Schütz on Meaning and Culture

Storr, Virgil Henry

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Schütz on Meaning and Culture

Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 147-163, 2010.

17 Pages Posted: 18 Nov 2010 Last revised: 20 Dec 2010

See all articles by Virgil Henry Storr

Virgil Henry Storr

George Mason University - Department of Economics; George Mason University - Mercatus Center; University of Arizona Center for the Philosophy of Freedom

Date Written: July 23, 2009

Abstract

The hermeneutical Austrians wanted to provide (1) a philosophically sound justification for the contention that praxeology is a science of meaning and (2) justification for an approach to empirical/historical work that favors ethnographic methods. This article argues that had the hermeneutical Austrians relied on Alfred Schütz rather than Hans-Georg Gadamer to support their positions much of the firestorm surrounding their methodological pronouncements could have been avoided. Schütz’s phenomenology offers a more than adequate defense for these (two) positions and, as a member of the Austrian school, his views on these arguments may have been more readily received.

Keywords: Schütz, Gadamer, Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Culture and Economy, Thick Descriptions

JEL Classification: B0, B25, B3, B53

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Storr, Virgil Henry and Storr, Virgil Henry, Schütz on Meaning and Culture (July 23, 2009). Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 147-163, 2010., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1711305