Phenomenology

Question 1

What do some philosophers argue?

Answer 1

We can never have definite knowledge of what the world is like outside our minds

Question 2

Hurssel’s philosophy

Answer 2

• Argues that the world only makes sense because we impose meaning and order on it by constructing mental categories that we use to file info
• The world as we know it is and can only be a product of our mind

Question 3

Schutz’s phenomenological sociology

Answer 3

Argues that the categories we use aren’t unique, we share them with other members

Question 4

Schutz’s phenomenological sociology
(Typifications)

Answer 4

• These enable us to organise our experiences into the shared world of meaning
• The meaning of an experience varies according to its context
• The meaning is not given by the act in itself but by its context, this is why they’re potentially unclear
• Typifications stabilise and clarify meanings by ensuring that we are ‘speaking the same language”
• This makes it possible for us to communicate and achieve goals
• Members of society to a large extent have a shared ‘life world’

Question 5

Schutz’s phenomenological sociology
(Natural attitude)

Answer 5

• Society appears to a be a real thing outside of us e.g. when posting a letter to a bookshop to order a book, we assume people will perform a whole sequence of poerations
• The fact that we do get the book encourages us to adopt the ‘natural attitude’, leads us to believe society is real

Burger and Huckmann:
* Reject view that society is an inter subjective reality
* Reality, once socially constructed, takes on a life of its own