Who was Alfred Schutz, and why was his work on social theory and phenomenology so important? This is an important question that must be answered here, and will be answered, but there are other issues that must be examined as well. It is important to have an understanding of social theory and an understanding of phenomenology before Schutz is discussed too thoroughly, or what kind of contribution he made will not be as evident. Since he is no longer living, what he has done can only be discussed in the context of the past, up until the year he died, which was 1959. However, many of the works that bear his name and involve him very strongly were published after that time. This would indicate that those that published these works found that they were still very relevant.

             This is similar to the way that Aristotle and others are still very relevant - they might have lived a long time ago, but the work that they did and the information that they provided was of such quality that it has survived all of these long years. The work of Schutz appears to have a similar feel to it and it looks as though the work that Schutz had done in the past will continue to be relevant well into the future. This is important for social theory and phenomenology, since they have not changed that much since Schutz's time. .

             Schutz was certainly not the first individual to study social theory and phenomenology to any great degree, and also not the first individual to make his ideas known in this way. Instead, he studied the works of many other individuals in order to determine whether there were problems with what these individuals stated and whether there were changes that should be made. This may not seem that significant to some individuals because many people can study other's work and criticize it, but this does not mean that they are correct in their criticisms or their assumptions. .

             However, where Schutz is concerned, much of the work that he did not only agreed with but criticized the works of others.