THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL SCHOOL
THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL SCHOOL At the broadest level, phenomenological sociology is that sociology which operates on the basis of philosophical phenomenology. It tries, without doing too much damage to its original sources, to apply the principles of philosophical phenomenology to sociological questions. The work of philosophers such as Husserl, as well as Henri Bergson, Franz Brentano, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, provide its ultimate source, and the work of Schultz, its closest source. Phenomenologists assign primacy to human consciousness. So its objective is the description of the universal structure of subjective orientations. Derived from this approach is the view held by phenomenological sociology that the objective features of society rest on this universal subjective base. Like phenomenological philosophy, phenomenological sociology is a science because of its rigorous, systematic, and critical attempt to uncover the basic realities of social life. Phenomenological school reflec...