Alfred Schutz

Organized along the same lines as Three Sociological Traditions, Four Sociological Traditions is Randall Collins' updated guide to the development of modern sociology. Explaining in a brief, readable format the 4 main schools of sociological thought, this book represents a concise intellectual history of the development of sociology. Widely adopted as either a main or supplemental text, Four Sociological Traditions presents clearly the conflict tradition of Marx and Weber, the ritual solidarity tradition of Durkheim, and the microinteractionist tradition of Mead, Blumer, and Garfinkel, and - new in this edition - the rational choice/utilitarian tradition. One of the most lively and exciting writers in sociology, Randall Collins introduces students to the roots of social theory, indicating areas where progress has been made in our understanding, as well as those areas where controversy still exists. Students will find Four Sociological Traditions a fresh, thorough, and thought-provoking examination.

How does literature illuminate the way we live? Maurice Natanson, a prominent champion of phenomenology, draws upon this method's unique power to show how fiction can highlight aspects of experience that are normally left unexamined. By exploring the structure of the everyday world, Natanson reveals the "uncanny" that lies at the core of the ordinary. Phenomenology--which involves the questioning of that which we usually take for granted--is for Natanson the essence of philosophy.

Drawing upon his philosophical predecessors Edmund Husserl, Alfred Schutz, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Natanson paves his own way with stories and examples that themselves bear witness to how phenomenology occurs in literature. In considering such works as Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot, Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain, and Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis, Natanson shows how literature opens us to the domain of possibility and how metaphor offers philosophical power when we think about freedom and change.

This book, written by one of the twentieth century's leading phenomenologists, will interest students in philosophy and in literature. They will valu