Introduction

Abstract

This book comprises a collection of essays organized around the theme of subjectivity. The aim of the collection is to undermine the empty dualism of behaviorism and mentalism as it has traditionally, up to this time, been applied to problems in conceptualizing and studying ‘psychological’ phenomena. I believe that the Cartesian ‘subject/object’ dichotomy has wrought conceptual havoc in sociological and psychological thinking, and has even influenced some of the formulations of scholars whose basic purpose has been to transcend it (e.g. Schutz). In its place, I want to propose a different account of the ‘mental’ concepts, drawing heavily on the Wittgensteinian tradition in the philosophy of mind. I shall try to show that, when taken together, currents in both linguistic philosophy and ethnomethodology provide for the possibility of making genuinely sociological propositions about subjective phenomena in ways which demystify and dereify the latter.