Time as sociology's basic concept

A perspective from Alfred Schutz's phenomenological sociology and Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4356448
AutoresMitsuhiro Tada (0000-0002-0455-7207, Kumamoto University, autor correspondente)
Ano2019
Volume28
Fascículo3
Páginas995-1012
Data de publicação2019-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTime & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0961-463X • E-ISSN: 1461-7463
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0961463x18754458
OpenAlexW2789001228
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas18
Referências citadas12

This paper aims to clarify the proper position of time as sociology's basic concept in relation to meaning ( Sinn). In sociology, the inseparable relationship between time and meaning has been clearly shown by Schutz's phenomenological sociology and Luhmann's social systems theory. Referring to the respective theories of Bergson and Husserl, Schutz argued that the problem of meaning in Weber's interpretative sociology is a problem of time. The meaning of an action that an actor subjectively thinks of is determined not by a common normative value for example, but rather through her/his own inner time: the meaning of an ongoing action ( Handeln) is the act ( Handlung) projected as an aim in the stream of consciousness. Similarly, Luhmann considered self-referential social systems as temporal subjects that cognize their own reality of the external world. Phenomena appearing to a social system through communicative intentionality are weighted by the system's own past and future, and are thereby selectively (not randomly) actualized as meaningful units in the present. System order (or social order) is thus temporally organized in the atemporal, chaotic world of meaning. "Self-reference" is to refer to a system's own eigen time ( Eigenzeit), which provides the basis for a system's autonomy or freedom

Action (physics · Autopoiesis · Consciousness · Epistemology · Intentionality · Meaning (existential · Normative · Phenomenological sociology · Social science · Social system · Sociology · German Social Sciences and History · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis and Social Critique · Sociology and Education Studies