Abstract

In discussing the fractious relationship between phenomenology and social theory, this chapter argues that a phenomenological social theory has developed. Of particular import is the work of Edmund Husserl. His "intentionality" of consciousness, insight regarding lived experience and the "intuition of essences," and conception of the need for modalization support a phenomenological social theory. Husserl's phenomenology also encompasses the ideas of embodiment, temporality, and intersubjectivity. Despite the relevance of phenomenology to sociological theory, it has been largely ignored by sociologists and social theorists. Meanwhile, Husserl has been criticized by phenomenologists such as Martin Heidegger and Gabriel Marcel. What must be understood by these theorists, however, is that the significance of phenomenology -- rather than its assumptions -- is what must be evaluated.