Alfred Schutz

Sociology Austrian-American 1899 – 1959 105 quotes

Developed phenomenological sociology, focusing on the subjective meanings and interpretations that individuals bring to social life.

Quotes by Alfred Schutz

The social world is a world of projects.

The Phenomenology of the Social World 1932

Knowledge is socially distributed.

Common-Sense Knowledge of the World 1953

The stranger is a particular type of social actor.

The Stranger: An Essay in Social Psychology 1944

Relevance is the key to understanding social action.

Collected Papers I 1945

The life-world is the ground of all scientific thought.

Collected Papers II 1954

We are born into a world already meaningful.

Collected Papers I 1945

The tufts of conversational common-sense provide the essential background for the paramount reality.

Collected Papers I 1945

Social relations are mediated by typifications.

The Phenomenology of the Social World 1932

The reflective attitude suspends the natural attitude.

The Phenomenology of the Social World 1932

Memory is not a passive storehouse but an active reconstruction.

Collected Papers II 1951

The world is not just there, but it is there for us.

Collected Papers I 1945

In the social world, meaning is intersubjective.

The Phenomenology of the Social World 1932

The epoché of the natural attitude opens the phenomenological field.

The Phenomenology of the Social World 1932

Everyday life is a realm of practical purposes.

Collected Papers I 1945

The anonymous structures of the social world constrain the individual.

Collected Papers II 1954

Science is a finite province of meaning within the life-world.

Common-Sense Knowledge of the World 1953

The past is sedimented in the present.

The Phenomenology of the Social World 1932

Communication is the reciprocal perspective-taking.

Collected Papers I 1945

The individual is a system of motives.

The Phenomenology of the Social World 1932

The social sciences must start from the actor's point of view.

The Phenomenology of the Social World 1932