metaphysics . Epistemology studies what knowledge is and how to acquire it. Ethics investigates moral principles and what constitutes right conduct. Logic
8174-407: The features that all entities have in common. Specific metaphysics is interested in different kinds of being, the features they have, and how they differ from one another. An important area in metaphysics is ontology . Some theorists identify it with general metaphysics. Ontology investigates concepts like being , becoming , and reality. It studies the categories of being and asks what exists on
8296-452: The form it is. In essence, Schutz and social phenomenologists are principally concerned with the happenings of everyday life, or what Schutz refers to as the lifeworld , “an intersubjective world in which people both create social reality and are constrained by the preexisting social and cultural structures created by their predecessors." Within this world, relationships between the social and natural world are what come into doubt. There
8418-426: The fundamental differences between Schutz and Parsons is provided by a critical examination of original correspondence that brought in a third scholarly voice—that of Eric Voegelin . This discussion shows that conceptual and theoretical differences between Schutz and Parsons stem from different “ways of knowing,” implying fundamentally different orientations toward social scientific thought. Schutz's writings have had
8540-539: The history of philosophy include Western , Arabic–Persian , Indian , and Chinese philosophy . Other philosophical traditions are Japanese philosophy , Latin American philosophy , and African philosophy . Western philosophy originated in Ancient Greece in the 6th century BCE with the pre-Socratics . They attempted to provide rational explanations of the cosmos as a whole. The philosophy following them
8662-416: The horizon of all our experiences, in the sense that it is that background on which all things appear as themselves and meaningful. The lifeworld cannot, however, be understood in a purely static manner; it is not an unchangeable background, but rather a dynamic horizon in which we live , and which "lives with us" in the sense that nothing can appear in our lifeworld except as lived . The concept represented
8784-417: The imperatives of autonomous subsystems make their way into the lifeworld from the outside—like colonial masters coming into a tribal society —and force a process of assimilation upon it. The diffused perspectives of the local culture cannot be sufficiently coordinated to permit the play of the metropolis and the world market to be grasped from the periphery. The fragmentation of consciousness associated with
8906-420: The importance of a strong state and strict laws. Buddhism was introduced to China in the 1st century CE and diversified into new forms of Buddhism . Starting in the 3rd century CE, the school of Xuanxue emerged. It interpreted earlier Daoist works with a specific emphasis on metaphysical explanations. Neo-Confucianism developed in the 11th century CE. It systematized previous Confucian teachings and sought
9028-419: The indigenous Shinto religion and Chinese and Indian thought in the forms of Confucianism and Buddhism, both of which entered Japan in the 6th and 7th centuries. Its practice is characterized by active interaction with reality rather than disengaged examination. Neo-Confucianism became an influential school of thought in the 16th century and the following Edo period and prompted a greater focus on language and
9150-483: The interconnectedness of all things. Latin American philosophy during the colonial period , starting around 1550, was dominated by religious philosophy in the form of scholasticism . Influential topics in the post-colonial period were positivism , the philosophy of liberation , and the exploration of identity and culture. Early African philosophy, like Ubuntu philosophy , was focused on community, morality, and ancestral ideas. Systematic African philosophy emerged at
9272-499: The lifeworld in his The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (1936): In whatever way we may be conscious of the world as universal horizon, as coherent universe of existing objects, we, each "I-the-man" and all of us together, belong to the world as living with one another in the world; and the world is our world, valid for our consciousness as existing precisely through this 'living together.' We, as living in wakeful world-consciousness, are constantly active on
9394-515: The lifeworld is a purely individual phenomenon. In keeping with the phenomenological notion of intersubjectivity , the lifeworld can be intersubjective even though each individual necessarily carries his own "personal" lifeworld ("homeworld"); meaning is intersubjectively accessible, and can be communicated (shared by one's "homecomrades"). However, a homeworld is also always limited by an alienworld. The internal "meanings" of this alienworld can be communicated, but can never be apprehended as alien ;
