Weber left this concept it was little more than a heading for a num-
ber of important problems which he did not examine in detail, even
though they were hardly foreign to him." Schutz traced Weber's
thoughts back to their epistemological foundations and then pro-
ceeded to extend his argument by exploring what Schutz called "the
fundamental facts of conscious life." ² He confronted and tried to
solve the problem of meaning and its connection with human action
which existed in, but was not solved by, Weber's work. His task was
to build a philosophical fundament on which Weber's interpretive
sociology could be erected.

Schutz approached this task through the use of Bergsonian and
especially Husserlian categories. Some years earlier, he had read
Husserl's Logical Investigations with interest and a sense of its im-
portance but without great enthusiasm. Only later, after reading for
the first time Husserl's Phenomenology of Internal Time-Conscious-
ness, was be "catapulted into phenomenology." ³ In bringing together
the perspectives of Weber and Husserl, he was able to open whole
new areas for sociological study, notably the social construction of
reality.

His Phenomenology of the Social World was published in 1932 by
Julius Springer. Although the agonies of the impending war no doubt
curtailed the influence of the book, it nevertheless found its way into
the thinking of some of Europe's most astute scholars. For example,
references to this book can be found in the writings of Jose Ortega y
Gasset, Raymond Aron, Felix Kaufmann, and Ludwig von Mises. ⁴
The significance of Schutz's work was quickly recognized by Edmund
Husserl, who wrote Schutz shortly after the book's publication. "I am
anxious to meet such a serious and thorough phenomenologist. [You
are] one of the few who have penetrated to the core of the meaning
of my life's work, access to which is unfortunately so difficult, and
who promises to continue it as representative of the genuine philos-
ophia perennis, which alone can be the future of philosophy." ⁵
Shortly thereafter, Schutz traveled to meet Husserl and was asked to
become his assistant. Schutz was unable to accept the offer but kept
in close contact with Husserl through frequent visits and lengthy
correspondence until Husserl's death in 1938.

Although Schutz was influenced profoundly by Husserl's work, it
would be wrong to view him as a mere disciple of Husserlian phe-
nomenology. He was a careful critic of Husserl and in some areas
was boldly original. In some respects, said Thomas Luckmann,

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