Hermeneutic Philosophies of Social Science by Babette Babich

Author:Babette Babich
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2017-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Berger and Luckmann’s theory starts out from the assumption that the reality in which we all live is fabricated in and through our actions. Reality is argued to consist in the small or large institutions of action; and what reality means is determined by what these institutions recognize as knowledge and transmit by means of language. It therefore does not exist without people. Instead, people first create reality in and through their actions. And what is sociologically important in this is the fact that they do not do this alone, since reality becomes objective in its being shared by several persons and thus its intersubjectivity. There are two unique aspects to the theory of social construction. First, Berger and Luckmann manage to avoid the sociologism of systems theory and ‘social constructionism.’ They argue that reality is constructed in social action, but, as Hacking (1999) properly states: “They did not claim that everything is a social construct, including, say, the taste of honey and the planet Mars. […] They did not claim that nothing can exist unless it is socially constructed.” Second, Berger and Luckmann assume that social reality is constructed in action. Actions for their part are impossible without an individualized consciousness. This idea is the central postulate of the sociological theoretical tradition that starts with Max Weber’s analysis of the subjective meaning of action. It has been substantially elaborated further by Alfred Schutz’s phenomenological constitution analysis of consciousness and the everyday life-world.

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