ABSTRACT
From the outset it is important to recognize that I shall not be considering the relationship of phenomenological philosophy to either sociology in general or to the concept of a phenomenological sociology in particular. The relationship of phenomenology to sociology is a complex one, the problem being magnified by the heterogeneous nature of both ‘disciplines’ (cf. Phillipson, 1972). I will concentrate upon the idea of a radically ‘new’ sociology, a phenomenological sociology, derived from the phenomenological philosophical clarification of the sociological task. The emergence of a distinctive phenomenological sociology has both contributed to, and been a product of, the declining credibility of conventional sociological approaches. In particular, phenomenological sociology provides a critique of sociological approaches which minimize the differences between the socio-cultural and physical worlds. One important consequence therefore of the appearance of a ‘new’ sociology has been a re-consideration or re-vision of the assump tions, methodology and nature of sociological work. At the focus of such re-considerations has been the question of the significance of the distinction between natural or physical phenomena and social phenomena, the natural or physical ‘world’ and the socio-cultural ‘world’.