9516-551: The manifestation of cognitive virtues instead of justification; or they deny that knowledge can be analyzed in terms of other phenomena. Another area in epistemology asks how people acquire knowledge. Often-discussed sources of knowledge are perception , introspection , memory , inference , and testimony . According to empiricists , all knowledge is based on some form of experience. Rationalists reject this view and hold that some forms of knowledge, like innate knowledge , are not acquired through experience. The regress problem
9638-496: The modern sense of the term. Influential traditions in the history of philosophy include Western , Arabic–Persian , Indian , and Chinese philosophy . Western philosophy originated in Ancient Greece and covers a wide area of philosophical subfields. A central topic in Arabic–Persian philosophy is the relation between reason and revelation . Indian philosophy combines the spiritual problem of how to reach enlightenment with
9760-596: The most fundamental level. Another subfield of metaphysics is philosophical cosmology . It is interested in the essence of the world as a whole. It asks questions including whether the universe has a beginning and an end and whether it was created by something else. A key topic in metaphysics concerns the question of whether reality only consists of physical things like matter and energy. Alternative suggestions are that mental entities (such as souls and experiences ) and abstract entities (such as numbers) exist apart from physical things. Another topic in metaphysics concerns
9882-404: The most influential philosophers of the subsequent period. The increasing influence of Western thought and institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries gave rise to the intellectual movement of Islamic modernism , which aims to understand the relation between traditional Islamic beliefs and modernity. One of the distinguishing features of Indian philosophy is that it integrates the exploration of
10004-472: The natural and social sciences, religion, and mathematics. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge. It is also known as theory of knowledge and aims to understand what knowledge is, how it arises, what its limits are, and what value it has. It further examines the nature of truth , belief , justification , and rationality . Some of the questions addressed by epistemologists include "By what method(s) can one acquire knowledge?"; "How
10126-504: The natural world. The Kyoto School emerged in the 20th century and integrated Eastern spirituality with Western philosophy in its exploration of concepts like absolute nothingness ( zettai-mu ), place ( basho ), and the self . Latin American philosophy in the pre-colonial period was practiced by indigenous civilizations and explored questions concerning the nature of reality and the role of humans. It has similarities to indigenous North American philosophy , which covered themes such as
10248-455: The nature and sources of morality. It analyzes the meaning of ethical concepts, like right action and obligation . It also investigates whether ethical theories can be true in an absolute sense and how to acquire knowledge of them. Normative ethics encompasses general theories of how to distinguish between right and wrong conduct. It helps guide moral decisions by examining what moral obligations and rights people have. Applied ethics studies
10370-471: The nature of reality, the ways of arriving at knowledge, and the spiritual question of how to reach enlightenment . It started around 900 BCE when the Vedas were written. They are the foundational scriptures of Hinduism and contemplate issues concerning the relation between the self and ultimate reality as well as the question of how souls are reborn based on their past actions . This period also saw
10492-418: The one hand a person's own reality is her subjective construct. On the other hand this construct—in spite of all subjectivity —is not random: Since a person is still linked to her environment, her own reality is influenced by the conditions of this environment (German Grundsätzliche Doppelbindung menschlicher Strukturentwicklung ). Building up on this point of view, a separation of individual perception and
10614-599: The only child in an upper-middle-class Jewish family. Following his graduation from high school, he was drafted into the Austrian Army where he quickly rose to the American equivalent rank of second lieutenant. His army regiment was dispatched to fight in a series of heavy battles on the Italian front (WWI). In 1918, Schutz enrolled at the University of Vienna , where he earned his law degree. He also enrolled at
10736-411: The perspective of the acting subject rather than through the lens of the scientific observer. Rather than attempting to uncover and document the social structures which influence our social world Schutz and other sociological phenomenologists seek not only to identify the content of our consciousness related to our conception of the social reality of everyday life but also, how this reality comes to assume
10858-436: The philosophical sense is the field that studies the nature and appreciation of beauty and other aesthetic properties, like the sublime . Although it is often treated together with the philosophy of art , aesthetics is a broader category that encompasses other aspects of experience, such as natural beauty. In a more general sense, aesthetics is "critical reflection on art, culture, and nature ". A key question in aesthetics
