A Brief Intellectual Biography of Alfred Schutz (original) (raw)

2015, SocietàMutamentoPolitica

was born in Vienna April 13, 1899. After graduation, he participated in the First World War as a cadet officer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He fought on the Italian front on the Piave river, near Conegliano. After the collapse of the Hapsburg Empire, the young Schutz found himself before the crisis that hit Austrian society: he wanted to pursue his medical studies or follow an academic career, in addition to being a musician. All three possibilities seemed implausible, due to the lengthy insecurity he would likely encounter (Wagner 1983: 8). As a result, he chose to study law, following courses of international law at the University of Vienna and international trade at the Viennese Academy. Over the course of his university studies, Schutz came into contact with lawyers like Kelsen, economists like von Wieser, von Mises and Machlup, political scientists like Voegelin. Perhaps the key figure for the young Schutz was the mathematician and philosopher Felix Kaufmann, who not only directed him towards a more rigorous methodology, but above all, introduced him to phenomenology and Edmund Husserl. In the first semester of 1918, Max Weber gave a course at the University of Vienna that had a wide resonance. Schutz was unable to attend because he was still at the front, but he was in contact with students who were struck by that lesson. The influence of Weber had a fundamental impact on the thought of the Austrian sociologist, who studied his work in depth after he finished university. The Weberian theme of the subjectivity of the understanding of meaning constituted a bridge to fill the gap between the technicality of economic theory and the social world (Wagner 1983: 13). Schutz graduated in law in December, 1921, and began working as managing secretary of the Association of Austrian Bankers. In 1926 he married Ilse Heim, who gave birth to him two children, Evelyn in 1933, and Georg in 1938. In 1929, he began working as an expert in law and banking with Reitler & Co., a private bank that operated in Central and Eastern Europe. It was also for his intense interpersonal relationships due to his work, that Schutz de-brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk