Is a phenomenological sociology possible? Towards a rephrasing of an old question

‘Subjective meaning’ is a nebulous phrase sociologists, since Weber, feel they must at least take some cognizance of. Phenomenological sociology, however, was formulated with the express aim of reaching and building a sociology upon this. If we define subjective meaning as reaching the subject's meaning, phenomenological sociology fails in this aim. Rather, it imposes an assumed meaning through its system of concepts, typologies and assumptions. This is a common criticism in present discussion and is used as the starting point for elaborating a phenomenological sociology which reaches the subject's meaning directly. This involves defining and locating subjective meaning, providing a mechanism to reach it, illustrating the sociological nature of the subject's meaning and explicating the background assumptions which define its system of concepts and theoretical framework. However, while being true to the subject's meaning, such a phenomenological programme has revolutionary implications for the nature of sociology. It was precisely these implications which led current phenomenological sociology away from the subject's meaning. Given these implications one of the crises of sociology becomes more strictly defined — the question ought to be no longer whether a phenomenological sociology is possible, but whether we really want to reach the subject's meaning. And if not, the term ‘subjective meaning’ becomes an empty shall which might as well be dropped from our vocabulary

Epistemology · Linguistics · Phrase · Sociology · Computer Science · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Emile Durkheim and Sociology · Philosophy · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

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