The Reification of the Other as a Social Pathology: Traces of a Phenomenological Critical Theory in Alfred Schutz

ALEXIS EMANUEL GROS

St. Louis

Conferencia; 5th Conference of the International Alfred Schutz Circle at the University of St. Louis.; 2021

University of St. Louis

!e present paper constitutes an attempt to articulate, systematize,and further develop the implicit traces of a phenomenological critical theory that,according to Michael Barber?s reading, are to be found in Schutz?s thought.It is my contention that a good way to achieve this aim is by reading Schutzagainst the background of novel, phenomenologically and hermeneutically informedaccounts of Critical !eory in the tradition of the Frankfurt School,such as Hartmut Rosa?s. In order to achieve the stated objective, I will proceedin four steps. First (1), I will brie"y reconstruct the mostly negative receptionof phenomenology, the interpretive social sciences, and Schutz by both theFrankfurt School and contemporary critical social theory. Second (2), I willpresent Barber?s alternative reading of Schutzian phenomenology as entailingan implicit ethics and a rudimentary critical theory based thereon. !ird (3),I will sketch out Rosa?s formal model of Critical !eory as an heuristic meansfor articulating Schutz?s unspoken social-critical insights. Finally (4), establishinga dialogue between Barber?s reading of Schutz and Rosa?s account, I willprovide a preliminary articulation of Schutz?s rudimentary critical theory.