Schutzian Research

Volume 10, 2018

Riccardo Venturini
Pages 155-168

Language, Verstehen, and the Life-World in Social Science Methodology
An Attempt at Dialogue Between Phenomenological Sociology and Analytical Philosophy

The aim of the paper is to deal with the links between Schutz and Wittgenstein on the centrality of language and intersubjectivity in the structure of meanings. I believe there are similarities between Schutz’s proto-trust in the natural attitude and Wittgenstein’s animal faith in the basic life form of language games. To this end, Cicourel’s analysis of the relationship between language, Verstehen and empirical research methods will be used. Cicourel renders Schutz and Wittgenstein contiguous, by interpreting the different techniques of empirical research as languages that structure the understanding of meanings on the basis of the order of different realities and different language games.