Plausibility structure

In sociology and especially the sociological study of religion, plausibility structures are the sociocultural contexts (or bases) of systems of meaning, action, or beliefs which are basic to and tend to remain unquestioned by individuals in a given society. The term seems to have been coined by Peter L. Berger, who says he draws his meaning of it from the ideas of Karl Marx, G. H. Mead, and Alfred Schutz (The Sacred Canopy, 1967. 45, 192). For Berger, the relation between plausibility structure and social "world" is dialectical, the one supporting the other which, in turn, can react back upon the first. Social arrangements may help, say, a certain religious world appear self-evident. This religious outlook may then help to shape the arrangements that contributed to its rise.

See also

• Lifeworld
• Base and superstructure
• Sociology of knowledge
• Episteme
• Belief revision

References

• Peter L. Berger. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. New York: Doubleday, 1967.
• The Sacred Canopy published in the UK as The Social Reality of Religion. London: Faber & Faber, 1969
• Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann.The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Doubleday, 1966.
• James W. Sire, Naming the elephant: worldview as a concept, InterVarsity Press, 2004, ISBN 083082779X, p.112-113
• PLAUSIBILITY, Encyclopedia of Religion and Society