Social Ontology and Phenomenology Methodological Perspectives

List of Contributors 

Introduction Thomas J. Spiegel  

Part 1: General Reflections   

1. Social Ontology and the Indispensability of Experience Nicolai Knudsen   

2. Fundamental Social Ontology and the Phenomenological Tradition Hans Bernhard Schmid 

3. Social Ontology and Phenomenology – Towards a Hybrid Approach: A Meditation with Gerda Walther Sebastian Luft   

4. What is Value Experience? Discovering What Matters Roberta De Monticelli   

5. The Deep Structural Normativity of the Anonymous: Husserl and Heidegger on Everyday Social Life Dermot Moran 

Part 2: Aspects of the Social World  

6. Which Realism for Social Constructionists? Arto Laitinen & David P. Schweikard 

7. Social Norms as the Subject of Phenomenology Karl Mertens   

8. Seriality and Embodiment: On the Collectivity of Gender vis-à-vi Social Class and Ethnicity Sara Heinämaa   

9. First-Person Experience and Social Constructivism in Dementia Research: An Embodied Phenomenological Perspective on Dementia and Vulnerability Christian Tewes   

10. When is an Affective State Hostile? Ingrid Vendrell Ferran   

11. Collective Emotions: Probing the Intersection of Phenomenology and Analytic Philosophy  Linas Tranas and Thiemo Breyer 

12. The Hobbesian Brainwash: Fundamental Trust and Active Trust Thomas J. Spiegel   

13. Lived Normative Know-How: in Search of the Heart of a We Patrizio Lo Presti. 

Index 

Biography

Thomas J. Spiegel is Professor of philosophy and religion in the faculty of Global Liberal Arts at Miyazaki International University. His research is on a variety of epistemological and ontological questions regarding the social world. He is the author of Naturalism, Quietism, and the Threat to Philosophy (2021, Schwabe), co-editor of Naturalism and Human Life (International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2026), McDowell and the Hermeneutic Tradition (Routledge, 2024), and Naturalism: Challenges and New Perspectives (Topoi, 2023). Spiegel's work has been published in Synthese, Inquiry, Topoi, Theoria, Social Epistemology, Philosophical Investigations and different German newspapers. 

"This book presents a welcome addition to discussions of social ontology. By discussing directly how phenomenological approaches might differ methodologically and exploring some applications thereof, it further demonstrates the value phenomenologists bring to these discussions for those outside the tradition."

 

Eric Chelstrom, St. Mary’s University, Texas, USA