Hermeneutic Philosophies of Social Science

Description

Hermeneutic philosophies of social science offer an approach to the philosophy of social science foregrounding the human subject and including attention to history as well as a methodological reflection on the notion of reflection, including the intrusions of distortions and prejudice. Hermeneutic philosophies of social science offer an explicit orientation to and concern with the subject of the human and social sciences. Hermeneutic philosophies of the social science represented in the present collection of essays draw inspiration from Gadamer’s work as well as from Paul Ricoeur in addition to Michel de Certeau and Michel Foucault among others. Special attention is given to Wilhelm Dilthey in addition to the broader phenomenological traditions of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger as well as the history of philosophy in Plato and Descartes. The volume is indispensible reading for students and scholars interested in epistemology, philosophy of science, social social studies of knowledge as well as social studies of technology. Table of Contents List of Abbreviations Hermeneutic Philosophies of Social Science: Introduction I. Science and Method: Towards Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Social Science Toward an Interpretative or Hermeneutic Social Science Quantum Mechanics and the Social Sciences A Critical Hermeneutics of Agency: Cultural Studies as Critical Social Theory Overcoming Naturalism from Within: Dilthey, Nature, and the Human Sciences Hermeneutics from the Inside-Out and the Outside-In—And How Postmodernism Blew It All Wide Open II. Reflexive and Relational Hermeneutics The Sciences of Subjectivity Studies of Empirical Ontology and Ontological Difference Hermeneutics and Its Discontents in Philosophy of Science: On Bruno Latour, the “Science Wars”, Mockery, and Immortal Models On the Importance of Getting Things Straight Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Concept of the Horizon and Its Ethico-Political Critique III. Practice and Application: Hermeneutics, Social Theory Gadamer’s Hermeneutics as Practical Philosophy The ‘New’ Sociology of Knowledge Taking Plurality Seriously with Michel De Certeau: From History to ‘Reception Sociolinguistics’ Pragmatism and Hermeneutics Make It Scientific: Theories of Education from Dewey to Gadamer IV. Truth and Life: Life-Philosophy and History, Psychology and Theology The Hermeneutical Human and Social Sciences Life, Metaphysics, History: Reflections on the Contemporary Relevance of Dilthey’s Philosophy of Life Four Fundamental Aspects of the Reversal of Platonism Heidegger: Hermeneutics as “Preparation” for Thinking Hermeneutic Reflections on Descartes’ Introduction to His Meditations on First Philosophy List of Contributors Index