phenomenology

• phenomenon - things that appear to our senses

  • some philosophists argue that we can never have definite knowledge of what the world outside our mind is really like
• philosophy


  husserl - the world only makes sense because we impose meaning on it by constructing mental categories that file information coming from our senses

  • we only obtain knowledge about the world through our mental acts
• typifications

  schutz' phenomenological sociology - shared categories that allow is to organise experiences into a shared world of meaning

  • the meaning of an experience varies with context, so meanings are potentially unstable and unclear
  • typifications allow us all to agree on the meanings of things and so stabilise these meanings
  • members of society have a shared lifeworld including shared assumptions about the way things are etc. - recipe knowledge that can be followed without much effort
  • this knowledge is the world around us
• the natural attitude

  schutz' phenomonological sociology - the assumption that the natural world is a solid object that exists

  • in reality this is simply the people involved all sharing the same meanings which allows us to cooperate and achieve goals
  • HOWEVER berger + luckmann - once society has been constructed it takes on a life of its own and becomes an external reality
  • religious ideas begin in our consciousness but become embodied in powerful structures eg. churches which constrain our behaviour