10980-417: The precise definition of the term and its meaning has changed throughout the ages. Metaphysicians attempt to answer basic questions including " Why is there something rather than nothing? "; "Of what does reality ultimately consist?"; and "Are humans free?" Metaphysics is sometimes divided into general metaphysics and specific or special metaphysics. General metaphysics investigates being as such. It examines
11102-400: The problem of identity . One question is how much an entity can change while still remaining the same entity. According to one view, entities have essential and accidental features . They can change their accidental features but they cease to be the same entity if they lose an essential feature. A central distinction in metaphysics is between particulars and universals . Universals, like
11224-506: The process of linguistic communication according to the rules of practical rationality. By contrast, technical rationality governs systems of instrumentality, like industries, or on a larger scale, the capitalist economy or the democratic political government . Ideas of instrumental importance to a system are mediated according to the rules of that system (the most obvious example is the capitalist economy's use of currency ). Self-deception , and thus systematically distorted communication,
11346-428: The provocative, vexing, and enduring problems central to the human condition. The philosophical pursuit of wisdom involves asking general and fundamental questions. It often does not result in straightforward answers but may help a person to better understand the topic, examine their life, dispel confusion, and overcome prejudices and self-deceptive ideas associated with common sense. For example, Socrates stated that "
11468-424: The pure consciousness and meanings of a transcendental ego, as in Husserl's earlier work, but of consciousness and meaning in context. The lifeworld is one of the more complicated concepts in phenomenology, mainly because of its status as both personal and intersubjective. Even if a person's historicity is intimately tied up with his lifeworld, and each person thus has a lifeworld, this doesn't necessarily mean that
11590-436: The range of epistemological constructivist theory building. In consequence, a new approach is created, which is not only focusing on the individual perspective upon the lifeworld term, but is also taking account of social and material environmental conditions and their relevance as emphasized for example by Habermas . Essential therefore is Kraus' basic assumption that cognitive development depends on two determining factors. On
11712-436: The rational study of reality, knowledge, and values. It is distinguished from other disciplines of rational inquiry such as the empirical sciences and mathematics . The practice of philosophy is characterized by several general features: it is a form of rational inquiry, it aims to be systematic, and it tends to critically reflect on its own methods and presuppositions. It requires attentively thinking long and carefully about
11834-444: The resulting consensus as normatively relevant, the lifeworld has been colonized and communication has been systematically distorted. The ' colonization ' metaphor is used because the use of steering media to arrive at social consensus is not native to the lifeworld—the decision-making processes of the systems world must encroach on the lifeworld in a way that is in a sense imperialistic: When stripped of their ideological veils,
11956-400: The role of consciousness in constituting or constructing them. With the concept of the lifeworld, however, Husserl embarked on a different path, which recognizes that, even at its deepest level, consciousness is already embedded in and operating in a world of meanings and pre-judgements that are socially, culturally, and historically constituted. Phenomenology thereby became the study not just of
12078-508: The rules of English grammar, or the basic principles of jurisprudence." Schutz argued that the more one goes into the contemporary world, the more anonymous the contemporary inhabitants become, with the most anonymous being artifacts of any kind that hold meaning, context, and suggest there are unknown people. In his later writings, Schutz explored how everyday social experiences that pertain to these dimensions are most often intertwined in varying degrees of anonymity. For instance: [I]f in
12200-488: The same questions. Epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics are sometimes listed as the main branches. There are many other subfields besides them and the different divisions are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive. For example, political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics are sometimes linked under the general heading of value theory as they investigate normative or evaluative aspects. Furthermore, philosophical inquiry sometimes overlaps with other disciplines in
