The background of social reality

Selected contributions from the inaugural meeting of enso

herausgegeben vonHans Bernhard SchmidMichael SchmitzBeatrice Sasha Kobow

This volume aims at giving the reader an overview over the most recent theoretical and methodological findings in a new and rapidly evolving area of current theory of society: social ontology. This book brings together philosophical, sociological and psychologicalapproaches and advances the theory towards a solution of contemporary problems of society, such as the integration of cultures, the nature of constitutive rules, and the actions of institutional actors. It focuses on the question of the background of action in society andilluminates one of the most controversial, cross-disciplinary questions of the field while providing insight into the ontological structure of groups as agents. This volume offers an interesting and important contribution to the debate as itdoes well inbridging the gap between the analytical and the continental tradition in social philosophy. In addition, this volume expands the reach and depth of the philosophy of sociality by relating it to philosophical ideas from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and to key thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, and Bourdieu. The contributors include internationally renowned scholars as well as a highly selected set of younger scholars whose work is at the cutting edge of their field. Scholarly, yet accessible, this book is an essential resource for researchers across the social sciences.