Social Science and the Social World

Abstract

This chapter consists of an untitled letter in English to Adolph Lowe, and is dated 17 October, 1955. The letter owes its existence to an exchange of ideas carried out by telephone and letters between Schutz and Lowe. Adolph Lowe had studied economics in Germany before coming to the Graduate Faculty, and was influenced by Franz Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer, whose interests were quite broad and included the social sciences in general, had opposed the theory of marginal utility, a mild form of which was endorsed by Schutz. According to Wagner,¹ until 1955 Schutz’s discussions with economists had been confined to the theory of marginal utility. But this letter largely ignores differences in economic theory and concentrates instead on Lowe’s efforts to understand the principles which underlie Schutz’s general approach to the social sciences. The title of the chapter was supplied by Helmut Wagner.