On the formulation of the subject matter of social phenomenology

Abstract

The article is devoted to the formation of the problem field of social phenomenology. The author analyzed the works of the phenomenological and socio-constructivist directions of research and identified a common conceptual core. The authors (T. Luckman, M. Merleau-Ponty, M. Eldred) distinguish a previously undifferentiated communicative horizon in the field of interaction. The communicative horizon belongs to the primordial sphere of the subject and is the result of the demarcation of the homogeneous world according to the criterion of ability to communicate. The line of demarcation is determined by the behavior of beings and does not necessarily cover only the zone of human embodiment. It was established that the communicative aspect and the aspect of asking about oneself as a human being are closely related. The mobility of the boundaries of the meanings of the world objects, the subjectivity of judgment, the possibility of correlating with the help of socio-historical reality comprise the aggregate subject matter of social phenomenology. The author concludes that due to the lack of unambiguous criteria for establishing the framework of the social world, one should resort to the description of the phenomenal plan of sociality, which can help to qualitatively distinguish the levels of social reality in the long term.