The Second Road to Phenomenological Sociology

This article outlines and discusses the second road to phenomenology. It is argued that Martin Heidegger's approach to phenomenology represents a radical break with the first, and egological, road paved by Edmund Husserl. The article shows that sociologists who have followed Husserl and Schutz, or more generally have assumed the egological approach, in fact operate with a non-sociological starting point. Husserl brackets the lifeworld in order to get to true knowledge. In his view, ego tries to reach out to other egos, and social relations is a consequence of egos attempts. Heidegger, in contrast, argues that our lifeworld is the starting point of any knowledge, and this means that man is essentially constituted as being together with other men.