A Brief Intellectual Biography of Alfred Schutz

Alfred Schutz was born in Vienna April 13, 1899. After graduation, he participated in the First World War as a cadet officer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He fought on the Italian front on the Piave river, near Conegliano. After the collapse of the Hapsburg Empire, the young Schutz found himself before the crisis that hit Austrian society: he wanted to pursue his medical studies or follow an academic career, in addition to being a musician. All three possibilities seemed implausible, due to the lengthy insecurity he would likely encounter (Wagner 1983: 8). As a result, he chose to study law, following courses of international law at the University of Vienna and international trade at the Viennese Academy. Over the course of his university studies, Schutz came into contact with lawyers like Kelsen, economists like von Wieser, von Mises and Machlup, political scientists like Voegelin. Perhaps the key figure for the young Schutz was the mathematician and philosopher Felix Kaufmann, who not only directed him towards a more rigorous methodology, but above all, introduced him to phenomenology and Edmund Husserl.