Mundane Reason

Sociology and common sense both assume that there is an objective world that exists independently of the knower and that is accessible to competent perceivers. This assumption, and the idiomatic possibilities to which it gives rise, forms the basis of 'mundane reason'. As self-evident as mundane reason may appear, in this book the author shows that it is in fact historically emergent, culturally contingent and situationally constructed. Using close empirical observations from everyday settings in which people are concerned with 'what really happened' Pollner examines the practices of mundane reasoning in everyday life. He also analyses selected sociological texts and explores how mundane assumptions are used and sustained; how they affect conceptions of truth, mind, and reality; and how they may be brought within the purview of sociological analysis. The probing study will appeal widely to sociologists, social theorists, anthropologists, philosophers and psychologists, as well as to other readers concerned with understanding the social construction of the everyday world.