Abstract
At least since the time of Max Weber, we have known that social life is meaningful. Typically we believe that meanings are deeply hidden, underlying empirical, observable reality and not directly perceivable. Some are hidden in human minds, as psychological meanings: motivations, intentions, reasons, aspirations, dreams. Other are hidden in social facts in the Durkheimian sense, as cultural meanings: values, rules, norms, ideologies, shared beliefs, creeds, utopias.
The human eye has a unique sociological function.
(Georg Simmel [1908] 1921: 358)
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© 2012 Jeffrey C. Alexander, Dominik Bartmański, and Bernhard Giesen
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Sztompka, P. (2012). Visible Meanings. In: Alexander, J.C., Bartmański, D., Giesen, B. (eds) Iconic Power. Cultural Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137012869_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137012869_15
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