Анотація:
The paper presents theoretical and methodological analysis of societal existence as a fundamental category in existential sociology and as a social phenomenon that should be reflected by this category. According to the analysis, both objection and assertion concerning this category are not related to a concrete discourse on it but rather represented in the controversy between social and existential. Now the sociological tradition defines this controversy as the basic question of sociology, like the problem of the relationship between the individual and society, or between action and social structure. The first attempts to adapt the ideas of existential sociology to the present-day Ukrainian society researches are briefly reviewed. Among them, the view by Edward Tiryakian as the proposer of the above-mentioned category has been comprehensively examined.