Table of Contents

Introduction; About the contributors; Part I. Aspects of Existential Sociology: 1. Existential sociology Jack D. Douglas; Part II. The Fundamental Issues and Existential Sociology: 2. The emergence of existential thought: philosophical perspectives on positivist and humanist forms of social theory Richard H. Brown; 3. The existential thought of Jean Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty Andrea Fontana and Richard Van de Water; Part III. The Phenomenological Sociologies and Existential Sociology: 4. The sociology of Alfred Schutz David L. Altheide; 5. Ethnomethodology and existential sociology John M. Johnson; 6. Practical reasoning in action John P. Anderson; Part IV. Beyond the Rational Frontwork: 7. Behind the rational appearances: fusion of thinking and feeling in sociological research John M. Johnson; 8. Occasioned transcendence John M. Johnson; Part V. The Existential Self: 9. The chronic pain experience Joseph A. Kotarba; 10. The existential self in the gay world Carol A. B. Warren and Barbara Ponse; Appendix: the origins of existential sociology Jack D. Douglas; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Promotional Information

This collection of ten original essays engages the 'crisis in sociology' at the most fundamental level of thought and experience.