Alfred Schütz: Biography of This Austrian Sociologist and Philosopher

During the 20th century, different authors contributed to growing the scope of sociology. One of them was Alfred Schütz.

In the following paragraphs we will make a compendium of the most significant events in the life of this author to understand in greater depth the contributions that he was later able to make, throughout a prolific career in which he was able to publish several works. Let’s see, then, a biography of Alfred Schütz as a summary of his career.

Brief biography of Alfred Schütz

Alfred Schütz was born in 1899 in Vienna, the capital of Austria and at that time belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire His family had Jewish origins, and he had a wealthy position, so he did not experience difficulties during his childhood. After receiving his primary and secondary education, he was forced to serve in the army due to the outbreak of the First World War.

After fighting on the Italian front, he returned to his country and was able to resume his training. He studied law at the University of Vienna and international law at the Academy of International Trade from that same city, thus completing higher studies at these prestigious institutions.

It was during his time as a student that he had the opportunity to meet Max Weber, one of the fathers of sociology, thanks to a series of conferences he held at his university and which Alfred Schütz was able to attend, which was a turning point. for the direction his career would take from that moment on.

As a result of this meeting, he considered that Weber, in his postulates, left the question of meaning unanswered. For this reason, he focused on giving a philosophical foundation to said theory, in order to complete the categories of sociology that said author proposed, as well as his methodology.

Marriage, work and exile

In 1926, Alfred Schütz married Ilse Heim, who would be his wife for the rest of his life. Having completed his studies at university, and initially failing to obtain an academic position that would allow him to practice as a professor, he directed his career in another direction, that of international banking.

In fact, he began working at Reitler and Company, in financial management, a prestigious position. However, he did not leave aside his passion, which was studying. In fact, the author and friend Edmund Husserl captured in a quote a perfect description of Alfred Schütz’s situation throughout this stage. He said that during the day he was a banker and at night he became a philosopher.

In 1933, the Nazi regime came to power in Germany and Austria, which posed an imminent danger to all Jewish people, due to the approaching racial laws. Aware of this, like so many other individuals, Alfred decided that the best option was, sadly, to leave his country in search of a safe place In this case, he chose Paris at first.

In the French capital he continued to provide his services as financial director of Reitler and Company, but this activity would not last too long, and only one year later, in 1939, and with the outbreak of the Second World War, Alfred Schütz he exiled to the United States

Career in the US and recent years

Paradoxically, this move to the US allowed him to finally work as an academic, for the New School for Social Research. In said institution He was able to teach classes in both philosophy and sociology, also running the department of the first of those disciplines

Alfred Schütz’s work was possible, in part, thanks to the invaluable help of his wife, who served as his companion, helping him carry out transcriptions and other tasks that made his work easier. This is how he was able to develop some of the important theories for which he is recognized today.

In this way, Schütz was able to continue working at the university for almost two more decades, until he finally died in 1959, when he was 60 years old. His death took place in New York City, where the university institution where he carried out his work was located.

The work of Alfred Schütz: main factors

Throughout his career, Alfred Schütz worked on a series of concepts that enriched the discipline of sociology. Its primary goal was to provide this science with a philosophical basis His first work was “The Phenomenology of the Social World”, published in 1932. For this author, there were a series of fundamental concepts, which we will review below.

1. Social reality

The first of the central elements of Alfred Schütz’s theories is that of social reality. This concept refers to the entirety of the components and events that take place in the world from the perspective of different individuals, in interaction with each other

In that sense, any of the elements of social reality will be real in that it is part of said interactions, that is, it means something to the person. Therefore, if something has no meaning or is outside the set of interactions, it is not within the social reality of said individual.

2. The world of life

Another of the pillars of Alfred Schütz’s work is the concept of the life world. Within the social reality that we talked about in the previous point, all people interact in specific ways. Through such interactions, they can modify their own environment. All the part of reality that the person can alter in some way is what would be included within the concept of the world of life.

3. The biographical situation

The biographical situation would complete the trio of fundamental components of Alfred Schütz’s sociological theories. This element refers to the scenario in which each person finds themselves, within which they have a specific place and fulfill a role according to which they interact in a specific way with the rest of the individuals

Issues related to ideology or moral factors would be included within the biographical situation, since they would be modulating that position and way of acting of each subject. Within this environment, you can find variables that are controlled by the person, others that are not but could be controlled by them in some circumstances, and others that are not controlled at all.

The question of the subject

A primary issue in Alfred Schütz’s studies was that of the concept of the subject. It refers to each individual, within the context that we saw of the social world. The limits of this element will be those given by life experience, past and present, so each individual will be unique and different from the rest.

The subject, furthermore, for Alfred Schütz, is an entity that cannot be static, but is in continuous change, since with each interaction with the world, it modifies itself, so it stops being what it was to become something new, in a constant and endless process. Therefore, it can never be known in its entirety, because it cannot be achieved.

For this reason, Schütz distinguishes between the “I”, which would be the subject based on its history of previous experiences, and the “me”, which is subtly different, since it would continue to be the individual himself, but taking into account his most recent experience. recent, which is what is modifying its own being in real time. Both elements are two dimensions of the same element.

But furthermore, the subject is not an isolated element, but rather is in continuous interaction with the rest of the subjects, which introduces the concept of intersubjectivity, by being able to observe these other individuals and put oneself in their place. Furthermore, if the subject is here, by extension the concept of there also appears, where others are located, establishing different dimensions.

Going one step further in this theory, Alfred Schütz adds the temporal dimension, to establish the difference that exists between the subjects with whom we can interact, since they are at the same moment than us, who would be the contemporaries, and those from a past moment who are therefore alien to the interactions, and who would be known as the predecessors.

Within contemporaries, it establishes a group that refers to those subjects with whom interaction is more frequent and with whom it is common to maintain shared experiences This subgroup would be the associated subjects.

This would be a small summary of some of the main concepts of the theories of the author Alfred Schütz.