epoché


epoché

the placing in parentheses, or bracketing, ofany aspect(s) of reality for methodological purposes. For example, the analysis of'S tructure’ while holding individual agency in parenthesis (see Giddens, 1984). The concept of epoché derives from HUSSERL's PHENOMENOLOGY, where it was intended as a technique for allowing penetration to the underlying grounds of our knowledge by thinking away conventional, including scientific, assumptions. The device has been applied within sociology, particularly by SCHUTZ, and, influenced by him, also within ETHNOMETHODOLOGY, with the aim of uncovering the grounds of our everyday social knowledge and SOCIAL COMPETENCE.