Abstract
This essay presents a phenomenological analysis of the functioning of symbols as elements of the life-world with the purpose of demonstrating the interrelationship of individual and society. On the basis of Alfred Schutz's theory of the life-world, signs and symbols are viewed as mechanisms by means of which the individual can overcome the transcendences posed by time, space, the world of the Other, and multiple realities which confront him or her. Accordingly, the individual's life-world divides itself into the dimensions of time, space, the social world and various reality spheres which form the boundaries or transcendences that the I has to understand and integrate. Signs and symbols are described as appresentational modes which stand for experiences originating in the different spheres of the life-world within the world of everyday life, within which they can be communicated, thereby establishing intersubjectivity. Schutz's theory of the symbol explains how social entities – such as nations, states or religious groups – are symbolically integrated to become components of the individual's life-world. The following paper reconstructs Schutz's concept of the symbol as a crucial component of his theory of the life-world, which is seen as an outstanding phenomenological contribution to the theory of the sign and the symbol in general.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Berger, P.L. and Luckmann, T. (1967). The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Consciousness. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.
Cassirer, E. (1972). An Essay on Man. An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.
Dostoyevsky, F. (1990). The Brothers Karamazov. A Novel in Four Parts with Epilogue. Trans. and annotated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. London: Quartet.
Dreher, J. (1997). “Die Ñberwindung der Transzendenzen der Lebenswelt durch Zeichen und Symbole.” Published online: http://www.ub.uni-konstanz.de/kops/volltexte/1999/109.
Endreß, M. (1999). Alfred Schütz (1899-1959). In D. Käsler (Ed.), Klassiker der Soziologie, Bd. 1. Von Auguste Comte bis Norbert Elias, pp. 334-352. München: Beck.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and Time. New York, Evanston: Harper & Row.
Husserl, E. (1954). Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie. Eine Einführung in die phänomenologische Philosophie. Husserliana Bd. VI. Den Haag: Nijhoff.
Husserl, E. (1985). Erfahrung und Urteil. Untersuchungen zur Genealogie der Logik. Hamburg: Meiner. Husserl, E. (1987). Cartesianische Meditationen. Eine Einführung in die Phänomenologie. Hamburg: Meiner.
James, W. (1950). The Principles of Psychology, Vols. I-II. New York: Henry Holt.
Jaspers, K. (1973). Philosophie III. Metaphysik. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer.
Knoblauch, H. (1995). Kommunikationskultur. Die kommunikative Konstruktion sozialer Kontexte. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter.
Luckmann, T. (Ed.) (1983). On the Boundaries of the Social World. In Life-World and Social Realities, pp. 42-67. London: Heinemann.
Natanson, M. (1986). Anonymity. A Study in the Philosophy of Alfred Schutz. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Ortega y Gasset, J. (1957). Man and People. New York: Norton & Company.
Scheler, M. (1980). Die Wissensformen und die Gesellschaft. Probleme einer Soziologie des Wissens. Bern, München: Franke.
Schutz, A. (1962). Collected Papers, Vol. I. The Problem of Social Reality. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Schutz, A. (1970). Collected Papers, Vol. III. Studies in Phenomenological Philosophy. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Schutz, A. (1982). Life Forms and Meaning Structure. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Schutz, A. (1989a). Appendix: The Notebooks. In A. Schutz and T. Luckmann, The Structures of the Life-World, Vol. 2, pp. 159-324. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Schütz, A. (2003). In H. Knoblauch, R. Kurt and H.-G. Soeffner (Eds.), Theorie der Lebenswelt. Die kommunikative Ordnung der Lebenswelt. Werkausgabe, Bd. V. 2. Konstanz: UVK (in print).
Schutz, A. and Gurwitsch, A. (1989). In R. Grathoff (Ed.), Philosophers in Exile. The Correspondence of Alfred Schutz and Aron Gurwitsch, 1939-1959. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Schutz, A. and Luckmann, T. (1974). The Structures of the Life-World, Vol. 1. London: Heinemann.
Schutz, A. and Luckmann, T. (1989). The Structures of the Life-World, Vol. 2. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Schütz, A. and Luckmann, T. (1994). Strukturen der Lebenswelt II. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp.
Soeffner, H.-G. (1990). Appräsentation und Repräsentation. Von der Wahrnehmung zur gesellschaftlichen Darstellung des Wahrzunehmenden. In H. Ragotzky and H. Wenzel (Eds.), Höfische Repräsentation. Das Zeremoniell und die Zeichen, pp. 43-63. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Soeffner, H.-G. (1991). Zur Soziologie des Symbols und des Rituals. In J. Oelkers and K. Wegenast (Eds.), Das Symbol - Brücke des Verstehens, pp. 63-81. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
Srubar, I. (1988). Kosmion. Die Genese der pragmatischen Lebenswelttheorie von Alfred Schütz und ihr anthropologischer Hintergrund. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp.
Thomas, W.I. (1970). The Child in America. Behavior Problems and Programs. New York: Johnson Repr.
Voegelin, E. (1952). The New Science of Politics. An Introduction. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Wagner, H.R. (1977/78). The Bergsonian Period of Alfred Schutz. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 38: 187-199.
Weber, M. (1978). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Trans. G. Roth. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dreher, J. The Symbol and the Theory of the Life-World: “The Transcendences of the Life-World and Their Overcoming by Signs and Symbols”. Human Studies 26, 141–163 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024014620368
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024014620368