Alfred Schütz
| Alfred Schütz | |
|---|---|
Austrian sociologist
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| Born |
April 13, 1899 Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | May 20, 1959 (aged 60) New York City, New York |
| Nationality | Austrian-American |
| Institutions | The New School |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Doctoral advisor | Hans Kelsen |
| Known for | Social phenomenology |
| Influences | Ludwig von Mises, Henri Bergson, William James, Edmund Husserl, Max Weber |
| Influenced | Peter Ludwig Berger, Thomas Luckmann, Harold Garfinkel, David Sudnow, Dan Zahavi |
Alfred Schutz (13 April 1899 – 20 May 1959) was an Austrian philosopher and social phenomenologist whose work bridged sociological and phenomenological traditions. Schutz is gradually being recognized as one of the twentieth century's leading philosophers of social science. He related Edmund Husserl's work to the social sciences, and influenced Max Weber's legacy of philosophical foundations for sociology and economics through Schutz's major work, Phenomenology of the Social World.
Schutz was born in Vienna, Austria, into an upper-middle-class Jewish family as an only child. Following his graduation from high school he was drafted into the Austrian army, where he quickly rose to the American equivalent rank of second lieutenant. His army regiment was dispatched to fight in a series of heavy battles on the Italian front (WWI).
Schutz enrolled at the University of Vienna from where he received his law degree. During his time at the University of Vienna he also enrolled at the Viennese Academy of International Trade from 1919 to 1920 and adopted a concentration in International Law. During his time at the University of Vienna, Schutz went to lectures given by Max Weber, and felt that Weber had left the problem of meaning unanswered. As noted by Wagner (1983), Schutz's fascination with the problem of meaning was a result of his experience in combat, combined with returning to starving and economically decimated Vienna. In 1926 Schutz married Ilse Heim, after developing a well-established and prominent career in international banking. He became the chief financial officer for Reitler and Company, the Vienna banking firm. In 1933 the threat of Hitler’s rise in Germany caused Schutz and other Viennese intellectuals to flee Austria in order to seek asylum in allied countries. Consequently, Schutz and his family relocated to Paris in 1938 in political exile. Schutz worked as an international lawyer for Reitler and Company, and moved to the United States in 1939, where he became a faculty member of The New School. He taught sociology and philosophy as well as serving as chair of the Philosophy department. Schutz is unique as a scholar of the social sciences in that he pursued a career in law for most of his life, while teaching part-time at the New School for Social Research in New York. Moreover, he produced key papers in phenomenological sociology that fill four volumes (published by Nijhoff, The Hague), while working full-time at the bank. Schutz received a substantial amount of assistance from his wife Ilse, who transcribed his working notes and letters from his taped dictations. Schutz died in New York City at the age of 60.
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