The Vicissitudes of Phenomenology in Sociology since Husserl: The Actor, the Interacting Actors, and Alterity

Professor LUI Ping-keung The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

The paper begins with a short narrative of the demise of phenomenological sociology after the sixties, leading into a long narrative of a triumphant spectrum of theoretical constructions by sociologists intertwined with those by phenomenologists since Husserl. The spectrum, running from phenomenology as a discipline to sociology as its opposite discipline, is organized into three consecutive ontological foci, namely, the actor and his situation, actors interacting, and alterity. The relative positions of various phenomenological and/or sociological constructions on the spectrum, and their theoretical implications, are discussed. The paper ends with a promise of theoretical sociology.