12322-410: The same way as the sciences. This problem is avoided by seeing philosophy as an immature or provisional science whose subdisciplines cease to be philosophy once they have fully developed. In this sense, philosophy is sometimes described as "the midwife of the sciences". Other definitions focus on the contrast between science and philosophy. A common theme among many such conceptions is that philosophy
12444-508: The scope and fundamental concepts of these fields. It also investigates their methods and ethical implications. The word philosophy comes from the Ancient Greek words φίλος ( philos ) ' love ' and σοφία ( sophia ) ' wisdom ' . Some sources say that the term was coined by the pre-Socratic philosopher Pythagoras , but this is not certain. The word entered the English language primarily from Old French and Anglo-Norman starting around 1175 CE. The French philosophie
12566-412: The second step to focus on these conditions' relevance for the subjective construction of reality. With this in mind, Manfred Ferdinand, who is reviewing the lifeworld terms used by Alfred Schütz , Edmund Husserl , Björn Kraus and Ludwig Wittgenstein , concludes: Kraus' "thoughts on a constructivist comprehension of lifeworlds contours the integration of micro-, meso- and macroscopic approaches, as it
12688-404: The social and material environmental conditions is made possible. Kraus accordingly picks up the lifeworld term, adds the term life conditions (German Lebenslage ) and opposes the two terms to each other. By this means, lifeworld describes a person's subjectively experienced world, whereas life conditions describe the person's actual circumstances in life. Accordingly, it could be said that
12810-598: The study of the biggest patterns of the world as a whole or as the attempt to answer the big questions. Such an approach is pursued by Immanuel Kant , who holds that the task of philosophy is united by four questions: "What can I know?"; "What should I do?"; "What may I hope?"; and "What is the human being?" Both approaches have the problem that they are usually either too wide, by including non-philosophical disciplines, or too narrow, by excluding some philosophical sub-disciplines. Many definitions of philosophy emphasize its intimate relation to science. In this sense, philosophy
12932-472: The subjective perception of these conditions. Kraus uses the epistemological distinction between subjective reality and objective reality. Thus, a person's lifeworld correlates with the person's life conditions in the same way than subjective reality correlates with objective reality. The one is the insurmountable, subjective construct built depending on the other one's conditions. Kraus defined lifeworld and life conditions as follows: "Life conditions mean
13054-469: The teachings of Advaita Vedanta to argue that all the different religions are valid paths toward the one divine. Chinese philosophy is particularly interested in practical questions associated with right social conduct, government, and self-cultivation . Many schools of thought emerged in the 6th century BCE in competing attempts to resolve the political turbulence of that period. The most prominent among them were Confucianism and Daoism . Confucianism
13176-433: The technique of bracketing, drawn from Husserlian phenomenology , as a way beyond the limitations of ideal-type analysis. This publication brought him to the attention of Husserl, whom he visited frequently and corresponded with until Husserl's death in 1938. Even so, when Husserl asked Schutz to be his assistant, he was unable to accept the offer at Freiburg University for personal reasons. Schutz's main area of concern
13298-485: The transition from direct to indirect experience and the series of experiences in between. He also wanted to map the progressive anonymisation of the contemporaries ( mitwelt) , which was a measurement of increasing anonymity of "my absent friend, his brother whom he has described to me, the professor whose books I have read, the postal clerk, the Canadian Parliament, abstract entities like Canada herself,
13420-821: The two Marxist concepts of alienation and false consciousness illustrate why, in Habermas' perspective, they are merely special cases of the more general phenomenon of lifeworld colonization. Social coordination and systemic regulation occur by means of shared practices, beliefs, values, and structures of communicative interaction, which may be institutionally based. We are inevitably lifeworldly, such that individuals and interactions draw from custom and cultural traditions to construct identities, define situations, coordinate action, and create social solidarity. Ideally this occurs by communicatively coming to understanding (German Verstehen ), but it also occurs through pragmatic negotiations (compare: Seidman, 1997:197). The lifeworld
13542-601: The unexamined life is not worth living " to highlight the role of philosophical inquiry in understanding one's own existence. And according to Bertrand Russell , "the man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the cooperation or consent of his deliberate reason." Attempts to provide more precise definitions of philosophy are controversial and are studied in metaphilosophy . Some approaches argue that there
