Phenomenology of the social world - A fresh encounter

Abstract In this short essay, I try to draw the lines for a renewed phenomenological theory of the social world. I criticize the traditional approach, which focuses on intersubjectivity, and try to show that the crucial element of the social world is the nomic connections established between individuals. I also critically examine the modern assumption that the State is the culmination point of the social world. I then move on to the constructive part. I distinguish three types of nomic bonds, which I call socialitas, imperium, and oikeiosis, and point to them as the three fundamental axes of the social world. I defend the thesis that they do not overlap but have different structures and dynamics. Finally, I show how some important objective institutions of the social world are fundamentally, although not exclusively, based on one of these three types of nomic bonds. I designate them as Agora, Palace, and Temple. At the very end, I emphasize that the deep layers of any social world are labor and knowledge, which should be accounted for in full-fledged phenomenological research concerning the essential elements of any social world whatsoever.