Hermeneutic Rationality


Book Description

The problem of the limits of reason is by no means a privileged subject of an academic discourse. By reducing reality to what can be conceived of within the paradigms of the scientific laboratory, manipulative despotism, which positivistic notion of objectivism has established, creates in a human being a unilateral conscience of the world and of oneself; a conscience that dominates today our understanding of existence in its manifold senses of Being and the world we live in. This way of thinking, based on a powerful and skillful technique aimed at controlling human life in all its dimensions, intends to impose this limiting positivistic horizon on human beings in the name of Liberte, Egalite, and Fraternite. Hermeneutic rationality resists the claims of modern science and promotes the culture of hospitality toward the world as it shows itself in its complexity. Maria Luisa Portocarrero, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal, Professor of Philosophy, specializing in the phenomenological hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur. Luis Antonio Umbelino, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal, Professor of Philosophy and Artistic Studies. Andrzej Wiercinski, Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg, Germany, Professor of Philosophy of Religion, specializing in Practical Philosophy/Philosophical Hermeneutics.




A Passage to the Idea for a Hermeneutic Philosophy of Science


Book Description

In this book the author has brought together his long-standing interests in theory of scientific rationality and hermeneutic ontology by developing a hermeneutic alternative to analytic (and naturalist) epistemology of science. The hermeneutic philosophy of science is less the name of a new field of philosophical than a demand for a repetition of the basic philosophical questions of science from hermeneutic point of view. The book addresses chiefly two subjects: (I) The hermeneutic response to the models of rational reconstruction of scientific knowledge; (II) The specificity of hermeneutico-ontological approach to the cognitive pluralism in science.




The Hermeneutic Imagination (RLE Social Theory)


Book Description

In his previous book, Contemporary Hermeneutics, Josef Bleicher offered an introduction to the subject, locating it mainly within the philosophy of social science, and looking at the profound impact it is having on a wide range of intellectual pursuits. This book follows on from this and expounds the author's view that the development of the hermeneutic imagination is an indispensable condition for reflexive sociological work and emancipatory social practice. Dr Bleicher examines the various approaches to sociology – empiricist, functionalist, structuralist, interpretive, critical – by reference to a hermeneutic paradigm, and shows how the hermeneutic imagination leads to a redirection in sociology, away from scientistic presuppositions and towards an awareness of the dialogue which links the subject and object in the study of social phenomena. He argues that by allowing the hermeneutic imagination to develop, it is possible to counter the steering of social processes on the basis of technocratic imperatives, and to provide a rational anticipation of a better future.




Hermeneutic Philosophy of Science, Van Gogh’s Eyes, and God


Book Description

This richly textured book bridges analytic and hermeneutic and phenomenological philosophy of science. It features unique resources for students of the philosophy and history of quantum mechanics and the Copenhagen Interpretation, cognitive theory and the psychology of perception, the history and philosophy of art, and the pragmatic and historical relationships between religion and science.




The Routledge Companion to Hermeneutics


Book Description

Hermeneutics is a major theoretical and practical form of intellectual enquiry, central not only to philosophy but many other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. With phenomenology and existentialism, it is also one of the twentieth century’s most important philosophical movements and includes major thinkers such as Heidegger, Gadamer and Ricoeur. The Routledge Companion to Hermeneutics is an outstanding guide and reference source to the key philosophers, topics and themes in this exciting subject and is the first volume of its kind. Comprising over fifty chapters by a team of international contributors the Companion is divided into five parts: main figures in the hermeneutical tradition movement, including Heidegger, Gadamer and Ricoeur main topics in hermeneutics such as language, truth, relativism and history the engagement of hermeneutics with central disciplines such as literature, religion, race and gender, and art hermeneutics and world philosophies including Asian, Islamic and Judaic thought hermeneutic challenges and debates, such as critical theory, structuralism and phenomenology.




The Linguistic Turn in Hermeneutic Philosophy


Book Description

Cristina Lafont draws upon Hilary Putnam's work in particular to criticize the linguistic idealism and relativism of the German tradition, which she traces back to the assumption that meaning determines reference.




Hermeneutics of Education


Book Description

A hermeneutics of education pays special attention not to educational structures, but the central role of conversation in the educational process. The key issue is the formation of the person as a unique reality of being and acting while supporting intersubjective understanding. The polyphony of understanding places the human search for meaning within the horizon of incompleteness and allows for both, spontaneity and rigor, in order to reach an understanding of what is happening to us and in us when we understand. Reflection on education is always inseparable from educational practice.




Hermeneutic Philosophies of Social Science


Book 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.




Psychotherapy and Phenomenology


Book Description

This book is a scholarly monograph on Sigmund Freud's understanding of the basics of psychotherapy theory and practice from the perspective of phenomenology. Two leading phenomenologists, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, are chosen to make an appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of Freud's interpretation of talking and relating with others. Heidegger is then compared to Husserl to produce a position that keeps a focus on intentionality yet accepts the understanding offered by hermeneutics. This work is relevant to psychotherapists, philosophers and philosophically-interested human scientists who value qualitative approaches to meaning.




Habermas, Critical Debates


Book Description

The essays in this book - all of them published here for the first time - provide a long-overdue critical discussion of Jürgen Habermas's cascade of ideas. These are topped off by a freshet of original Habermas: in the final essay, he replies to the criticism developed in the preceding contributions and to other recent assessments of his work, provides an important clarification of his earlier views, and reveals the direction of his current thought.Each essay probes a particular theme in Habermas's work, and each presents both an exposition and a critique. Among the subjects covered are Habermas's theory of knowledge-constitutive interests, his account of language and truth, his "overcoming" of hermeneutics, the concept of universal pragmatics, the orientation of his thought relative to the Marxist tradition, and his project of analyzing the crisis tendencies of capitalism within the context of evolutionary theory.The contributors are philosophers and social theorists of international standing, most of them affiliated with German, English, and American universities. They are Agnes Heller, Rudiger Bubner, Thomas McCarthy, Henning Ottmann, Mary Hesse, Steven Lukes, Anthony Giddens, Michael Schmid, Andrew Arato, and the editors. The editors have also contributed a substantial introduction outlining the central contours of Habermas's work and summarizing the main arguments of the essays.John B. Thompson is a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and David Held is Lecturer in Politics, University of York.