Existential Sociology

by Edited by Jack D. Douglas , John M. Johnson

• ISBN13: 9780521292252
• ISBN10: 0521292255
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1977-10-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This collection of ten original essays was first published in 1977. It engages the 'crisis in sociology' at the most fundamental level of thought and experience. Existential sociology is defined as the study and understanding of all forms of human existence. Without seeking to erect a pristine philosophical sanctuary of its own, Existential Sociology examines and criticizes the underlying philosophical assumptions of previous theories of social science, while elaborating its own approach to human understanding. The contributors are concerned with constructing practical as well as theoretical truths about social life - how we feel, think and act. In contrast to most other sociologies, the emphasis is on the independence and dominance of human feelings over the evaluative and cognitive features of social actions. Students and teachers of sociology and people in related fields interested in the connection between social science and their own subjects will find Existential Sociology useful and absorbing.

Table of Contents

Introduction; About the contributors

Aspects of Existential Sociology

Existential sociology

The Fundamental Issues and Existential Sociology

The emergence of existential thought: philosophical perspectives on positivist and humanist forms of social theory

The existential thought of Jean Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty

The Phenomenological Sociologies and Existential Sociology

The sociology of Alfred Schutz

Ethnomethodology and existential sociology

Practical reasoning in action

Beyond the Rational Frontwork

Behind the rational appearances: fusion of thinking and feeling in sociological research

Occasioned transcendence

The Existential Self

The chronic pain experience

The existential self in the gay world Carol

Appendix: the origins of existential sociology

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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