13664-457: The unique ways they reflect and symbolize the society they live in. Fourth, phenomenologists prefer to gather capta , or conscious experience , rather than traditional data. Finally, phenomenology is considered to be oriented on discovery, and therefore phenomenologists gather research using methods that are far less restricting than in other sciences. Social phenomenology is concerned with how people use ordinary, everyday interactions to produce
13786-567: The various typifications we use inform how we understand and interact with people and objects in the social world. Schutz's theories and conceptions are illuminated through an intense and insightful correspondence with Harvard scholar Talcott Parsons . The thrust of the discussion centered on the meaning of the concept " social action ." Whether the Schutz-Parsons correspondence can be characterized as “dialogue” rather than “debate” has been analyzed by Rehorick (1980). Further insights into
13908-472: Was a strong critic of the idea that reason can arrive at a true understanding of reality and God. He formulated a detailed critique of philosophy and tried to assign philosophy a more limited place besides the teachings of the Quran and mystical insight. Following Al-Ghazali and the end of the classical period, the influence of philosophical inquiry waned. Mulla Sadra (1571–1636 CE) is often regarded as one of
14030-437: Was characterized by the emergence of the six orthodox schools of Hinduism : Nyāyá , Vaiśeṣika , Sāṃkhya , Yoga , Mīmāṃsā , and Vedanta . The school of Advaita Vedanta developed later in this period. It was systematized by Adi Shankara ( c. 700 –750 CE), who held that everything is one and that the impression of a universe consisting of many distinct entities is an illusion . A slightly different perspective
14152-660: Was defended by Ramanuja (1017–1137 CE), who founded the school of Vishishtadvaita Vedanta and argued that individual entities are real as aspects or parts of the underlying unity. He also helped to popularize the Bhakti movement , which taught devotion toward the divine as a spiritual path and lasted until the 17th to 18th centuries CE. The modern period began roughly 1800 CE and was shaped by encounters with Western thought. Philosophers tried to formulate comprehensive systems to harmonize diverse philosophical and religious teachings. For example, Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902 CE) used
14274-511: Was founded by Confucius (551–479 BCE). It focused on different forms of moral virtues and explored how they lead to harmony in society. Daoism was founded by Laozi (6th century BCE) and examined how humans can live in harmony with nature by following the Dao or the natural order of the universe. Other influential early schools of thought were Mohism , which developed an early form of altruistic consequentialism , and Legalism , which emphasized
14396-408: Was highly critical of Mead’s behavioristic approach. Although Schutz was never a student of Husserl, he and colleague Felix Kaufmann intensively studied Husserl's work in order to seek a basis for Weber's interpretive sociology and for Austrian economic theory. In 1932, Schutz’s efforts resulted in his first published book, Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt ('The Meaningful Structure of
14518-512: Was how philosophical and scientific knowledge are created. Specific importance was given to the role of reason and sensory experience . Many of these innovations were used in the Enlightenment movement to challenge traditional authorities. Several attempts to develop comprehensive systems of philosophy were made in the 19th century, for instance, by German idealism and Marxism . Influential developments in 20th-century philosophy were
14640-449: Was shaped by Socrates (469–399 BCE), Plato (427–347 BCE), and Aristotle (384–322 BCE). They expanded the range of topics to questions like how people should act , how to arrive at knowledge , and what the nature of reality and mind is. The later part of the ancient period was marked by the emergence of philosophical movements, for example, Epicureanism , Stoicism , Skepticism , and Neoplatonism . The medieval period started in
14762-448: Was the ways in which people grasp the consciousness of others while living within their own streams of consciousness. He spoke much about intersubjectivity , in a broader sense, using it in reference to the social world , specifically the social nature of knowledge. A great deal of his work deals with the " lifeworld ," in which people create social reality under the constraints of preexisting social and cultural factors and structures. He
14884-406: Was very focused on the "dialectical relationship between the way people construct social reality and the obdurate social and cultural reality that they inherit from those who preceded them in the social world." Schutz is also known for his belief that humans attempt to typify everything; i.e., to categorize people and things to better understand them within the context of society. He believed that
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