Alfred Schutz’s phenomenology of sedimentations

Abstract

Although few other phenomenologists have provided a more insightful analysis of sedimentation than Alfred Schutz, the importance of his reflections remains heavily underappreciated. To counteract this deficiency, this paper develops a systematic account of Schutz’s phenomenology of sedimentations. While recognizing the Husserlian background that underlies Schutz’s investigations, the paper brings to light the novelty of Schutz’s account which, I maintain, is to be found in his reflections on the genesis, disturbances, breakdown and the recommencement of the sedimentation process. Paying careful attention to these four fundamental features of Schutz’s phenomenology of sedimentations, I show how the genesis of sedimentations leads to their disturbances and breakdown, which in turn lead to the readjustments and recommencement of their formation. Having clarified the dialectical structure of Schutz’s phenomenology of sedimentations, I conclude by addressing three implications that follow from it, the first of which concerns the critical function of the breakdown of sedimentations, the second one—the significance of sedimentations for phenomenology of individuation, and the third one—the importance of Schutz’s phenomenology of sedimentations for phenomenology of history.